In this day and age it’s common—and in some schools and districts even mandated—to allow students to make up anything and everything they want.
Not happy with your test grade? No problem, just take it again. Forgot your homework? Turn it in whenever you wish. Missed the due date? As long as it’s in by the last day of the semester, you’re gold.
No lost credit. No penalty. No worries.
But allowing students to retake tests, make up assignments, and ignore deadlines is something you should never do.
Here’s why:
They fall behind.
Your students can’t stay up to date with your current lessons when they haven’t mastered the previous and prerequisite material. Good teaching requires building higher level skills and concepts upon their lower forms.
Allowing make ups and retakes guarantees that they’ll fall further and further behind. No teacher worth their salt can allow this to happen.
They cheat.
It’s reality. Students who take advantage of extensions and do-overs often wait until the last possible moment when the only choice is to cheat or copy.
Some teachers even legitimize it by letting them test with an open book or cell phone or allowing other ways of lowering the bar knee high to a grasshopper.
They learn laziness.
By giving chance after chance, you’re very effectively teaching students to be lazy, undisciplined, and unemployable. Discipline is learned through hard deadlines.
It’s learned from adults who hold students accountable to their responsibilities. Letting them off the hook is damaging to them. Good teaching requires you to care enough to make the tough decisions.
They become depressed.
Without goals, objectives, and due dates with real stakes, life very quickly loses meaning. It devolves into a constant chase for cheap dopamine hits.
It becomes social media scrolling, pornography, violent videos, and gaming. Meaningless vapor that in the end crushes self-worth. Discipline equals meaning and a chance at enduring happiness.
They become entitled.
Without standards to meet, students become entitled. They begin to believe that everything can be put off, ignored, or negotiated to their liking. Rent, car payments, jobs, relationships.
They feel as if they don’t have to be committed to anything. Hence, they’re shocked and outraged when the coach benches them for missing practice.
They make excuses.
Allowing chance after chance encourages students to justify for their failures, mistakes, and ill preparedness rather than taking responsibility and actually learning from them.
To this way of thinking, an F doesn’t mean they failed. It means that they don’t test well, they didn’t get enough help, or the type of exam doesn’t match their strengths.
A Gift
Taking a stand on deadlines and refusing to offer retakes and do-overs can make a big difference in your students’ future academic performance.
It can improve their sense of responsibility, discipline, and commitment. It can help prepare them to be a valuable contributor to their community and ready them for a career in which they’re needed and appreciated.
In other words, it’s healthy for them.
Although a gift your students may not understand or appreciate until years later, holding them to a standard required for success in school and beyond is nonetheless precious.
Showing a level of care and leadership rare in today’s world.
PS – Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel. The latest video is Should You “Catch Students Being Good?”
Also, if you haven’t done so already, please join us. It’s free! Click here and begin receiving classroom management articles like this one in your email box every week.
Wise words but so hard to enforce when as you the said, our school board mandates that there are no deadlines and infinite time to make up any and all work. There is no other option. 😞 We live on strange times. Thanks for standing up for what is truly best for the kids.
Students have an advocate. Every time they go to the restroom or drink water, they are purposely or inadvertently invoking administration. I’m assuming, based on the law mentioned, they have reached police, government and presidents to act as a savior type or union leader type. As a substitute teacher, they wrap me in it by making a principal for the day, by constantly going to the restroom.
The system they have developed will hurt so many in the long run. I’m sharing what I have observed as a way to acknowledge the problem. I have been working to solve it before becoming officially certified. It is so difficult.
Late assignments are sometimes 2day assignments that the teacher never benchmarked to see how long it actually takes to complete. Therefore, the substitute teacher may tell them to finish it for homework or put the assignment in their unfinished work folder. There is really no harm in this if frequent monitoring and rewarding completion is added.
I’m sorry if my dilemma and solution has led to another issue. The kids love to find the loopholes and the teachers love to see the negative in any law meant to help.
‘Multiple Opportunities To Succeed” is the core idea behind “Outcome Based Education” and it has been a universal disaster, mostly dropped since 2015 or so.
Struggling students get multiple opportunities to feel dumb and advanced students know they can reserve their worry and effort for the ‘real’ test. No good teacher or school still does this.
I have exactly this struggle at the moment. I teach high school Spanish 1. This year, I have one senior student. She had her credits through computers courses, but because she wants to go to a big college to play a sport, her parents are making her take Spanish now. She came in from day one with a bad attitude and definite lack of work ethic. She’s enrolled in 1st period,and is very often late.
1) She didn’t do well on the mid term and it dropped her grade to an 88 (which in my opinion is not terrible, by the way). She’s very upset about this, but admits she didn’t study. I conferred with my department and we decided to let her re take the test when we return from fall break. That was this a Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. All Spanish 1 teachers decided to work the same pre made lesson plan that culminates in watching a video story in Spanish, for this weird short week. Wednesday she was tardy. Thursday, she came in ten minutes before the end of the hour with a note from her coach (she’s a star player, by the way!) that simply said, “She was with me.”. -Coach’s last name.
Then Friday, she complained that she didn’t understand what we are doing. I am so frustrated with her. This an 18 year old senior, meaning she gets to make the decisions about her learning now, and her parents need to get her permission to see her records, etc.
I think my best ally needs to be that coach.
Students in Ontario schools can hand in assignments up to the last school day. Students who are failing can do an assignment given to student success department and they can pass! It doesn’t matter if they missed the majority of learning the curriculum during the semester, just do the assignment and pass! Failing a student is frowned on and is seen as damaging to them! A v-p told me to pass a student because it was too much paperwork for them!
I personally don’t allow a student to re-do assignments or tests, I’ve even taken marks off for late assignments. I have been told by admin I shouldn’t be doing that, students should be given every opportunity to complete assignments.
As a general rule, I wholeheartedly agree. Please remember that there are always exceptions to the rule of no late work and no do-overs. Sometimes newer teachers will take advice too literally. There are always kids who need to have the rules bent in order for them to succeed. It’s up to the teacher to learn what each student needs.
I totally agree, but when it’s district policy, then what?
It’s not all black or white in terms of retakes. My take:
Allowing unlimited and unstructured makeups can make students fall behind.
But allowing purposeful and scaffolded retakes is a mark of strong, student-centered teaching — not weakness.
The best teachers don’t eliminate retakes; they engineer them to promote responsibility and growth.
I’m an instrumental music teacher. My student assessments are skill-based. Sometimes students struggle with the physicality of playing the instrument. They are allowed to re-submit assessments after incorporating my feedback with more practice BUT they must submit their initial assessment on time to get full credit. I refuse to budge on allowing them to miss deadlines with no consequence.
I like your post, Michael, over the years, certain phrases stick with you, and sometimes the locus of these longtime remembered tidbits form a collective of knowledge that cause me to pause and reflect upon my next move.
From Lee Canter, Harvey Wong, Fred Jones, to Rick Morris, and Michael Linsin, those remembered phrases come to mind when encountering class situations; you witness an event, then breathe, relax your jaw, and there it is, I paused, remained calm, and responded.
For the past several years I have dealt with students who are 2,3,4 or more grade levels below grade level, and formatively tested at grade level for more or less half of the 180 days in the year, leaving 90 or less days to teach my content , and at least twice or more each there is a school, or district activity, or holiday that interrupts the regular schedule, wow, I’m using accelerating math software and still trying to get some students to complete the first remedial fraction assignment that targets 4th grade standards w.r.t. fractions.
I often think about the larger group of students turning in their weekly work, on time and we are in week 10, next week is red ribbon week, when everything gets a little crazy starting with uniformed students in crazy hair.
I can think of one way to resolve my allowing students with little developed number sense skills to continue to work towards completing assignment number one. That is a differentiated assignment since they are in the blue group, with a dozen others. Fair does not mean equal, and it starts in tk, 1, where 86% have mastered 90% of the letter sounds, the teacher has the entire class quiet while one student is forming the first part of a multi syllable word. Eventually, the class must progress forward, and students are tutored and even retained a grade if necessary.
In middle school they are moved forward from 6th to 9th grade independent of their performance level. I promise my middle school students that for the here and now they can blame me for their short comings, yet if they find themselves not graduating HS, they can always come back to me as Adult students, and I will be there for them ready to assist them obtaining their HS equivalency certification when they are old enough to know better.
I agree 100%. Unfortunately, many teachers have no choice. District leaders or principals dictate late work policies. We have to be creative in order to find a way around the craziness. I am so tired of accepting late assignments.
I’m “here” to learn, but I will give one suggestion that has helped me. I begin grading or at least looking over work as soon as someone turns it in. I continue this until the class is over or I have to move on to the next subject.
I have found that I can enforce redo’s and reteach with immediate feedback for at least half the class by the next day.
The law had to be changed, in my opinion, because teachers have a tendency wait until the due date or some predetermined time to do batch grading. This creates a backlog and is not the student’s fault.
My general complaint is about late work not retakes. It’s not my fault that a student decides not to complete an assignment.
I love your work and have recommended your practices to countless colleagues. On this matter, I’m going to push back a bit. The article linked below better aligns with my philosophy on redos and retakes. It offers teachers other approaches while working to build a sense of responsibility in students. Check it out. Thanks for all you do to promote classroom success!
Redos and Retakes Done Right https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/redos-and-retakes-done-right via @ASCD
100% Agree! Rick Wormli says (in the linked article) that students say he is “tough” due to him requiring do-overs until mastery is attained. Isn’t this our job as teachers?
I also love this in his article, “LSAT. MCAT. Praxis. SAT. Bar exam. CPA exam. Driver’s licensure. Pilot’s licensure. Auto mechanic certification exam. Every one of these assessments reflects the adult-level, working-world responsibilities our students will one day face. Many of them are high stakes: People’s lives depend on these tests’ validity as accurate measures of individual competence. All of them can be redone over and over for full credit. Lawyers who finally pass the bar exam on their second or third attempt are not limited to practicing law only on Tuesdays or only under the watchful eye of a seasoned partner for the duration of their careers. If an assessment of competence is valid, achieving its passing scores grants the assessed individual full rights and privileges thereof.”
Thanks!
Well said!
Excellent article…Thank you!
I am on the fence about the right way to handle this. I agree with the SCM Michael about deadlines and accountability, but the notion that all the adult level, high stakes tests can be redone is a valid argument. Some of my own children took the SAT more than once to improve their scores.
I think it is imperative to look at the child and the situation. I am not sure I would allow someone who plagerized to have a second chance, but someone who was working hard, and not understanding, I would very much like to help succeed.
I teach 5th grade so mastery is the goal. We evalaute on mastery of standards. I give several opportunities to learn and provide small group sessions to help strugglers. I frequently will grade and hand back work on the spot especially of my fast finishers who are rushing to get done, not to be accurate. It really jolts them and they try harder the second time. I always make sure to note the number of tries on a paper so parents can see it when it comes home. (Of course, IF it comes home.)
Thanks for the different perspectives. I also have a reputation for high standards in the grade level and I am considered “tough”. I am just trying to help these kids be ebtter prepared for middle school when they are to get letter gardes that matter to them more.
I’m retired now, but I still like to read your posts.
Here’s the problem at the school where I worked: parents take their children out for extended vacations. The teachers are expected to provide the work they will miss ahead of time (sometimes with short notice). Sometimes the work gets done while they are gone, and sometimes it doesn’t. The student misses teaching and it is added work for the teacher. What would you do in this situation?
I have to this for my population of students as well. I agree that it is extra work for the teacher. Our school’s policy is that students can makeup absent work within 5 school days of returning for full credit. That’s what I’ve adopted for my classroom. After that, any late work is an additional -15 pts after it’s graded. So if they earned an 90, it’s reduced to 75. My whole team does this and the kids are used to it.
I also have my own clear cut-off date for late work at the end of the quarter so I’m not rushed with grading. It works really well for me. I explain my reasons why once in a while, and I don’t typically get push back.
There is one instance in which i allow make-ups and extensions, and thst is legitimate illness. If a kid is out with mono for a month, or has surgery, or undergoes cancer treatment, or is hospitalized for an injury, that merits a mulligan. Otherwise, i agree completely.
I absolutely agree that students learn through failure and deadlines. However, I do have students retake tests they fail. They must come in to correct problems they miss and then are given a different test. This way they are learning from their mistakes and can master the concepts.
I am 100% in agreeance with this. What this means for me with today’s high school kids is that 50% of my students are failing by week 6 and 70% by week 10. Without letting them make up work they just “decided not to do” (work we do in class by the way – I design things with very little homework if they are on task) – they tap out for the rest of the semester, stop showing up and I’m eventually called into the Principal’s office in week 11 where I am read the riot act and told I am “not a good fit” for this school and put on an improvement plan and assigned equity for grading or some other nonsense PD. Why? Because they don’t actually care about rigor or preparing students for career readiness (the platitude of all PD’s). They care about Superintendent walkthroughs, standards on whiteboards, attendance$$$, positivity feels, equity, state testing scores, PBIS nonsense, and graduation rates. Grades are an afterthought – the cherry on top. The tail wags the dog my friend. The tail wags the dog. We have lost the path in education. Getting students to do well on state tests = great teacher in today’s classroom. That’s it.
Unfortunately, you’re absolutely correct. I’m also tired of the public denigrating teachers because so many students aren’t on grade level. Students aren’t the only victims of this horrible system. Administrators demand that our lessons “have rigor” while expecting we pass every student, regardless of their performance. I know that I suffer from cognitive dissonance.
I’m sorry for what you are going through. I’m thankful for your shedding light on what happens behind the scenes.
I would like to encourage you with this thought. Your metrics for your classroom should be the focus. Let the administrators worry about their metrics. I’m hoping there will come a time when there is an independent or neutral observer who can bridge the gap.
What about students who have IEP’s and accommodations and modifications on their service plan?
I am curious how this would look at an elementary school level.
Hi Mrs. K,
I teach 2nd grade at an elementary school. This year our school board decided that all students can retest all summative testing ( end of unit) , but not formative testing (daily classwork). They can only have 1 retake not multiple. It can be a different test with the same content or the same test. The summative counts 60% of their grades and formative 40% of the grades. We have to remediate students before they retake. It is very time consuming and hard to get it in, because we are school that has a ton of meetings. We are have them during the students itinerant times and after school too. We also have IEP’s during that time too. It’s hard to get the retakes in because with all the meetings. I often forget to do it and it pushes it to the next week, but I do what I can. I also have students with IEP’s that have to have remediation and probes too. I agree with this article, but I am glad that our students are limited to one retake not as many as they want. Our students, parents, and teachers can request the retakes. It is very overwhelming. I am a vetetern Teacher and it is getting harder to muli-task and do everything that is required of me but I push through. I love my students and try as hard as I can to meet their ever increasing needs!
Mrs. M
An exception to this post, I believe, is when the retake is an actual natural consequence. Meaning, work/tests need to be made up at specific make up periods on the student’s own time.
I do this in two private schools, but obviously this would only work with the school’s backing.
Thanks for your articles!
As a parent, I disagree with this. Students should be expected to complete all work. I do think there should be a penalty (ie only half credit), but students should be incentivized to complete missing work by at least earning half credit. We have been very frustrated by teachers giving zeros for assignments we didn’t know about. By the time we see the grade “it’s too late” for us to have our child do the assignment. That is not a partnership. If parents are supposed to be reinforcing that school work is important, then teachers need to let parents know what assignments are due and when before it’s too late to turn it in. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is that our child skips assignments and we have no idea until the grade is issued. And then we are told “too bad.” That just shows us that teachers don’t care about how much our child learns in school. Actually it’s just fine for them that he is average. I am also a teacher but I teach elementary and I see the effects of this attitude on our older child and it is wrong. We want our child to do all his assignments but we are never informed before it’s too late. He is learning from his teachers that school work isn’t important.
Genuine question with all due respect: what causes you to not know about your child’s homework?
Are they middle school/high school aged? I only knew about my kids’ homework in high school if they told me when I asked them, which was often if not every day. If they forgot or lied because they didn’t want to do it, that was on my kid and the zero served as a learning opportunity.
As for elementary, kids usually have a folder and homework is placed in that for parents to check when kids get home. That’s how it is for my grandchildren in Kindergarten and Second.
I teach at a private, hybrid K-12 school where students attend class three days a week and are homeschooled the other two days. Teachers send home packets of work that they complete those two days and turn in upon return. I use Google Classroom, email, and the Remind app to notify of posted work every week. My students’ parents and guardians have no shortage of communication regarding assigned work. Most, if not all, of our teachers use the same communication tools.
Our school policy dictates they have two days total (barring exigent circumstances) to turn it in, but lose one letter grade each day it’s late. After that they get a zero. Unfortunately, our less motivated students who don’t care use this to their advantage and regularly turn in work on Thursday rather than Tuesday. They’re perfectly fine barely passing. That is definitely not the teacher’s fault nor responsibility.
I promise you, I care about learning in my classroom, but it’s the student’s choice. I can’t force them to listen no matter how much I may try to make the material engaging. Some students are determined to do the bare minimum or just don’t like the class. I also can’t force them to do their work.
As Michael says, 100% of responsibility for learning and behavior rests on the child. We have to stop trying to pave the road before them thinking they’ll be great citizens for it. Hard work, trials, and tough lessons learned are what shape their character and integrity, and they will be better for it.
I would ask your readers to consider why it is important never say never in the classroom. While your argument has merit for students that meet certain performance characteristics, it is naive to suggest that applying this thought process to every situation will produce success. In school communities with the highest need, this stance would shut the door on virtually every student within the first few weeks of school, I ask you, then what happens to those students after they fail?
https://smartclassroommanagement.com/2013/07/06/why-its-okay-to-let-your-students-experience-failure/
Here’s what I am instituting this year in my class: No test or quiz retakes. Homework? Classwork that was not completed or wrong? Projects? If a student gets below 70%, they have to stay after school and complete the work. No phones etc. are allowed in the room. There will be supervision. Top score will be 70. The idea is to make failing hard than passing.
I sent a letter to parents and told students. I got no pushback from parents. Kids were stunned.
First unit is ending on Tuesday. At that time, all work is due. I hope to update you.
We have presented a strong argument for maintaining firm deadlines and avoiding unlimited makeups or retakes, emphasizing that accountability builds discipline, responsibility, and real-world readiness. While the author’s points about laziness and entitlement are valid, the stance is somewhat absolute. A balanced approach—allowing structured retakes or extensions for genuine learning and personal circumstances—could uphold rigor while still supporting student growth and equity.
This practice has been transformative for my teaching: it has reduced my mental burden (esp because I a MS/HS teacher with five different preps) and streamlined grading, and it has significantly increased the turn-in rate of work and the quality. One way I made room for the reality that kids get sick, overwhelmed, have things come up is that I set Canvas to automatically drop the lowest or two lowest homework grades. This also encourages kids to plan ahead and make thoughtful personal decisions. For example, if a kid has been out sick and is trying to get back on top of everything, they can let an assignment go if need be.
I also stopped giving make-up tests because it’s too hard to arrange proctoring and I refuse to write an alternate test every time a student is absent. I drop the lowest test grade, so any absence is automatically your drop. If they have a second (excused) absence, I replace that test grade with the final exam grade. This has caused a HUGE shift in kids actually showing up to school on test days.
It’s always hard to implement at first because I get a lot of pushback and shocked looks, but I explain it thoroughly – why it’s good for me and for them – and they realize after awhile that they are much happier turning things in on time and not falling behind. I also share that I have ADHD, and that I, personally, am a much happier person and feel much more in control of my life and work when there are firm deadlines and boundaries. This helps them understand that the policy isn’t meant to be paternalistic or moralizing, just a recognition of human nature.
I have to credit this blog for the mindset that empowered me to make this policy. Kids do better with firm and fair boundaries…most people do.
This topic has touched a nerve, BUT!!!
I have been a teacher for 15 years teaching middle school. Each new principal has brought in a new policy, so teachers tend to pick a chose what they want to follow on this topic. I have seen the “make-up work and test” policy come in to appease angry parents who have complained that their child is not doing well.
KAYLA the parent/teacher is so wrong. Not to pick on her, but this attitude is common with parents. They did not know when things were due, could not find the assignment, they didn’t know were to find the online grades….excuses. This ties into the student not knowing. Why does the student not know? Was the hw/assignment posted somewhere? Why didn’t they write this down? Excuses…..there is a DUE date….a time to turn in the work. That’s it. It’s not negotiable with late credit or anything else. Students and Parents need to learn discipline and have a work ethic, not excuses.