Texas legislators will probably soon shoot down the free 50 -- one of school administrators’ overly simplistic solutions to low student achievement. An assignment’s not even attempted, it’s a 50. Student does not work for an entire grading period, average is a 50. According to administrators, this helps students to keep having hope, to help them believe they will do better next time and eventually pass the course.
Do nothing, get a 50. It doesn’t make sense, and everyone knows it. I wish I could go to work sometimes, do absolutely nothing and still get half my paycheck. As they claim about giving students a 0, I would say that not paying me would be “punitive, and not reflective of my true ability.”
As my previous blogs reflect, school has been made too easy for most students, due to administrators’ fear of student failure and due to administrators’ inability to find better solutions than just handing out grades or giving students, second, third and fourth chances. Finally, this year, teachers brought this to the attention of State Senator Jane Nelson, who is a former 6th grade teacher.
The Texas House and Senate have approved a bill introduced by Sen. Nelson that prohibits policies that require teachers to give a minimum grade. Yes! The zero is back!
“Students should be graded on the merits of their work. Minimum grade policies encourage minimum effort from students,” Sen. Nelson said. Stated as someone who knows the classroom would say it! As I’ve also said, the easier you make it for students, the lazier they will want to be.
State lawmakers overwhelmingly agree. Nelson’s proposal breezed through the state senate 29-1, and through the house something like 139-1 (I found the exact number one day, but later returned to that web page and it wasn’t there anymore).
Currently, lawmakers seem to be considering amendments to this bill but it looks certain to be approved and passed on to the governor for adoption.
I appreciate the way the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ended a recent editorial on this issue: “Students with grades far below artificial minimums are underachieving for a variety of reasons. And schools are obligated to try to address the problems those low grades reflect. It will take collaboration among teacher, student, parents and even the school principal. No one said it would be easy.”
Exactly. Let’s quit with the easy answers and go for the complicated and difficult solutions more often.
4 comments:
I've recently discovered your blog via EP Alumni.com. I congratulate you on the insightful and entertaining takes on all things educational. I am not an educator, nor have I ever been, but I have school age kids so your blog has been fun to follow that last couple of weeks.
You made a comment about Senator Nelson's bill, SB 2033, which is on its way to the governor's desk. The bill would prohibit school districts from adopting policies that require teachers to give students a minimum grade for their schoolwork. On its face that sounds fine. Most parents would be shocked to learn there was ever a district-wide policy to "award" minimum grades regardless of effort or simple merit. However, I wonder how this bill will affect our school district given its already high drop out rate. This is a concern that you don't address. Isn't EPISD dependant on federal and state aid that is tied to student retention and advancement? I don't know for sure as I'm not involved in this stuff. But if it is, wouldn't an unintended consequence of this Bill be that our school district loses funding and ALL our students suffer? Maybe it doesn't matter as long as grade integrity is maintained. I'm not being sarcastic. I honestly don't know what is the lesser evil. Grade inflation or potentially reduced funding. Just a thought. I wonder if you could address that question given your EPISD background. I mean you obviously know more than me.
I haven't seen any response or feedback to my comment. Anything?
Yes, there are penalties if the graduation rate doesn't remain high enough. Too often, though, the solution has been to just give the kids a free ride to keep them from dropping out, instead of a determination to tackle the variety of problems causing their struggles. I read this week about "Graduation Coaches" working at other schools. These people keep track of the grades and absences of struggling students, and counsel them frequently about their lives in general. In San Antonio, the Mayor has personally talked dropouts into returning to school. Maybe we just could find such programs that are having success and copy them, instead of just doing the easy things that dilute the educations of all of our students.
It will be interesting to see the effect this will have on the drop out rate and the possible funding penalty that will result in. Insteresting only in that it will likely cause a funding shortage that can only be remedied by increased property taxes or cut backs. Cut backs may include pay and hiring freezes that directly effect teachers. I wonder how teacher would feel about minimum grades then?
Like I said before, I agree with you about minimum grades being an undesireable solution to the problems our school faces. But as an outsider, I will be watching closely to see how people's attitudes may change when and if their pocketbook is affected.
We'll see.
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