An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Feel Good Education = Fail
Are ‘No-Fail’ Grading Systems Hurting or Helping Students?
What’s a kid gotta do to get an “F” these days?
At a growing number of middle schools and high schools across the country, students no longer receive failing marks when they fail. Instead, they get an “H” — for “held” — on their report cards, and they’re given a chance to rectify their poor performance without tanking the entire semester.
Educators in schools from Costa Mesa, Calif., to Maynard, Mass., are also employing a policy known in school hallways as ZAP — or “Zeros Aren’t Permitted” — which gives students an opportunity to finish the homework they neglected to do on time.
While administrators and teachers say the policies provide hope for underperforming students, critics say that lowering or altering education standards is not the answer. They point to case studies in Grand Rapids, Mich., where public high schools are using the “H” grading system this year and, according to reports, only 16 percent of first-semester “H” grades became passing grades in the second semester.
HINT: In real life, there are no ‘do-overs’!
I’m sure everyone FEELS good making this part of education, but it accomplishes little when it comes to preparing the kids for the cold, hard realities of the ‘grown up’ world. If a kid knows you don’t expect him/her to do the best possible, that’s exactly what you are going to get. Is it really so surprising US schools have fallen so far behind other countries in education? This a trend that really MUST be reversed! Expect the best, in whatever your child does. It’s ok to fail, once, even twice. If a kid still doesn’t do the work required, then I’d look to the parents, and the teachers, for the short comings.
This is really a sad state to put schools in. I have a daughter in the 11th grade, and she has to work very hard for her grades. I know that in Houston and in our school district (Humble Independent School District) there are no do overs. Her school, Kingwood Park High School, even has a website parents can log onto and see everything the student is doing, such as homework, classwork, report cards and other things. The students know this, and at least to my daughter it makes her work harder because she know I check. But then again I guess it goes back to the parents. Some are loosers and some are not. In the end the student is the looser when they must go out into the world and survive.
Hey…be glad she’s not in HISD. They didn’t even know when my granddaughter didn’t bother to show up for class. Pfft! They don’t even enforce their own rules….why would they expect the kids to either?
Take down the nation with the no kid left behind , the situation is getting worse because to get ahead there is the , omg , you have to work instead of being present like bHUSSEINo .
Yeah….go figure. I can’t imagine any kid that gets a pass like this being able to function 40 years ago.