Adding percentage points for attendance is not a path that I would take. It dilutes the grade of a student that does excellent but may have an emergency that would cause him to miss class.
I teach as an automotive instructor and for us attendance is graded seperatly. We grade in four catagories Lab, Class written tests,Attendance and Professionalism. You have to get 70% or better in each catagory to pass the class. I really don't think that it should be tied to class grades although missing class can have a negative affect on those grades. I guess my question is why did they do this? Was it in an effort to make the grades look better than they really were. I don't think that if a student were likly to miss a class that 2 points would be enough incentive to have him show up. But then again I would never miss an chance to learn something new.
Hi Amanda:
What many instructors have elected to do is associate attendance as part of "professionalism" or "class participation". If students view it this way, they can relate to the school mandated policy simply by looking at the requirement from a different perspective.
Regards, Barry
