How to deal with a student who insists on getting a higher grade?

There are multiple issues here.

The first is a student persisting, pushing for higher grades. For this, you should see the link scaaahu left What to do about "grade grubbers?" If you continue to entertain this student they will keep pushing. Why would they stop? There is no cost and a chance for a gain. However, you need to be strong and clear. "You got this grade because of your performance. You want a better grade then give a better performance."

Second issue, which I think you mentioned (but I might be mistaken here) is students needing a higher grade than they deserve. I just dealt with this issue (again) this past month. The student (and even an admin on behalf of the student) were practically pleading with me saying "I really need a higher grade, I know the semester is over, and I know I did not do a good job, and I know I misbehaved in class, but could you pleeeaaaase give me a higher grade?"

When you encounter this second kind of issue remember that you are acting as a judge. Because of this, your decision is going to set precedent which will be held against you (and perhaps others) in the future. So, if you really want what is best for all students (including the one asking) then you must hold steady and show that students must do the work for the grade they want. Otherwise, they will think there is a way they can avoid the work and still get good grades and that is clearly not the signal we, as educators, should be sending.

In short, tough love and make sure they respect the educational process (don't allow them to badger you).

I agree with the other answers: "No!"

I want to address specifically grading of presentations. That can look very arbitrary to students, and the appearance of arbitrariness in grading leads directly to whining of all kinds.

Have a rubric for grading presentations, and supply the students with a copy of it early in the term, before they start preparing. A Google search for "scoring rubric for presentations" provides a number of useful examples from which one could start.

Make yours as granular and concrete as you can stand. So, instead of writing, "Information is presented in a logical sequence: 5 points," try something like this:

Organization of the presentation:

• All parts of the presentation were in a logical order and build on one another: 5 points
• Most parts of the presentation were in logical order: 4
• Presenter "skipped back" to include points not mentioned: 3
• Presenter skipped back more than once: 2
• Order of points in the presentation was difficult to discern: 1
• The presentation appeared to have no logical order: 0

This is a lot of trouble, but you'll only have to do it once in your entire teaching career. Have a rubric sheet for each student, mark the rubric sheet, preferably with comments, and return them as "graded work."

You may still get questions, but they'll necessarily be of the form, "I deserved a 3 instead of a 2 on organization." These are much easier to deal with, and quickly reach the level of de minimis.

Once I get to that level, I say to students, "If, at the end of the semester, but before I turn in final grades, you believe this item will change your course grade, I'll look at it again." No one has ever come back to me at the end of a semester with such a question.

It seems like the student has learned that "persistence" leads to success. Unfortunately, instead of learning from prior presentations on how to continuously improve his presentation, he learned to get a good grade by pestering the instructors. Given that your colleagues have given in, you are in the unfortunate position of disabusing him of this notion.

But I would not try to outlast the student in endless discussions, but inform him that you will not discuss this grade with him any longer. Because there is nothing to discuss. You have your reasons, you have stated them. A good student can learn from them to improve his presentations. His persistence in the wrong issue is not your responsibility.