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Students Are Always Half Right In Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh Public Schools officials have enacted a policy that sets 50 percent as the minimum score a student can receive for assignments, tests and other work. District spokeswoman Ebony Pugh said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester. The district and teachers union issued a joint memo to ensure staff members' compliance with the policy, which was already on the books but enforced only at some schools. At this rate, it won't be long before schools institute double extra credit Mondays and Fridays to ensure students don't take three day weekends.
Let me warn all of you right now, if you do not live in Pennsylvania and you have any thought that it's a state that you would like to try to lead a productive life in, especially the south-western corner, please abandon those thoughts. Pennsylvania is a black hole of taxation and asshattery. Our governor isn't worthy to hold the position of a used cars salesman and the city of Pittsburgh is a financial and logistical burden for anyone who lives anywhere close to it.
Not to even get into the fact that Dan Onorato and Luke Ravenstahl are both self-serving bitches.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Our district has had this policy for a long time. As a teacher, it's not too much of a hassle because the whole point of education is to get the kids to learn. If it's impossible to pass the year because of what a student scored the first quarter, they'll give up for the rest of the year. With this policy, there is still hope. In our district, they get their actual scores for midyear and final exams and for the 4th quarter, so they will get killed eventually if they do nothing.
By the way, the bigger problem is with kids who do the work but don't think. I have lots of students who copy their friends' work, so they have great homework grades, but bomb tests because they have no clue what they're talking about.
Education is too important to be left to the state.
Much like the current economic crisis, shouldn't failure be allowed? As some banks should be failing for bad investments, some students should fail to allow them to do-over.
I blew off a year of math and I went to summer school, once. I'm not proud, but it was a motivational experience. Summer school sucks.
SMU Dean David Chard In support of DISD's new grading policy
On a more frightening note, public education now seems to be king, in California at least. Homeschooling Banned in California
Does anyone else notice that things are going downhill? And they're speeding up?
"Lame" - Galaxar
Like anything else in government accomplishing goals is not a priority. Even when it comes to edcuating children. Or ensuring the future needs of a country.
Everyone wants a cushy job, nice pension. So, if the children are underperforming, it either the kid's fault or the teachers. Now that kids can't fail and all get 50%, well its probably a lot harder to fire a really lousy teacher, huh??!!!
I mean this one seriously to boot (sadly enough):
1) Let Students get at least 50%
2) ????
3) Profit!!!!
And this is what the founders of our government education system were thinking when they said (paraphrasing, obviously) "We're not trying to create thinkers here. We're trying to fill the workforce."
My school offered no IT type stuff either. We had a "computer technology" class that basically consisted of Word/Excel book exercises that even the teacher didn't know how to do.
I ended up having enough extra time in that class from blowing through the lessons on my own, that in my "down time" I kinda "helped out" the instructor for the class by trying to determine every possible way to break out of the school's sandbox/menuing system to get to a straight DOS prompt (actually with his encouragement). Every time he thought he had us sandboxed in I found a new way to do it :).
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
Um, if you're that good at math, why would you settle for a B, and why wouldn't you deserve at least that high of a grade anyway, in recognition of your talent?
Unless you are looking for somebody else's approval you can settle for any grade you are comfortable with.
I barely studied in school and college and did just the minimum required to pass unless I was really interested in the topic (barely passed calculus, physics, aced electronics, programming, telecommunications)
HTML is obsolete. It's time for a new, simpler and richer markup language.
Because to get an A requires something like ten times the investment in effort and no one after you get your first college admission will give a hoot?
The 50% policy has been in use by teachers for a long time. It's not news, and it's not a symptom of the decay of our education system. Sure, our system has flaws, but this is not one of them. As usual, people love to mouth off about things they know nothing about, especially on the Internet. As a college teacher with nine years of experience, I can tell you that the 50% policy actually makes no difference in terms of whether a student passes or not. There is never, and I mean never, a situation in which a student fails miserably in one area (such as assignments) and excels in another (such as tests). This goes back to the simple aphorism, "Either you know it or you don't." Most teachers I know have a simple policy: late work receives a grade of zero. Work submitted on time receives a minimum of 50%. At my school, a passing grade is 65%. For my part, I don't allow a 50% minimum on tests, and I have a reputation of being somewhat tough. So I've been using the 50% policy, in slightly modified form, for the past nine years. I can honestly say that I have never given a passing grade to a student who did not achieve the bare minimum competencies as outlined in my school's course descriptions. Actually, I've never "given" a grade to anyone... I've only recorded the grades that they earned.
Huh? I don't know about your country, but in Poland nobody actually cares if you got your degree with an A or barely got it. All that matters is if it's there, and from what university it is.
If you were a stickler for forcing Latin grammar upon English sentences, perhaps. But English has no such rule. A preposition is a fine word to end a sentence with.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood