This past Friday morning, the School Board had a thorough
discussion of “no zero grading” practices.
The discussion was interesting.
My issue, as I have discussed here via numerous posts, is that the system
could potentially reward some students who did not do their work, and could
result in disparate treatment of students, as Attorney Donna Waters stated at
the meeting when she said:
“the practice of no-zero
grading becomes more problematic when multiple grades are combined for a
course, semester, or other average. To illustrate, assume two students in a
class which has a project and an exam which are equally weighted as the only
two grades assigned in a semester. Each makes an 98 on the semester exam, but
does not turn in the assigned project.
Student A attends a school which adheres strictly to the grading scale
in the SPP; he receives a 49% [calculated as (98 + 0)/2] and fails the class.
Student B, in a no-zero-grading school, receives a 50% on the project and a 74%
final grade [or (98 + 50)/2] and passes the class. Thus, there could be very
serious consequences of such a non-uniform grading system.”
The unanimous consensus at the meeting was that teachers
should have wide latitude and great flexibility in the way they assign grades
to their individual students—they know their students better than anyone else
in the schools. This is important-- and
like the Geico commercials--- everybody knows this.
Even still-several Florida districts unabashedly practice this policy--even though it appears to be at odds with state mandated grading scales.
Judging from the discussion at our workshop--I do not believe the Escambia County School Board would ever embrace this sort of a grading scheme institutionally.
Even still-several Florida districts unabashedly practice this policy--even though it appears to be at odds with state mandated grading scales.
Judging from the discussion at our workshop--I do not believe the Escambia County School Board would ever embrace this sort of a grading scheme institutionally.
Because giving students nothing below a “50” becomes
problematic legally if it is practiced as an unwritten rule at some
schools. It is even more problematic if “no zeros” grading is dictated to teachers by administrators. Or even if this practice is “strongly
suggested” It is wrong. It is social promotion, and we should all oppose this practice as it does nobody any good.
According to Superintendent Thomas- “This would be inappropriate”
An analysis of 200 7th Grade report cards that I
requested from one middle school indicated that 76% of all “F” Grades were
exactly “50” or higher. 25% of these “F”
grades were exactly “50.”
Because of this, and because I have been contacted by
teachers who have stated they have been told to round grades up at the
reporting period, I remain concerned this could be happening. My concern grew when my counterpart from
District 4, Patty Hightower, stated at the Friday meeting that:
“I have been called by teachers from one of
my middle schools in the past, and these teachers have said they were told they
could not fail a student, students were not allowed to receive a failing grade”
Because of these continuing concerns–I have requested an
additional 500 Middle School report cards from two different schools in our
district. I requested to receive these
by close of business today.
I’m hoping that an analysis of these additional report cards
will settle this matter once and for all;
I’m hoping I do not see in this new batch an irregular number of “F”
grades, particularly in the first part of the year, landing exactly on “50.”
We will see.
3 comments:
I am looking forward to viewing the videos of the workshops this month. Why is no video of 2/18 workshop available on the school board web site?
Although this meeting was a public meeting, it was held in the Superintendent's conference room, where there are no cameras. That is why there is no video. There were notes taken, and minutes will eventually be produced and posted, detailing the events of this special workshop.
All you had to do is put a camera in there!
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