Participation Trophy Redux.....

People seem to agree that awarding trophies for all "participants" in children's' athletic leagues is a no-no. They make serious videos about this on social media and they throw the trophies away! It's funny how the same people expect participation trophies for school discipline and school academic work though--and somehow this dichotomy is perfectly acceptable. A former counterpart of mine on the school board summed up his philosophy very succinctly on the subject of earning grades versus  being given marks that were not earned.  His comments were given in a meeting we had in April of 2015:  "It's all about being honest and true with those kids.  It's not 10-year old baseball where everybody gets a trophy.  You earn it. And it needs to always be that way." 

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with a recently retired middle school teacher.  This teacher taught for many years at an Escambia County District 1 Middle School which I won't name.

I have known this teacher for a number of years and can say with confidence that this person is a straight-shooter, a retired military officer, and what this person says is true--this person would not lie about something having to do with the schools-or anything else for that matter so far as I can tell.

As we talked some politics and current events, the subject of teaching came up. Invariably the topic of school discipline came up. Yes, this teacher lamented the lax discipline and the torn up referrals.  This teacher didn't care for that.  And then I segued into an area of special interest that I pursued when I was on the school board.  "No Zero Grading"  (If you want the history of this, you can read what I wrote on this subject a few years back here, here, here, here, here and here.)

My opinion on this in a Nutshell:  No Zero grading is a horrible, terrible construct that coddles students and forces teachers to give grades to students that are not earned.  And the system rewards students who are lazy, while simultaneously punishing students that work hard and try their best.  Nobody gets less than a 50% ever, no matter what, even if work is not completed.  It artificially inflates student grades, allowing students to earn passing grades where these same students, based upon their actual work and mastery of the subject, would fail in truly rigorous systems like the ones you and I and most of us went to when we were in school.

(So I'm glad when I read about teachers and entire school districts that push back against this scheme...)

Like the dumbing-down of discipline expectations and punishments that was rampant in the schools locally and nationally to produce "better and lower suspension numbers"--this is the dumbing-down of .academic rigor and expectations.  It's lazy.  It's feckless.  It short-changes students. It's modern day social promotion.  It's dishonest.   And most importantly--- it does not prepare students for the realities of life and the real world.

"Yeah, that was a standard expectation at the school---I thought everyone knew this?" was the reaction I got when I told this teacher this surprised me.  "I never liked it, I was never comfortable with it--but we were expected to do it.  And at the end of the quarter and  semester, the principal would put pressure on us to move these students' grades up" this teacher continued. "If I had 150 students and 15 or 20 were failing, I was  put on the spot because of it--even though the students were getting the grade they earned"  this person continued.  "I did not like it and again--I never felt comfortable with it but it was what we were expected to do" this individual continued.

I left the school board in late 2016 after serving 10 years.  I brought this "No Zero" grading issue up in early 2015 when I got wind of it-------and the board was told "This is NOT happening in this district"

So it is somewhat infuriating, but not entirely surprising, to hear this teacher say that it is and was happening, as a standard practice,  up through last year when this teacher retired.  

In 2015--when I got a whiff of this happening without the board's approval (and in contravention to the school board's grading scale and policy), I brought the issue to a meeting and the board and the superintendent discussed this.

My District 2 Counterpart on the school board at that time, Gerald Boone, made one of the most profound speeches I ever remember hearing him give --and it was on this subject.  It was short, but as usual he was spot on. As a 35 year teacher, he didn't seem to support giving students grades for work they did not do. His powerful, three- minute statement on this subject starts at 54:50 of the first video section of this meeting.  People should watch this

And the superintendent at that time assured us this was not happening in this district.  He even

No Zero Grading Part VIII: What do the Report Cards Show?

When I was told that at some district middle schools teachers were being encouraged to not give any grades below 50, thereby self-implementing a de facto “no zeros policy” in contravention to existing board policy on grading scales,   I quickly asked the Superintendent and the Asst. Superintendent of curriculum about this. Both men denied this was occurring “to their knowledge.” After hearing that another board member had been told by teachers that “they could not, were not allowed-to fail students” I requested specific information from the district staff so that an analysis could be done on a small sample of report cards from several middle schools to either prove, or disprove, these claims.  The district deserves great credit here, for quickly providing the data requested so that an abbreviated

No Zero Grading Part VII: A Break for Students, or Breaking School Board Rules?

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.

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.

No Zero Grading Part VI: Coincidence, or Corroboration?

I don't believe in coincidences, I think things happen for a reason.

I'm not Ron Fisher and I did not sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night, either, but I can clearly  see something troubling in the two report cards I've linked above.

These are two report cards from this year reflecting the work of two non-ESE students from two different Escambia County Middle Schools.

But here is the thing:

When looking at all the "F" Grades from these two report cards on Q2 and S1--one can clearly see that there are no "F" scores recorded that are below a "50."  I have redacted the names of the students, the teachers, the courses, and the schools, but I can report that these six instances of "Fs" being registered as exactly "50" and no lower are from six different teachers at two separate schools reflecting the work of two different students.

So if we're not doing "No Zero Grading" institutionally at these schools--what are the odds that all six of these "F" grades would be exactly "50" on the only two report cards from these schools I have ever seen?   Why not 30, 42, 26, 48, or 19?  How are all the lowest "F" grades magically, exactly "50" and no lower?"  It would be fascinating to see how the ghost of Ron Fisher would write up the equation rationalizing these F's all  equaling exactly 50 and no lower...

As I have discussed in multiple entries to this blog over the last several days, I get the troubling sense that we, at some of our district schools, are instituting a different grading scale than that which is in Board Policy (and Fl. Statutes), printed in the Student Progression Plan, the Parents Hanbook, and that which is printed in the upper right corner of the report cards above.  This troubles me because I have been told by teachers that this is happening, that artificial grade floors are being created--and these two report cards appear to corroborate this claim.  

Yet I have been told by administrators that this is not happening, "to their knowledge."

I will be asking the top district administrator about this today.

I will get to the bottom of this at this week's School Board meetings.

No Zero Grading Part IV: How Texas Addressed the Issue

It was easy.

The legislature received complaints from teachers about artificial grade manipulation being dictated downward from administrators--stymieing individual teacher discretion while simultaneously precluding such teachers from assigning students any letter grade below an artificially set "grade floor" of 50, 60, or even as high as 70!

These legislators passed the Texas Truth in Grading Act in 2009--and it passed the legislature with unanimous support.  Unanimous.

Here is the simple text of the original bill.  I think we may need something like this locally.  I'm bringing this to the board.

81R13223 EAH-F
	By: Nelson	S.B. No. 2033

	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to adoption of a school district grading policy.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Subchapter B, Chapter 28, Education Code, is
	amended by adding Section 28.0216 to read as follows:
	Sec. 28.0216.  DISTRICT GRADING POLICY. A school district
	shall adopt a grading policy, including provisions for the
	assignment of grades on class assignments and examinations, before
	each school year. A district grading policy:
	(1)  must require a classroom teacher to assign a grade
	that reflects the student's relative mastery of an assignment; and
	(2)  may not require a classroom teacher to assign a
	minimum grade for an assignment without regard to the student's
	quality of work.
	SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 2009-2010
	school year.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect immediately if it receives
	a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
	provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution.  If this
	Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
	Act takes effect September 1, 2009.

No Zero Grading Policy, Part III

One year ago, Orange County, Florida,  Schools adopted a "no zeros" plan.

This past January, several anonymous teachers stepped forward in Birmingham, Al, to warn the public about this sort of a no zeros scheme being implemented in their school--and the negative consequences of this.  From Al.com:

A "no zeros" policy at Birmingham's W.J. Christian K-8 School has some teachers upset, and concerned that students are taking advantage of the policy.."Students aren't learning because we can't get them to do the work," one of the teachers told AL.com. "When do we hold the students accountable?"

Read "No zeros grading policy awards students half credit for work they don't turn in"

The state of Texas took this bull by the horns, passing a statewide "Truth in Grading" Law disallowing administrators' ability to force teachers to artificially raise student scores to some artificial minimum, like 50.  This excellent blog post describes the resulting court battles over what that law's intention was--and the final appropriate outcome.

As I dig in and research the issue of "No Zero" Grading schemes, I find that they are being utilized widely. I'm told they are used right here in Escambia County. Often, these schemes are being utilized throughout entire school districts, in an "unwritten" manner, individually implemented by principals