Recovering from a Low Grade

Resilience is fundamental in nurturing a growth mindset, a concept at the core of Illuminos' Executive Function curriculum. We firmly believe that every student possesses the capacity to excel academically. Our approach emphasizes students' ability to take charge of their academic journey, particularly when dealing with the ups and downs of grading.

In the ever-changing landscape of education, unexpected challenges often arise, requiring students to respond effectively. We recognize that genuine academic progress isn't a linear path of consistently high grades. Instead, it's a journey marked by occasional low grades, which can serve as essential learning opportunities for students.

This non-linear, growth-oriented way of thinking about academic progress is especially important during times of transition. Identity problems often occur when students matriculate from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, or high school to college. A student who is used to getting the best grade on every assignment can fall victim to this expectancy bias when someone turns up the academic rigor. However, changes in external markers (i.e., grades) are not always a mark of a student’s intelligence. More often than not, an unexpectedly low grade is a sign of a faulty system or a misunderstanding of the expectations of the new environment.

Students must learn to see unexpected low grades as warning signs rather than new labels. “Smart” students get a surprise grade every now and then. The key to healthy student development is recognizing a low grade as an opportunity for growth.

At Illuminos, we aim to equip students with the tools and mindset necessary to navigate these academic challenges skillfully. We understand that the ability to bounce back from setbacks and develop resilience is a crucial life skill that goes beyond academics.

In other words, students need a system for responding to low grades. Like any other academic obstacle, a solution-oriented approach serves the student in the short term and the long term. The urgent goal is to make sure that bad grade does not become a trend. But in the long term, a system for responding to low grades helps students develop a growth mindset. Critical to all of the Executive Function skills we teach at Illuminos is self-efficacy—how much a student believes that his or her actions can affect outcomes. An expected or unexpected low grade is the perfect time to encourage resiliency and help your student develop a growth mindset.

This blog post provides a roadmap for nurturing resilient, growth-oriented students ready to face and overcome academic obstacles. Like all the Executive Function skills we teach, the goal is student independence. When students have a meaningful way to respond to challenges, they embrace the growth mindset that has been shown to outperform other measures of academic success. The following sections break down these strategies further, offering actionable steps for parents to help their children embrace resilience and cultivate the essential qualities of a growth mindset when a low grade inevitably arrives. We recommend a three-phase approach: contextualize, examine, and act.

Help Students Contextualize Comparison

Every low grade causes an emotional response followed by reason-inspired action. But the emotional response can overpower the reasonable action plan if a student is not careful. Help students gain perspective early in the “failing forward” process.

Be vulnerable. Admit that you didn’t ace every test in school; no one does. Students need to learn that failure is a necessary ingredient for success. There is something to learn in failure. In fact, it's incredibly useful. Beginning with a realistic look at failure helps students develop a growth mindset and paves the way for a legendary comeback.

Help students put that low grade into context. Demystify the inner mechanisms of the grade book to show that this is, in fact, not the end of the world. Most teachers grade in a way that prevents an all-or-nothing assignment. Encourage students to remember a time when a past failure led to a future success. Quell the emotional outrage that comes with the sting of failure so your student can move to the second phase of this recommended response plan.

Encourage a Scientific Response

As we’ve discussed, a low grade is not the end; it’s the beginning. The most crucial steps in bouncing back from failure are reflection and action. Encourage students to reflect on what caused the result. In other words, what inputs caused this output?

There are so many ways to classify a low grade. Encourage students to come up with a reason for the low grade. “I just didn’t do well” is not a good reason. Dive deeper into the root causes of the problem. For example, the student might have procrastinated. The input of decreased study time caused the output of a low grade. Or, maybe the student thought she understood the material better than she actually did. In that case, altering the study plan to include more objective progress markers would help. Perhaps this assignment tested the student’s understanding of a foundational concept that was not directly included in the study materials. For example, a student in an Algebra II class might struggle if he misunderstood a foundational concept in Algebra I. Likewise, a student might have understood the concepts but misunderstood the tactics for succeeding on the exam. A multiple choice test requires different skills than a true and false test. Some teachers value clear, organized explanations over shoddy but correct responses.

Go through the four or five possible causes above with your student. This list is by no means exhaustive. Create your own over time. Learning to classify low grades makes them manageable. Instead of “I just failed,” the student now says, "I did not fully understand factoring trinomials with a non-zero coefficient, and I failed to objectively test my understanding of the material before the exam.”

Which response to failure boosts a student’s self-efficacy?

Find a Way to Respond

Now that your student understands the problem, it is time to act. Responding to a low grade with some urgency is vital, and one often overlooked step after a bad grade is creative thinking to make up the deficit. As we frequently remind students, teachers want to help. Most teachers provide ample opportunities for students to recover from low grades: test corrections, extra-credit assignments, another assessment over the same material, and informal signaling through tutorial time. Encourage your student to review the syllabus, explore the website, or ask for opportunities to make up for the deficit of the low grade. The smallest action is more effective than the greatest intention.

We Can Help

For more information on how to help your student develop a growth mindset or other aspects of our Executive Function curriculum, please read our other blogs. We offer one-on-one academic coaching services to help students build skills that transcend the classroom. Reach out today to find an academic coach for your child!