Grade Appeals: Only submit a Grade Appeal after you have spoken to the instructor of record first
about your concerns. You must take this step first before your appeal can be investigated.
After you speak with your instructor, if you are still in disagreement about the grade,
complete the Grade Appeal form below (See Step 3) and submit online. Be sure to review the Student Handbook to ensure you have a legitimate claim to file this appeal. Disagreement alone will
not be sufficient to change a grade. There must be a legitimate basis to change a
grade.
Lawson State Community College holds that the instructor of record has the professional obligation and expertise to administer grades. Thus, Grade Appeals are not designed to go back through the entire class and challenge individual test questions and test answers or individual grades on various assignments, projects, etc… in the course unless the student can demonstrate that a calculation error has occurred. Instructors have the right to assign a grade based on any method that is professionally acceptable and equally applied to all students.
Grade Appeals MUST be filed online and can only be filed if you are challenging the final grade received in a course, and you have completed up to Step 2 in the Grade Appeal process. In filing a Grade Appeal (online), students MUST provide evidence to support their claims that the final grade issued in a particular class was issued in error, was prejudiced or arbitrary. Simple disagreement with a grade is not enough to change an Instructor’s recorded grade for a college student. Thus, the student will have to demonstrate actual teacher error (i.e., the teacher did not properly apply the correct weight to the grade; the teacher singled you out and discriminated against you; the grade issued was capricious in nature; the grades entered in the gradebook were incorrect; the teacher did not follow the syllabus as printed in terms of weights or point values; and as such, it caused academic injury to you as a student. Academic Injury is determined based on whether the alleged error caused the student’s grade to decrease by a full letter grade. In other words, if a Grade Appeal has to do with a grade changing in percentages (within the same grade category of A, B, C, D or F, the Grade Appeal will be denied.
If you are still displeased with the grade (after speaking with the instructor), and feel you have a legitimate case to appeal, contact the Department Chair about the matter.
If you are still displeased with the grade (after speaking with the Department Chair), you may opt to submit an Official Grade Appeal at the College.
Click Here to submit your Grade Appeal.
Once you file your Grade Appeal, the Dean will review and render a decision. Notification will come to you via email. The Dean's decision is called the Dean's Resolution.
Although extremely rare, if you disagree or want to challenge the Dean's Resolution (to your original Grade Appeal), you would need to file a Grade Appeal Challenge. NOTE: Students cannot request a Grade Appeal Challenge without a Deans Resolution being issued in writing. All Deans Resolutions are submitted to students via email. Grievances governing Grade Appeals are not guaranteed and are handled on the merits of each case filed. Procedures for filing a Grade Challenges are as follows:
Click Here to submit a Grade Appeal Challenge
If the Deans Resolution does not prove satisfactory to the student, the student may file a Grade Appeal Challenge online within 5 business day (of receipt of the Dean’s Resolution). For more information on Grade Appeal Challenges, go to the Student Handbook.
