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First of all, it is a 50, not a 60. And the theory behind it is, we give grades of A, B, C, D and F. A is 93, B is 85, C is 77, and D is 70. SO therefore, giving a 0 is waaaayyyy off the scale. A 50 is still not proportional, but it still is an F, and because it is a 'worse' F, it penalizes them more for not turning something in. BUT they can still 'recover' if they so choose, it doesn't kill their grade. So we are supposed to look at it not as 'giving' them 50 points for not turning it in, but taking away 50 points out of the 100 percent.
I personally (I am a teacher in WCPSS)do the following: if they don't turn something in, I give a 0 but explain that that means they just 'haven't turned it in yet/ taken the test they missed' and they know they need to take that responsibility to do it ( I don't remind them, that 0 is the reminder.) The '50' F grade is for turning in garbage.
I like the scale, it makes sense to me.
Claud605-
Yes, YOU may like the system but what, exactly, does it teach our children? It will teach them that putting effort into their work is pointless because they can still get half credit for sitting on their azz surfing myspace and facebook. It's also a slap in the face to the kids who actually DO their work and turn their assignments in on time because they are working hard to earn A's and B's and their classmates can just show up for the tests and get a C! What will these kids do when they get to college and the policy isn't the same there? Their professors will have a good laugh at their reasoning that they should get a 50 for not doing anything because that's the way it was in high school.
When these kids get out into the real world and (hopefully) get jobs, they will not be able to keep them long. This will be because the school system has made them think that deadlines are negotiable, that it's OK to turn in work late because you will still get full credit and that they can not do a thing and still they are supposed to get half credit!! Tell me, when you don't go to work (and have no vacation/sick/etc. hours to use), does WCPSS still pay you half of your salary for the time missed? I for one want my kids held responsible for their work and WANT them to get a 0 if they don't turn anything in! My oldest is 17 and if she comes home whining about a grade a teacher gave her, I first correct her to say that the teacher didn't GIVE you the grade, you EARNED the grade...I then tell her that she needs to go to the teacher if she doesn't feel she was graded fairly. We as parents need to make our kids self-reliant...I don't know about other parents but I have no intention of following her to college and talking to her professors if she has a problem! My teachers in high school held me accountable for the work I did do AND the work I didn't do (which was rare because I knew my parents would flip if they knew I wasn't doing my work) and I am a much better person for it today.
roscomac, that makes more sense. The average of an "A" and an "F" is a "C".
By using the percentage scale of 100, if a student gets a 100% on a test, and bombs another test by getting, say 15% percent, the average of the 2 test is a 57.5%. So by that logic the latter is not fair. The A=4 points, B=3points, C=2 points, D=1 point, and F=0 points makes more sense to me.
I actually think it is fair (and even if it isn;t, LIFE isn't fair and we just have to suck it up and deal with it). If you get a 15/100 on a test you obviously did not study and should therefore suffer the consequences (getting an A on the first one shows that you have the ability).
I am not an advocate either way as I see both sides. Consider this scenario under the 0 policy.
Suppose a student has, up until week 9 of an 18-week semester course, learned 85% of the material covered. However, the student did so without completing any homework or turning in a project.
At the half-way mark, it is not mathematically possible for the student to pass. At this point, the student has no incentive to continue to try to learn, to stay in school, or to behave in class.
Do we want the student to drop out? Do we want the county to pay for teaching this student the whole course again? Do we want this student to become a classroom disruption?
I see the point you are trying to make, but if the student had never completed any homework or projects through 9 weeks, how much incentive do they really have to learn in the first place (and how do we know they really learned 85% of the material)? If you are looking at the student's ability to pass a test, then why don't we take it a step farther and let kids 'test out' of all of their classes (if you can get a B or better on the final exam for the course, you are given credit and don't even have to take it)? I mean, if they can pass the test then they surely have a sufficient knowledge of the material to apply it across a variety of settings and use it in the 'real world' right?
I also noticed that you never mention the student's parents in any of this...it is all the school and the student. It is the parent's job to make sure their child is doing the work and to let their child take the fall if they are not (not whine about 0's being unfair). If these parents that whine about the grades their kids get and blame the teacher/school for their child failing would actually raise their children (instead of expecting the school to do so) and hold them responsible for their actions then they wouldn't have anything to whine about. Also, the teachers would be able to TEACH, not spend the majority of the day dealing with discipline and whiny, self-entitled kids and their parents.
This policy, if it is ever implemented system-wide, will stir up a whole bunch of mess that WCPSS will not want to deal with. The policy now is extremely simple...don't do the work, get a 0 (how much simpler can it get?).
First of all, it is a 50, not a 60. And the theory behind it is, we give grades of A, B, C, D and F. A is 93, B is 85, C is 77, and D is 70. SO therefore, giving a 0 is waaaayyyy off the scale. A 50 is still not proportional, but it still is an F, and because it is a 'worse' F, it penalizes them more for not turning something in. BUT they can still 'recover' if they so choose, it doesn't kill their grade. So we are supposed to look at it not as 'giving' them 50 points for not turning it in, but taking away 50 points out of the 100 percent.
I personally (I am a teacher in WCPSS)do the following: if they don't turn something in, I give a 0 but explain that that means they just 'haven't turned it in yet/ taken the test they missed' and they know they need to take that responsibility to do it ( I don't remind them, that 0 is the reminder.) The '50' F grade is for turning in garbage.
Obviously, there is a difference between an F and a 0--nobody was disputing that. But when most of us were coming along, flat-out not doing something earned you a zero, not a 50. That could conceivably be better than someone who actually did it and only got, say, a 45%.
I regularly check the grades for our teenager on SPAN. I have often seen a "50" and knew it was instead of a "0." I assumed it was because the "0" would pull the other grades down so far that it would skew it unfairly.
icegirlncsu, I could not agree with you more on the first post in this thread. I could not have said it any better. You are right on about parents teaching their kids to be self reliant individuals. Even if it means learning from a poor grade, or a mistake. It is better for the kids to suck it up, be resilient and move forward.
Now on your second post, you may be missing my point. I am not stating that I am in favor of softening or weakening the grading system. In fact, you can see that by my 1st post on this thread. What I am stating is that under the % system if you average out all the points and come to an average, as opposed to the 4,3,2,1,0 point system with a's b's c's d's,f's, the F's on the percentage system can weigh much more than an A. For example, an A could be 90 or 93-100, an F can be 0-60. By this system getting a very poor grade on 1 test will weigh much much more than an "A" on another test. By common sense the average of an "A" and a "C" = a "B". An "A" and a "F" equals a "C", it is simple math. It may not work that way using the percentage system that is my point.
First of all, it is a 50, not a 60. And the theory behind it is, we give grades of A, B, C, D and F. A is 93, B is 85, C is 77, and D is 70. SO therefore, giving a 0 is waaaayyyy off the scale. A 50 is still not proportional, but it still is an F, and because it is a 'worse' F, it penalizes them more for not turning something in. BUT they can still 'recover' if they so choose, it doesn't kill their grade. So we are supposed to look at it not as 'giving' them 50 points for not turning it in, but taking away 50 points out of the 100 percent.
This is amazing to me. So, if I understand it correctly, the grading scale is really 50-100. It must be nigh on impossible to fail with this model.
I don't know about the rest of you, but the only thing I would have gotten for not turning in my work, or turning in "garbage" for that matter, was some, ahem, quality time with my parents.
First of all, it is a 50, not a 60. And the theory behind it is, we give grades of A, B, C, D and F. A is 93, B is 85, C is 77, and D is 70. SO therefore, giving a 0 is waaaayyyy off the scale. A 50 is still not proportional, but it still is an F, and because it is a 'worse' F, it penalizes them more for not turning something in. BUT they can still 'recover' if they so choose, it doesn't kill their grade. So we are supposed to look at it not as 'giving' them 50 points for not turning it in, but taking away 50 points out of the 100 percent.
I personally (I am a teacher in WCPSS)do the following: if they don't turn something in, I give a 0 but explain that that means they just 'haven't turned it in yet/ taken the test they missed' and they know they need to take that responsibility to do it ( I don't remind them, that 0 is the reminder.) The '50' F grade is for turning in garbage.
I like the scale, it makes sense to me.
The grading policy is different at each school. Just because at your school "it is a 50", doesn't mean at another it isn't a 60%. At my high school it is actually 60%.
With this grading policy, how are the kids going to make fun of their buddies who score a 20% on their math exam?
Actually, I remember getting quite a few laughs when a few of my, lets say academically challenged, friends would get their test back from the teacher.
In the words of the infamous Judge Smails, "the world needs ditch diggers too!"
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