My District decided to initiate a “no zero policy” starting now. I was informed by administration that when a student does not turn in their work, I still have to give the student a fifty percent even though that student didn’t earn it. I teach sixth graders and I am not sure how I feel about this. Any words of advice?

likehelpful
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This policy just seems like another way to decrease the likelihood that students experience failure and makes recording keeping look like things are going better than they are.

If I have a student who does 0 work, then that student's grade should be a 0%. A 50% is still failing, but makes it look like the student did something instead of nothing and requires less work from the student to be raised to passing. How are students going to learn anything about being responsible or being held accountable for their actions and choices if policies like this become the norm.

likehelpful

In my school, we do not have the choice of using absences as a determining factor. It is in our handbook, but NEVER enforced. The argument is that the child cannot help what the parents allow.

Not a fan. Life skills are just as important as learning standards in the classroom. When was the last time you simply chose to NOT do your job but expected half pay. Not a fan. Choices have consequences. Think who you’re saving. Any kid can recover from “one” zero. This policy will save the kids who just decide to not show up, take 10 zeros and then decide to try. They earn a passing grade, but how much have they learned? What the point?

likesmartupliftinghelpful

What if you hired someone to clean your yard for 20 dollars. He doesn't show do you still pay him 10? What are we really teaching these kids?

likesmart
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The same kids that were going to fail in your class if you didn't have the no zero policy are still going to fail. It gives kids a chance that care about their grades but get behind for many reasons. I have students that are running the household during the day while their parents are working, making sure their younger brothers and sisters get breakfast and attending their classes all the while their trying to attend their own classes. To top it off, they are dealing with covid issues as well. Our middle school students are being forced to grow up fast and unfortunately school for many of our students is low on the priority list.

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Why do we have grades? The purpose of grades is to accurately assess and report student progress toward mastery of curriculum standards and goals. If grades are used for other purposes they are misused. Grades do not exist to give students an average, determine promotion, rank students, make students feel good about themselves, or to provide students more opportunity to make a higher grade. If you report that a student earned 50% that should mean that he has achieved half of the CSO. If that is not the case then you are dissembling, or, in other words, lying.
Abraham Lincoln reportedly asked, "How many legs does a dog have if you call its tail a leg? Four; just calling it a leg doesn't make it so."
If your system requires you to dissemble, to be inaccurate, then you need a better system. I recommend that schools teach for mastery. Two grades: A=achieved CSO, and I=incomplete (has not yet achieved CSO). When the student has demonstrated mastery of the CSO he gets an A; until then, keep trying. If you can only tie your shoes 70% of the way, you can't tie your shoes. If you can only get 70% on a division test, you can't divide well enough to rely on your answers. (And I know that doesn't mean never making a mistake; I occasionally have to retie my shoes.) Teach for mastery. You will accurately access and report student progress, and you won't feel as if you need to dissemble.

likehelpful

Texas, I think about grades (percentages, at least) a measure of Demonstrated Proficiency —- that is, grades answer the question, “What percent of this assignment’s content, standards and objectives did this student DEMONSTRATE proficiency in?”

I used to think about percentages as a metric of “student proficiency/mastery” or “this is the percent of what they know”... but it started getting pretty wonky. We all know many kids who COULD learn the skill or do the work ... but they just don’t for whatever reason (sometimes by choice, sometimes circumstance). So in that sense, yes, giving a 0% for something not handed in felt weird and frustrating and even a bit disingenuous. A kind of a lie... just because we KNOW if they actually TRIED... or did the work... they could get a 40%, 50%, 70%, 90%, 100%... depends on the kid. But, that’s a measure of “potential” - and then I’m acting as a mind-reader. But giving a 50% also felt like an arbitrary lie — much lower than some would get, but higher than what others would get.

So... instead of focusing on what grades to give, I shifted perspective — how I defined them. I shifted context. Now I interact with grades as the measure of what the students have DEMONSTRATED proficiency in ... so actually, it becomes cleaner for me: if they don’t turn it in, they’ve demonstrated 0% of what I needed to see. If they turned in something and demonstrated half the standards of what I needed, they’d get a 50%.

It’s been helpful when establishing this view of grades as part of a growth mindset with students and parents. When students view grades as what percent they DEMONSTRATED they know or what they can do (as opposed to “getting” grades we “give” them), it gives them ownership and opportunities for action. If they want a bette grade, they know they have to DEMONSTRATE their proficiency.

To that end, it’s also important that we, as teachers, vary assignments and assessments to measure the many facets of learning and success. Especially in a virtual setting in a pandemic — we can’t just teach and assess and give grades as usual. Nor can we give grades arbitrarily. Effort matters. Resilience matters. Communication matters. Independence matters. Responsibility matters. Following directions matters. Attention to detail matters. Perseverance matters. For me, personally, those are objectives that are build into assignments and reflected by grades.

I think it’s important that all assignments (and grades...) that are given purposefully and thoughtfully are viewed by all as what they are — opportunities for students to DEMONSTRATE proficiency with ALL the standards that matter most, and to give them clear paths to growth.

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our district has had that in place for some time. An "F" is an "F." However, in these current times, if a student does not turn in an assignment by the deadline, I flag it as missing, marking it as a zero. If nothing is turned, it's a zero in the grade book. If there is some effort made that fails all expectations, regardless of the range between 0-50, it's permanently marked as "50." Go with this and see how your administrator handles it. If still no, you've offered an alternate solution.

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Very close to what I do.

I really disagree with this policy. What are we telling our children? When they get to the real world is their boss going to pay them for not doing their work? When did we start letting our students be lazy and not accountable for their actions?

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The letter grade system does not work. The grading should be similar to AP testing in high schools, from 1-5. You need a 3 to get college credit for AP tests but a 2 is technically passing and 1 is a failure. We started letting kids be lazy when our politicians encouraged half of our workforce to be lazy. During this pandemic, nurses, doctors, grocery store workers and truck drivers all worked while teachers and office staff stayed home.

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I'm trying optional exercises this cycle. Low risk, they do it they can earn a good grade and lower the risk of a missing or low grade assignment. They don't do them, I'm exempting it and their formative grade is based on much fewer grades.
Notes, reviews, quizzes and exams are mandatory, don't do them get a zero.
So far kids are responding well.
Of course the students that are doing the optional work are scoring better on exams. It also helps that I assign optional exam correction grades too.
*I teach older kids upper division Math

likehelpful

If anyone cares, after 5 weeks of this experiment.
75% of my routine exercises as optional (formally known as daily work, practice quizzes and HW), turn in rate is up about 50% as compared to cycle 2, and the mandatory exercises are now sitting at 90% completion (notes, reviews and quizzes)
I need to dig down on this, but early results are pretty convincing.
Grades are higher across the board.

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I’ve been doing this on my own accord for 3 years but I use 49% just because of these oddness of the number. it allows students, parents, case managers, and me to immediately know the assignment is missing. If you are completely against this initiative, then do everything possible to get students to understand the purpose behind every assignment and be resilient with your expectations that every assignment must be attempted with effort in your class. Grades don’t matter very much, especially in 6th grade.

likesmart

Readers, Writers, Researchers. I taught 9th grade for the last five years. This year I teach 7th.

I mean they are still failing if their average is 50-55%. I have some students who have done NOTHING and their average is 55%.

likesmart

It's still an F and if this is the policy in high school, it is the letter grade that will be recorded that matters - not the percentage.

It is also disproportionate to all the other grades. Why should the F be worth 60% of the grade while the rest of the grades are each worth 10% (or if you have a different scale, it's even worse).

Why should a student who had a 95% average on 9 equally weighted grades end up with an 86% because they failed to complete 1 assignment. Are we grading their ability to turn in work or their knowledge of the subject matter? I want my grades to reflect what my students know of the subject. If they don't turn in an assignment, there needs to be a penalty, but not one that impacts them so significantly. Using that same scenario - 10 equally weighted grades, 9 of them 95%, if the last grade is a 50%, they end up with a 91%, a lower A that still reflects their knowledge of the subject.

likefunny

In our district we shifted our mindset that homework falls on the parents. The students should not be punished with detention or a failing grade because their family does not support education. Now at some point when they're older, it becomes the students responsibility but we cannot change the attitudes of their families and how they do not support their education.

likeupliftinghelpful

There are county libraries in most towns that offer free internet. Our school district offers T-Mobile HotSpots for parents who can't qualify for regular cable internet. The T-Mobile devices are very slow and have a theoretical 20GB limit, but it's better than nothing. After the 20GB the device still works but their data speeds slow to a crawl until the next billing cycle. It's free for these parents and we're paying for it in our taxes. But it's better than nothing. So kids have very few good excuses to continually not turn in their work.

So, is the lowest grade a student can receive also a 50%?

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That’s correct Ohio Elem 1. Doesn’t matter if they did the assignment and didn’t do well or if they did not do the assignment at all, the student gets a 50. I don’t think we say “earned” anymore.

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The district understands the learning environment of our students. Not all students come from safe homes with supportive parents or environments conducive for learning. Some may only access education in the classroom while being a caretaker of other siblings in the home. We don't know what goes on at home. If parents do not take the initiative to get on their child about doing their work nor is it a priority, can we expect our students to actually care as well? Behaviors are learned. As educators, we know some parents have their child log on for attendance and then unplug from school after that. The district needs to do what it needs to, or realistically, retention and high school graduation rates will become an unprecedented historical anomaly.

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We have that in my district as well and at first I thought it was total BS. Why should I give a kid a grade for doing nothing? But I started to see the advantages after a few weeks. The chronic failures were noticing that they were still failing but that they were close to passing. Several students who normally turn little to nothing in starting turning in some work. I’m not going to say it works miracles but after the policy being in place for four years now, I would say I do see the benefit of it.

likehelpful

My school tried this a few years ago. Needless to say, we don’t do it anymore. I didn’t mind giving them 50% if I had seen them at least attempting the assignment, but if they never did any of it at all, they did 0% of the work and I felt that was the grade they deserved.

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Well YOU can feel how you want but if it’s the new policy in your school you have to do it. You have been told. BY your administration that this is the way things will be. You don’t get to pick and choose which policies to follow. If you really can’t do it, start looking for another job, but good luck, as this is becoming the norm. The idea behind it of course is that a zero has 59 % points of weight, as any other grade would have at max, 10? And that it unfairly pulls down a grade. In our district this doesn’t apply to tests or quizzes.

likehelpful

Since 50 is now a zero, I’d grade all future assignments on a 50-point scale rather than a 100-point scale.

Make sure the students are EARNING those points. Adjust their grades accordingly.

likehelpful

Oh good. Just ignore the intent and defy the directive. Professional. And teachers, at least in Michigan, are on a four-point scale. No zeros. Go figure.

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Well I’d start by asking if I don’t do my work can I still get 50% of my pay? 😂

likefunny

Okay, but I really am kidding. 🤣😂

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Better yet, I can now do 50% of the work and get 100% of the pay. Not quite. I’m glad we’re really preparing these kids for real life. Don’t forget the participation trophies!!

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As long as parents are aware that a 50 really means a zero...and that then a 75 is now really what a 50 would be.. and so an 80 is really "barely passing"

likehelpful

Today most districts are afraid of lawsuits by parents. They will always sided with parents.

likeuplifting

Food for thought: I think everyone needs to remember that we are working and perpetuating a system of grading that never worked. If you have 20 assignment in a quarter and more the 5 students flunks 10, I think you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself did you teach to the best of your ability. Did you target the visual, audio, kinesthetic learners. Or do you expect your students to sit down, shut up, listen to you, and know all the answers, after a lecture, because they are taking notes. Hmmmm.... Think back to high school, were you the perfect student, I wasn't, I was scared, anxious, happy, angry all before 1st period. My point is some of us struggle thru high school, and when we barely graduate we find ourselves and our niche in life, and some of us even become teachers, because we believe we can do a better job then what we were subjected to.

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Exactly California middle school 23 and I was that student I was that poor student but you know what I studied my ass off and for the whole time I was in elementary school I was in the three group and I studied my ass off and got into high school and thought well now I have a new chance now maybe I can get a new start studying my ass off still in the three group yes and that’s why I became a teacher but they didn’t give me a 50 I got that 68 all by myself. But you know it taught me that life isn’t fair then I need to work harder than Ever because working hard as survival and I worked hard I kept working hard and got all A’s in college and now I have a six-year degree HELLO. Would I have worked so hard and I’ve been given a 50 so that I could coast???? I don’t think so🥴

I have been grading this way for 15 years. A 50% floor is more fair than a zero. If a student decides to turn it around they're working up from 50% which makes passing grade attainable. I once had a student named Thomas, he decided to get his act together and did well. He averaged 90% or better on his assignments but he was only able to get his grade to a 34%. Had I implemented the 50% floor, he'd attained a 84%, what do you think that would have done for his self-efficacy, I can only imagine. Fair is not always equal.

likehelpful

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