The great debate of whether or not to round a student's score rages on. In your first year of teaching you will no doubt come up with your first 89.5 and have to decide if it's an 89 or a 90. It can mean the difference between one grade or another so it can mean the difference of whether you'll have that student approach you about why they got the lower grade. There are a few different practices that teachers use.

The Stickler - This teacher says an 89.5 is just that and won't round at all. The student gets the lower grade because it doesn't qualify as a 90. The same teacher will view an 89.99 the same way. They just won't budge. this method seems a little silly, because an 89.5 is very nearly a 90 and assumes that every single mark the teacher made that term was accurate. It doesn't allow for any sort of human error and doesn't give the student any benefit of the doubt.

The Behaviorist - This teacher is the one that will consider how a student behaved during the school term in order to decide whether they should round or not. If they have an overall good impression of the student, they'll happily round it up. If they have a bad taste in their mouth from a student, then they'll let the grade sit where it is. The way these teachers see it, if the student gave them an easier time during class, they deserve a better grade for it. If the student gave them struggle and strife, this is their small chance at justice.

The Right Way - The best and fairest way to decide whether to round or not is to be fair and consistent. If you choose to round up you should decide beforehand what numbers you will round up and which ones you won't. Then you'll need to stick to your rule no matter how much you like a student or not. If a student that you really like only got an 89.4 and your rule is to round up anything.5 or higher then you'll have to leave it alone. To be consistent, if a student you don't like gets an 89.5 you have to round them up, with no exceptions. Take your emotions and feelings out of the grading equation.

If you follow the right way to do rounding you'll avoid having to explain to students, as well as parents, why you bumped the grade or not. If you have a method that is grounded in fairness and doesn't reward subjective things like classroom behavior you can't go wrong. With the other two methods you are only inviting headaches and without proper documentation of why you bumped the grade you might get caught playing favorites.

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