Should HMS Have Extra Credit?

By: Jordan Jacobs & Ashley Powers

Holman Middle School is one of the few middle schools in Henrico County that does not
allow its students to complete extra credit. So, Jordan and I decided to go and discover: why does
HMS not have extra credit? First, we decided to contact our principal, Dr. Fellows, on this matter
via email.
Q: What inspired you to make the no extra credit policy?
A: The HMS Leadership Team (about 20 people) made this decision after our second year of
being open. We did research and found unfair opportunities were being provided to some
students and not to others. For example, extra credit being available in one seventh grade
English class and not the other seventh grade English class. In our opinion, it gave some
students at an advantage and others at a disadvantage.We also, as a group, which I
wholeheartedly endorse, do not believe in chasing a grade. We found the majority of students
wanted to raise their grade at the end of a marking period and were not truly interested in
additional learning.
Q: When you made the policy, did you think that students would protest for not having
extra credit?
A: We assumed students and teachers would have questions. We have tried our best to answer
them over the years.
Q: Do you ever feel like changing this policy in the future so we have extra credit?
A: It has worked for us the last four years. Any policy is always open for discussion. At this
juncture, there are no plans to discuss this specific policy.
Q: Why dont you think the no extra-credit policy is a country-wide policy?
A: This type of policy is a school-wide one rather than a division wide policy.
Q: Do any other middle schools you know of have this policy?
A: I am not aware of any which do or do not have this policy.
After asking Dr, Fellows our questions we moved turned our attention to the students and
faculty of HMS. We asked teachers that taught different grade levels and different courses. We
started with sixth grade and moved down the line to eighth. Heres some of the responses we
received:
Mrs. Harris, English - No, because the grades should reflect how students are doing on their
assignments each 9 weeks without extra points affecting what their grade should actually be.
Mrs. Chamberlin, Math - I wish we could allow extra credit occasionally for students, that
way if they have a bad day, they could improve that grade.

Mr. Ingram, Social Studies - No, most of our students at Holman get all As and my students
get 1 week to five days of studying so they have plenty of time to get good grades.
Next, we interviewed some students from different grade levels. Some students stuck
with a simple yes or no answers, while some went out of their way to express what they thought
about the policy. Here are the best responses from each grade level.
Bethany Firooz, 6th Grade: I dont agree with it, I think that you should be able to qualify for
extra credit if you have less than a C average for your final grade.
Ben Nilson, 8th Grade: I believe that HMS should offer extra credit to students so that they
can improve their grade.
Brooklyn Bowden, 7th Grade: It doesnt make sense. If you get a bad grade, you have to rise
it with your grade with an even better grade. Also, some parents get upset because you have a
permanent bad grade, and you feel upset for getting that grade. Overall, Im upset about the no
extra credit.

Out of the 10 people that we interviewed (6 students and 4 teachers), a whopping 70%
said that yes, Holman should allow extra credit for their students, while only 30% said no. We
found that most students disagree with the no extra credit policy, while most teachers agree with
it. We find this interesting because we thought more teachers would disagree with the no extra
credit policy, given that the teachers want their students to get good grades just as much as the
students do. Should HMS have extra credit? What do you think?