Sharla A. Day
06/24/13
Teresa Sanders
GEN/200

Example: In a previous faculty position I was assigned to cover a dosage calculation in a medical assisting course which was a small portion of a 12 credit course that had nearly 70 students enrolled. I was told that "we don't teach math" as "this is not a math class". The course was to be a self-directed course with students meeting for 1 hour weekly to ask questions about the content they were to have reviewed during the previous week and work on 3 - 5 problems as a group. Students were given one exam at the end of the quarter and were required to obtain a passing score of 100%. They were given 3 opportunities to test.

Background: I had never taught dosage calculation prior to this. Students reported receiving information during orientation that they had to achieve a passing score of both 80% and 90% which conflicted with two versions of a handbook they received and the syllabus that stated a passing score of 100% was mandatory. If they did not achieve a passing score of 100% after 3 attempts, they failed the entire 12 credit course. I was not permitted to write any of the test questions and had no knowledge of information of types of questions on the 20 question exam. During the previous 7 quarters, a total of 6 different instructors had covered this portion of the course and the course coordinator was not one of the six.

Conflict: at the end of the third test, 50% of the class failed to achieve the passing score of 100%. A nurse is taught to always advocate for their clients. I discussed this dramatic failure with the course coordinator and sent a letter to the dean, the VP education, campus director, and the student services director explaining the problem and asking either for an additional week/additional test for the students who had not passed or, for a one time deal, lower the passing standard to