When I took the SATs 100 years ago…
…people used to joke that you got 1 point just for spelling your name right.
But now some educators are doing that one better by advocating that every student get a minimum of 50 points just for showing up.
When principal Debbie Brockett announced a policy last fall of not allowing teachers to issue any score less than 50 to failing students, viagra canada ambulance she thought she was adopting a means of leveling out an unfair grading curve.
To many outraged teachers at Las Vegas High, for sale however, Brockett’s plan amounted to fuzzy new math designed to offer unfair assistance to low-achieving students.
They protested, and she backed down. But in the process, both sides stepped into one of the hottest grading debates within academic circles today. Across the USA, education experts and school administrators are trying to determine how and whether to reform grading systems to give failing students a better chance to catch up.
“I made a bad call at the time, going with past experience, and I didn’t expect it to become controversial,” says Brockett, who had just been promoted from a middle school where her minimum-F policy was in place. “Now it’s an ongoing conversation we’re having.”
And the educational establishment wonders why the general public doesn’t have much faith in their ability to fix the system.
Add comment May 20th, 2008