Friday, September 26, 2008

Automatic 50%

There has been discussion in the media and among the board about the PPS rule that grades cannot be entered as less than 50%. So presumably, even if a student refuses to do an assignment at all, that student will receive a mark of 50%.

As an alternative, how about the "makeup" policy that some schools have- ie, work below a certain grade can be "made up" for a mark equal to the orginal grade and the makeup grade. For ex, a student with a 40 who got a 90 on a makeup would have a grade of 65. This way the students who were really making an effort and correcting their mistakes would be rewarded, while those who refuse to do the work at all or who simply cannot do the work would, as is appropriate, repeat the class.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the admin and union need to be honest with their goals. If keeping kids from dropping out is the top priority, then say that. Admit that they really can't handle the job of educating all of our children. The teachers don't like this grading policy, the parents don't like it, and the kids know that it is a joke. They know how to beat the system. A re-test/make-up policy might be more time-consuming but in the end, the kids will learn a lot more, not just the subject matter that they are being asked to learn, but also that life sometimes requires a little work to succeed.