Not content with making 50 the new zero, one North Carolina school district is considering imposing a lowest possible grade for tests or assignments of 61.
Proponents of eliminating zeroes as grades for work not submitted point out that A, B, C, and D letter grades are typically signify increments of ten — an A is 100 to 91; B is 90 to 81, etc. — but there is a 60-point spread between D and F, which makes it mathematically impossible for some failing students to ever catch up.
“There is little or no evidence that repeated failure makes people more responsible,” Sherri Martin the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district’s director of high school programming said at a Board of Education meeting last week. “The threat of a low grade is more likely to motivate high-achieving students than low-achieving students.”
Many parents and teachers disagree. “The system for years had talked about raising expectations for all children in the district, and I don’t feel that demonstrates raised expectations for everybody,” said Beth Ann Ghio, whose son is an East Chapel Hill High junior. “I don’t think that’s fair for children who actually submit the work — even if it’s not passing quality — that they receive the same grade as a student who doesn’t submit anything.”
Perhaps there is a compromise here. Work not turned in must be a 0 while inferior work cannot be less than 60%. I cannot say the same, however, for test scores, merely for independent work turned in from home. Very much like the bottom line 200 points you get for signing your name on the SATs, just doing the developmentally appropriate thing of turning in the work needs to account for something. For some students, doing it, getting it in the backpack, and getting that work out to turn in on time, is an enormous part of the assignment. For the student that eventually turns his or her late work in, they will actually, therefore, see an encouraging increase in their grade just by performing the part of the assignment that is delegated to being responsible, that of just turning it in.
On a slightly related note, I was once approached by an assistant principal and told that if a student attended school, they may not fail. That is, she tried to tell me that I was not to fail a student who just did the job of showing up to school. I looked at her in the eye and said, “um, that’s not rigor in MY classroom.” We can’t lower standards, but we can make it fair.
I like your compromise, Heather. Your point that for some students, the development of work habits as part of the assignment is wise. I had several similar “show-up-and-move-up” incidents in my school, as well. Worse was the student who was absent for more than 80 days of school, but managed to score a 2 (”approaching grade level”) on his 5th grade reading test. Because of that grade, I was not able to hold him over, despite the fact that he hadn’t completed a single assignment all year. This was a child for whom showing up and doing the work was THE assignment, and he failed. I worry that we fatally damage children like that by passing them. The signal it sends is beyond troubling–that showing up and making an effort literally don’t matter.