Course grades, to the extent permitted by Education Code Section 76224(a), which provides: “When grades are given for any course of instruction taught in a community college District, the grade given to each student shall be the grade determined by the instructor of the course and the determination of the student’s grade by the instructor, in the absence of mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency, shall be final. If a student files a grievance relative to a grade, he/she must prove that “mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency” is the reason for the grade assignment.
Mistake may include, but is not limited to errors made by an instructor in calculating a student’s grade and clerical errors.
Fraud is the intentional, false representation of a fact, which statement is relied upon by the student, where the student takes action in reliance thereon and incurs the challenged grade as a result.
Bad faith means that the grade is intentionally based on criteria which are not valid measures of academic performance, such as the instructor basing the grade on how the student looked or smelled, or on a refusal to go on a date.
Incompetence means that the grade is the result of the instructor not being mentally competent to make the grading decision. This would require expert medical testimony of a psychiatric or psychological condition rendering the person unfit to make normal decisions.
