Many students don’t try and push themselves in school and this could be because there is no reward in school. Students feel that they should have a reward like extra credit or something special like how adults get paid to do work. Research shows that one reason teachers choose to offer extra credit is to increase student motivation. If students are given the opportunity to earn a few extra points on their own terms (instead of being required as with regular assignments), they may have more incentive and motivation to do something.
Some positives to having the option of gaining extra credit is it can’t negatively impact your overall grade or your grade at all. Another positive is it pushes kids harder in school to earn a reward. Eighth grader Leo Bartolucci stated, “I would try harder if I had extra credit because it will improve my grades.”
Some more positives and benefits to having the option and the ability to earn extra credit is that kids can feel better about themselves and get the grade they feel they deserve. Eighth grader, Charles Sluberski stated, “ If I earned extra credit it would improve my grades a lot, and I would be able to achieve the grade I want.”
Research shows that depending on the district, students may also have opportunities for extra credit. That is a huge positive because if you want to get into your dream college like an ivy league school and you have a bad GPA (Grade Point Average), you can improve the GPA with extra credit. Sixth grader Elliot Tobler stated, “Extra credit would benefit me because it would improve my grades.” Another fact is extra credit assignments will not negatively impact a student’s grade. If an assignment is marked Extra Credit, only awarded points are included in the grade calculation.
There are also negatives to earning extra credit, because it may encourage students to not have to do regular school work and assignments and just rely on extra credit. Sixth grader Siddarth Iyer stated, “If you fail, you deserve to fail and you shouldn’t be able to get points back.”
Mrs. Kristi Houghtaling, eighth grade science teacher stated, “I don’t give out extra credit because if one student does really well on a test and another does really poorly, but gets a lot of extra credit, that student gets a better grade. It wouldn’t be fair for the person who got a good grade because they studied hard and didn’t have to rely on extra credit.”
As you can see many students and some teachers also don’t agree with the concept of giving out extra credit. Seventh grader Liam Mroz stated, “If you do bad on an assignment like a quiz or test you should do bad on it.”
At the end of the day, it is the school and the teacher’s choice to decide if they want to give out extra credit. Assigning extra credit enables teachers to avoid the dreaded question: Can I do anything to improve my final grade?
