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I live in the RoundRock ISD in Texas, and just sayin', if you get a zero on a major project or major test, you won't pass the class.
So maybe this rule of lowest grade is a 50 is meant to support the students in those school districts, and not in school districts where you can fail multiple assignments and still pass.
I'm glad you are finally admitting that this is not universal and that there are different policies out there.
Any other districts like this? Lowest grade is a 50 even if you do nothing.
A district where I taught for a couple of decades had a superintendent who implemented that policy about 10 years ago. Teachers were almost unanimously opposed to it.
His policy was that any 6 week grade on a student's report card could not be below 50. Three 6wk grades per semester at 30% each for the semester average and 10% for the final exam made the semester average, and that's what determined pass or fail and credit received for that course, with 70 being the minimum for passing.
In my experience, it changed nothing. The slackers who flunk everything repeatedly still failed everything. Any HS teachers are familiar with the type: 17 and 18 year olds still classified as freshmen. Kids who've been in HS for 3-4 years and haven't earned enough credits to advance beyond 9th grade.
The "50 minimum" is what a politician enacts, not an educator who's spent more than a minimum amount of time in a classroom.
BTW, that particular superintendent ended up being arrested by the FBI and spent several years in a federal prison on fraud charges.
A district where I taught for a couple of decades had a superintendent who implemented that policy about 10 years ago. Teachers were almost unanimously opposed to it.
His policy was that any 6 week grade on a student's report card could not be below 50. Three 6wk grades per semester at 30% each for the semester average and 10% for the final exam made the semester average, and that's what determined pass or fail and credit received for that course, with 70 being the minimum for passing.
In my experience, it changed nothing. The slackers who flunk everything repeatedly still failed everything. Any HS teachers are familiar with the type: 17 and 18 year olds still classified as freshmen. Kids who've been in HS for 3-4 years and haven't earned enough credits to advance beyond 9th grade.
The "50 minimum" is what a politician enacts, not an educator who's spent more than a minimum amount of time in a classroom.
BTW, that particular superintendent ended up being arrested by the FBI and spent several years in a federal prison on fraud charges.
I have personal experience with two 21-year-old ninth-graders. Aging out of high school is a real thing, with some districts still requiring students to withdraw on their 21st birthday and others allowing them to remain enrolled until the end of the year in which they turn 21.
In my mind, a grade is a reflection on the degree of mastery of subject matter that a student achieves more than a reflection of the amount of work that they put in. In my classes, I try to achieve a balance between what a student does and what he/she demonstrates that he/she knows. Too many administrators are concerned with the schools' ratings and are less concerned with the level of the individual students' educational achievement, especially at the district level. When students have to repeat a year, it costs the district and the state several thousand more dollars.
In our state, which was the second to require tests for graduation, there is an increasing complicated matrix of assessments and alternative placements that allow students to receive a diploma without any real level of mastery required. These days it seems as if few remember that being the reason that the tests were established in the first place. We are back where we started with students being awarded diplomas that they cannot read.
I don't know the solution. But if a diploma is to represent a minimum standard of academic achievement, then students must necessarily be excluded if they fail to attain that level. Otherwise, the whole exercise is just a farce.
I don't know the solution. But if a diploma is to represent a minimum standard of academic achievement, then students must necessarily be excluded if they fail to attain that level. Otherwise, the whole exercise is just a farce.
I agree with you. It's like most standards across the nation are that difficult.
I have personal experience with two 21-year-old ninth-graders. Aging out of high school is a real thing, with some districts still requiring students to withdraw on their 21st birthday and others allowing them to remain enrolled until the end of the year in which they turn 21.
In my mind, a grade is a reflection on the degree of mastery of subject matter that a student achieves more than a reflection of the amount of work that they put in. In my classes, I try to achieve a balance between what a student does and what he/she demonstrates that he/she knows. Too many administrators are concerned with the schools' ratings and are less concerned with the level of the individual students' educational achievement, especially at the district level. When students have to repeat a year, it costs the district and the state several thousand more dollars.
In our state, which was the second to require tests for graduation, there is an increasing complicated matrix of assessments and alternative placements that allow students to receive a diploma without any real level of mastery required. These days it seems as if few remember that being the reason that the tests were established in the first place. We are back where we started with students being awarded diplomas that they cannot read.
I don't know the solution. But if a diploma is to represent a minimum standard of academic achievement, then students must necessarily be excluded if they fail to attain that level. Otherwise, the whole exercise is just a farce.
wish schools held people back as long as needed. if they are three years older than the rest before they learn it, so be it... then at 21 their diploma will say graduated at the 9th grade level. and employers will know this right off the bat.
a high school diploma can be made up with a ged if later in life, they decide to finish learning what they didnt before 12th grade. and junior college, college, university after that point.
plus if you hold students back, you can in the later years make the older student a class leader and force him to take the role of teaching the younger students and let the experience cement the knowledge by teaching it himself
A district where I taught for a couple of decades had a superintendent who implemented that policy about 10 years ago. Teachers were almost unanimously opposed to it.
His policy was that any 6 week grade on a student's report card could not be below 50. Three 6wk grades per semester at 30% each for the semester average and 10% for the final exam made the semester average, and that's what determined pass or fail and credit received for that course, with 70 being the minimum for passing.
In my experience, it changed nothing. The slackers who flunk everything repeatedly still failed everything. Any HS teachers are familiar with the type: 17 and 18 year olds still classified as freshmen. Kids who've been in HS for 3-4 years and haven't earned enough credits to advance beyond 9th grade.
The "50 minimum" is what a politician enacts, not an educator who's spent more than a minimum amount of time in a classroom.
BTW, that particular superintendent ended up being arrested by the FBI and spent several years in a federal prison on fraud charges.
What kind of "educator" has students who remain at a 9th grade level at 21 years of age?
What kind of "educator" has students who remain at a 9th grade level at 21 years of age?
Typically the 16- 21 year old 9th Grader has one or more of the following characteristics:
Average intelligence but below grade in reading level, usually by several years. This is off on a tangent but my last few years prior to retiring our incoming 9th grade classes at a very middle/upper middle class suburban DC high school had average reading levels of 4th Grade.
Transience. Typically multiple schools or even school systems in one year. Being passed around to different relatives and/or foster homes every few weeks.
Truancy. Missing 25% or more, usually a lot more, of school every year. That was sometimes linked with the aforementioned transience but more often was just not going to school.
Incarceration. Being incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities for long stretches of time. Often for felonies (car theft, armed robbery, possession of distribution quantities, aggravated assault, etc.).
A history of disruption or other behaviors when at school, many times leading to short or long term suspensions or even expulsions. Typically expulsions are close ended and the student can return the next school year. Depending on the state, Maryland where I am is one, home tutoring must be provided for the expelled student.
Keep in mind that many states mandate that all students, not just SPED, attend school until age 21 if they have not graduated. Also, Judges will sometimes embed school attendance in sentencing. We had a lot of those.
Last edited by North Beach Person; 10-06-2018 at 03:58 AM..
Typically the 16- 21 year old 9th Grader has one or more of the following characteristics:
Average intelligence but below grade in reading level, usually by several years. This is off on a tangent but my last few years prior to retiring our incoming 9th grade classes at a very middle/upper middle class suburban DC high school had average reading levels of 4th Grade.
Transience. Typically multiple schools or even school systems in one year. Being passed around to different relatives and/or foster homes every few weeks.
Truancy. Missing 25% or more, usually a lot more, of school every year. That was sometimes linked with the aforementioned transience but more often was just not going to school.
Incarceration. Being incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities for long stretches of time. Often for felonies (car theft, armed robbery, possession of distribution quantities, aggravated assault, etc.).
A history of disruption or other behaviors when at school, many times leading to short or long term suspensions or even expulsions. Typically expulsions are close ended and the student can return the next school year. Depending on the state, Maryland where I am is one, home tutoring must be provided for the expelled student.
Keep in mind that many states mandate that all students, not just SPED, attend school until age 21 if they have not graduated. Also, Judges will sometimes embed school attendance in sentencing. We had a lot of those.
When I have a seriously disruptive student in class, I will take (usually) him outside and ask if he is under court order to attend school. Most of the time the answer is "How did you know?" The judge can order the student probationer to attend school, but they can't order them to pass, so they just show up to stay out of jail.
Both of the students I mentioned as being 21 in the ninth grade fit the profile that North Beach outlined to a tee. One was murdered shortly after being put out of school and the other has been in and out of jail for the last 20 years. Some students just show up to keep their families eligible for benefits. There is no intent to learn anything or receive a diploma.
We have a school in our district that does this... But they also consider anything less than 70% a failing grade. I suppose it balances out but it also strikes me as needlessly trying to reinvent the wheel.
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Any other districts like this? Lowest grade is a 50 even if you do nothing.
