This is a warning, that for the second time this week I will be stepping upon my soap-box. I promise to not make this a trend.
It’s the first week of school here in Dallas, as it is in most states. I teach college English and like most teachers I start every year with a couple of key goals in mind:
1.) How do I inspire my students to do their best work?
2.) How do I get my students to engage with my subject and as a result learn something?
3.) How do I make my subject matter relevant to them without deluding the quality of the assignment?
4.) How do I make them better skilled as a human so they can go be successful in the world?
I will be the first to admit that some semesters I am more successful than others. I am more successful with some students than I am with others. Teaching is never going to have a 100% success rate. EVER. Why? Because it takes at least two people to be successful in the classroom me and the student and as a teacher I can only control half of that equation. As a result, it infuriates me when bureaucrats, legislators and parents become enraged when they look at dropout rates or failure rates and blame the teachers. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of bad teachers out there, but you cannot legislate success.
This summer, in anticipation of this school year, the Dallas ISD passed a new grading policy that is effective across the district. Here are some highlights (for the full article go here):
1.) Teachers MUST accept late homework from all students
2.) If a student fails a test they are automatically given a chance to retake the test
3.) Teachers MUST drop any low grade that would lower a students overall average
4.) A teacher cannot give any grade lower than a 50%
Their defense of this policy is that they have a high dropout rate among 9th grade students who fail 2 or more classes within the first 6 weeks of school. However, the reason why they are failing the first 6 weeks of class isn’t because the teachers are failing them it is because THEY CAN’T READ! Nothing like treating the symptom but not fixing the cold. Just because we pretend that these kids aren’t failing doesn’t mean they aren’t. This policy absolutely horrifies me — it is neither helping the students nor assisting the teachers. Why as a society are we incapable of saying the tough things about our own education system?
I’m retreating from my soap-box and will place it back in the closet. Thank you for your patience.
My Mom taught at Wylie ISD 12 years ago and was told she must pass everyone with a grade of 70 no matter what work they did or didn’t do. So terribly sad and frustrating.
Well I taught at the college level for a very short time. I refused to accept a late assignment(s) that resulted in an incomplete for the student (I would have failed them). This resulted in a huge battle — I refused and sent the student to the Dean who knuckled under. I no longer teach. These rules are for the benefit of the bureaucrats not the student. When this student comes to work for me he will be in for big shock because I don’t tolerate shoddy incomplete work. So the student is the one who is harmed because they will have been led to believe that they actually have an education.
I am an English teacher in NC and our school is constantly having circular logic meetings concerning our grading policy. Much of what you mentioned in your post is what is going on in my school. Our principal wants us to stop giving zeros, and this one really gets me, do not give a lower grade for academic dishonesty! I cannot believe the ridiculousness of the current education system, which I loosely call a system since a system is something that works.