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"Well, you know I really didn't want to have to write a research paper for English, so I figured I'd take the 50 and find other ways to be sure I had at least a 60 average by semester's end. Actually, during the first 9 weeks of a semester, the district can't give me a report card grade of less than 50, so I might just chill for 9 weeks and do absolutely nothing, get some extra sleep, etc. because I know I am smart enough to earn at least a 70 the second 9 weeks and that will give me my 60 for a passing semester grade. Yes, I know how to work the system."
And that's the way it works in our school district!
One's job is doing what one's contract assigns in return for $$$. Teachers (or for that matter principals) are not their own independent bosses.
At the same time, if I think about what a 100% homework paper would look like, OK, then I consider when a kid does not even sign their name to an otherwise blank piece of paper - well, what grade should that get? It seems to me, "0" is a highly appropriate grade for that.
The idea of giving a 50%, or half grade, for nothing makes no sense to me.
I mean, if I agree to pay you a certain price for every bin of apples you pick, OK, fine. How much do I owe you for not picking any apples at all? Or if you advertise that you can deliver propane for $2.50 per gallon, and I call you and say "OK top off my tank.", and you subsequently don't even show up - well what should I owe you?
And some people ask why no one wants to go into public school teaching anymore...
At the same time, if I think about what a 100% homework paper would look like, OK, then I consider when a kid does not even sign their name to an otherwise blank piece of paper - well, what grade should that get? It seems to me, "0" is a highly appropriate grade for that.
The idea of giving a 50%, or half grade, for nothing makes no sense to me.
I mean, if I agree to pay you a certain price for every bin of apples you pick, OK, fine. How much do I owe you for not picking any apples at all? Or if you advertise that you can deliver propane for $2.50 per gallon, and I call you and say "OK top off my tank.", and you subsequently don't even show up - well what should I owe you?
And some people ask why no one wants to go into public school teaching anymore...
Gee, sorry, I thought you were responding to my post.
You can't have 80 different teachers in a school each operating by their own set of rules. That doesn't work.
I don't like the 50% policy, either. Although, I don't think it's such a big deal as some here do. I once taught in a school that moved to that policy, and guess what -- the same kids pretty much ended up with the same report card grade as under the 0% policy. It had no effect on the A, B, and C students, almost no effect on the D students, and a marginal effect on the F students.
Gee, sorry, I thought you were responding to my post.
You can't have 80 different teachers in a school each operating by their own set of rules. That doesn't work.
I don't like the 50% policy, either. Although, I don't think it's such a big deal as some here do. I once taught in a school that moved to that policy, and guess what -- the same kids pretty much ended up with the same report card grade as under the 0% policy. It had no effect on the A, B, and C students, almost no effect on the D students, and a marginal effect on the F students.
Your last is what actually happens in 99.99999999999999999999% of the cases. I used to tell people, kids and teachers both as well as non-education ones, that I could tell you by the 3rd week of school what grade a kid was going to get for the year.
Sometimes, very, very rarely, a kid would start off slow and then, after getting slapped around grade wise, kick it into gear but not often. Not even one per year.
Also, sometimes, a kid would start off strong but tail off. That's when as a teacher you find out what's going on. Drugs/alcohol? Abuse? Divorce? Death in the family? What's going on?
With the churn some kids/families have in their personal lives that's more common than starting slow and then catching up.
When I was in school, the minimum passing score was 70 and attempts were nice but they didn't count for anything. And this was in the rural South in the 1960's.
Kids today are supposed to be smarter than we were.
They quickly learn to game the system if they know they can get a 50 for doing nothing. US public education is a sad joke- the Europeans and Asians are laughing at us.
she had been fired for ignoring the school's "No Zero" policy, which is printed in the student and parent handbook as “no zeroes – lowest possible grade is 50%.”
Most people would get fired for willfully ignoring written policies. Not the brightest bulb, this teacher.
The theory, and it's correct as far as it goes, is that the zeroes will get the kid so far behind that nothing he does will get him a passing grade. That now becomes a "Then what?", meaning that that kid who's already failed the quarter by the third week is still going to be in the class and, in a lot of cases, wreaking havoc because he's got nothing to lose.
Maybe they can be allowed to give a 0 for an asssigment that was never handed in at all, but have a 50 minimum for anything that was handed in, even if late, as long as you made an honest effort.
In this case, I would say everybody involved was wrong. The policy was wrong for giving 50 points on an assignment that was never even attempted. The student was wrong for not doing the assignment. The professor was wrong for not following the rules, no matter how strongly he/she disagreed withi them. The school was wrong for firing the professor. A more appropriate action in this case would have been to update the student's grade, and make sure the professor doesn't' break the rules again.
"I loudly bucked the system,” she said. “I refused to do their policy. I guess you would call that defiance.”
Teacher (an employee) knows the school's (her employer) policy and willingly chooses to violate policy. Teacher is subsequently fired. I don't have to like the school's policy to support the outcome here. If you don't agree with your employer's policy, you're always free to give notice and look for work elsewhere.
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