Schools have a commonly used policy nowadays that I think would infuriate most people were they fully aware of it.
More and more often students – by school policy set by the principal and school board – receive a grade of 50 for doing absolutely nothing. In most schools, that’s the lowest average a student can get, while in some schools 50 is the lowest daily grade or test grade that the computer system will accept.
Do nil. Zilch. Nada. Naught. Just show up and you get a 50. Oh, and you don’t even have to show up that much. Be there just so often and you can make up for excessive days missed through “time-in” where 1-hour equals a whole day.
High schools and colleges used to fret about “grade inflation,” but what’s happening now in
Just the unfairness of it compared to the way we were treated should have parents and community members up in arms. I mean, “back in the day,” when we did nothing for an assignment, the grade showed a big fat nothing. If an assignment or several assignments weren’t done, we expected a grade or an average that reflected that. An average of 50 meant that we did half the work, or we did all of the work, but only got half of it right.
Today, students “earn” a 50 by doing nothing. Why? Because it’s administration’s simple solution to solving the problem of too many students failing. While no work accomplished still SHOULD mean a zero, that might discourage too many students and cause them to give up.
I’ve got news! Making everything easier only makes the students lazier! Lower the standards, and they lower their performance. Lower the standards more, and they lower their performance even more.
The students know the system and know how to take advantage of it to do as little as possible and still get by. Some of them slide by with a C each of the first three nine weeks, and then know they can do absolutely nothing the final nine weeks, that they will receive their free 50, and that they will have a high enough average to earn a full year’s credit.
The freebies are really unfair to the students who are trying to get by without them. Many students put effort into doing their daily work, and spend time studying, but still do poorly on important tests. Such students giving it the ol’ college try often end up with averages in the 60s while those around them doing nothing get an almost equal 50 handed to them.
EPISD’s grade polices compliment several other programs designed to give students second, third and fourth chances. Because of these policies students do not learn that irresponsibility results in serious consequences. They don’t learn if you don’t do your work, you fail, you go to summer school to try again.
What students are learning now is that the system bends to their desires. When they desire less work, they simply have to just do less work. Something will give. They’ll get the grade. They’ll still pass.
It used to be that the teachers were in charge. Now the bureaucrats have taken over, and the product – the students – must keep moving along the conveyor belt. When you have defective final goods, don’t make corrections and improvements, just lower your criteria for what is acceptable. With these attitudes, the students will eventually just be giving themselves whatever grade they want.
