Comments on: When a “60” Isn’t a “60”, But a “1”

By: ITK

ITK — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:47:10 +0000

The assessment and grading policy is the same for both the middle and the high school. At both schools, teachers use an INC to indicate when major assessments are missing. There is no “extra credit. ” The goal is for students to complete the original assignment to a pre-approved standard of mastery. RMS recently added a new step by providing an administrative Academic Recovery after school from 3:30 to 4:30 where students are required to come (after their parents have been notified about missing work) to complete assignments. The message to students is clear: Non-completion of work is not an option. You will not be allowed to accept a zero. Your only option is to do the work to standard or ultimately fail the course.

By: "Naaman" Gibbets

"Naaman" Gibbets — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:21:17 +0000

Not sure where the anachronistic term “politically correct” fits in here…future mechanics become mechanics, future physicists become physicists.
Federal dollars is where the funds for education have to come from—no body local wants to pay too much for their schools.

By: IMHO

IMHO — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 15:38:31 +0000

We are not doing our kids any favors with such a scale. Frequently, freshmen in my college classes ask for “extra credit” at the end of the semester, i.e. unfair advantage over all of the other students who did not ask for this special favor. These coddled former high school students have not learned to accept responsibility or reality, and too many fall into depression.

We serve our children/students better if we admit that no one excels at everything all of the time. Teach them to strive but to also be resilient when encountering disappointment. Academic success is just one type of success.

Apparently, the new policy at the high school is to give them an incomplete for missed work. This is an improvement.

By: Maven

Maven — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:35:37 +0000

All of this convoluted reworking of a grading system that seemed to work perfectly fine and defined exactly how a student was doing academically is nothing more than “smoke and mirrors” for a disturbing trend in turning our public schools into deceminators of politically correct news–all of the students are doing great–now give us the federal dollars!
Tragically, as we’re doing this, other countries are ratcheting up their academic standards, realizing how important this is. Lowering standards to make everyone feel good about themselves will leave us all feeling very disillusioned and sad about how we have let our children down.

By: MM

MM — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:04:11 +0000

This is a good change. Schools are trying to eliminate the fear factor. That is what a zero means. We need to motivate students to want to learn, to think, to make good choices, not just to produce (a grade) like in a factory. To my students a zero in a homework, a classwork or an activity means they need to complete it. A test or quiz is not going to be what dictates their final grade. It is all the other assessments during class. Our society puts too much pressure on the student and give to much importance to grades. In order to improve the grading system we need to make changes until we get the perfect one.