No-zero grades: Will it help Hernando students or dumb down education?

Under a new policy up for a vote by the Hernando County School Board next month, the new grade for a missed assignment or test at the elementary level would be 40 percent. Translation: no more zeros.

The goal, district officials say, is to give kids a statistical fighting chance to turn around their overall grade — something tough to do even with a couple of zeros or a few very low marks on the books. But tampabay.com readers are asking: What lesson is this teaching the students?

Today's story is one of the most commented on tampabay.com; here's a look at what readers are saying:

"Wow. And what whill happen when these kids have to pass the FCAT on their own and are unable to?" asks Rene from Spring HIll. "The parents will be confused because their kids did well in school but can't pass the FCAT or did lousy on their SAT's. This does the children no favors."

Sully from Boston wrote: "The dumbing down of the dumb. How bizarre."

"This is ridiculous!" wrote Stephen from Tampa. "If they truly feel it is a problem (which I don't believe) allow the the kids to turn in missed assignments at a 20%/day penalty. At least the kids would still have to actually do the work. And if they don't do it at all, tough!"

Chris from Palm Harbor wrote: "This is why our Country is going down the drain. No one wants anyone to Fail. Failure and learning from that is what made this country great."

"I'll bet this has everything to do with No Child Left Behind and artifically raising a school's acheivement level, i.e., money, and absolutely nothing to do with properly educating young people," commented Frank from Clearwater.

Your take? Smart move or a case of dumbing down?

Comments

[teacher in tampa]

We are having this same discussion at my school. All of the above points have been mentioned. However, what about the student who completes 40% of the activity? He actually tried to do something. Why should someone who does nothing get the same grade as someone who attempts the work?

[College Student, Tampa]

This is most definitely dumbing down the already poor public education system.
I hate to burst the bubble of those using the sad excuse that "Zeroes on homework assignments are hard to recover from", but the statement is completely untrue. Back in high school people would actually miss assignments if they just didn't feel like it because we knew we could easily get away with a zero or two and still come off with the A or B we had before missing the homework. And I'm talking about AP students whose grades are made up of pretty much nothing but Tests and the occasional homework assignment. These students (myself included) mostly graduated with honors. So as you can see, it isn't nearly as difficult as the people trying to pass this policy would like parents to believe.
This is especially true in elementary school. From what I remember most of our grades were class participation activities Monday through Thursday with weekly tests or quizzes on Friday. There were very few Homework assignments, and if you did happen to miss one for whatever reason all you had to do in order to bring your average back up was make sure you completed all of your classwork and studied a little extra to make sure you did well on the next quiz.
Bringing the percentage from a missed assignment from a 0% to a 40% is only going to do more harm. It teaches kids at an early age that they can do absolutely no work and still get off with almost passing. I don't think I need to explain how disturbing and wrong this is. I agree with another poster who said that students should be able to make up the assignment at a grade cut of 10-20% per day that the assignment is late, but after a certain number of days the student would no longer be able to turn in the assignment and would receive a zero. I've had teachers in the past with this policy and it worked out very well for the students who normally turned in their work, but for some reason either did not or could not do the assignment.

[TeacherSpring Hill]

This has absolutely nothing to do with "dumbing" down expectations. This has to do with giving students a fighting chance. Zeros are very hard to recover from. Imagine a student that has (3)100's and (1)0 - the students average would be a 75. This score would probably not be indicative of the student's true ability. If the student had (3)100's and 1 (40) the average would be 85 - which would more than likely be a fairer assessment of the students abilities.

[Lila]

I wonder if starting all schools at the same time (forget busing to equalize some perceived injustices), giving students ample time to get homework done (8:30 - 3:00 class time, and 30 minutes at end to line up work for the evening), would avoid some of this silliness of missing assignments. It is abundantly clear that kids (and their out of shape parents) are fatter and more inclined to indolence on computers than ever before, ergo, no passes for laziness please.

[Bamajack]

Missed assignments at the elementary level is 50% parents fault, 30% students 20% teachers fault. Children at that age are LEARNING responsibility. If an assignment is missed, teacher notifies parents. Parents (should already know homework assignments) remind, help with developing habits of the student being responsible for assignments and the children need to take care of business. Then offer a reduced grade for turning in the assignment late. NOT A FREE PASS with 40%.

[olde40oz]

Have you ever goofed off at work and receive 40% of your paycheck?