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No more sliding by with a D?
Filed under: Teens, Day Care & Education
According to the San Mateo Daily Journal, the San Mateo Union High School District, located just South of San Francisco, California, is considering the elimination of the barely-passing grade of D. School board member Peter Hanley said that students who receive a D have not yet mastered the topic. If this is indeed the case, should they be given a passing grade? The Journal notes that "by eliminating the grade, officials hope the requirements for students will be clear cut."
Not everyone agrees, however. Some teachers see this as being merely cosmetic. "If we remove the D grade, the grade of C will slide down and take over the area previously held by D. In other words, a C now requires 70 percent and a D 60 percent. When the D is removed, the C will fall to 60 percent," said Burlingame High School teacher Kevin Nelson. "Over time, students may earn a higher grade for a lower performance." Superintendent Sam Johnson, on the other hand, feels that teachers should be able to make the switch given adequate support. "We have to trust teachers not to lower the standards. ... We can't just let kids skate through," he said.
Personally, I'm torn. While I do think it will convince some students to straighten up and fly right, I think there are other cases where students who would be happy for a passing D would otherwise fail -- P.E. comes to mind. I think, however, that most kids for whom this would be an issue aren't won't care either way. The question in my mind is, is it better to give those kids a good-enough high school diploma or is it better to have them flunk out without the diploma? What do you think?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
8-23-2006 @ 11:40AM
Anna said...I completely agree with Kevin Nelson. I understand the notion on eliminating the grade, but it was there for a reason. If we start placing such a high expectation and a child does not meet it, it's a fast drop to a failure. That may make learning morale go down in a lot of children...especially children that struggle now.
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8-23-2006 @ 1:17PM
suburban misfit said...Why don't we just stop grading on a curve? When I was in school, 90-100% was an A, no matter what. So if no one scored above 90%, no one got an A. Why is grading on a curve so popular now?
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8-23-2006 @ 1:59PM
VL said...We do we use grades at all? If we had smaller classrooms teachers could easily assess whether a child was mastering a subject and ready to move on. And subject mastery and positive self-concepts feed off each other to make learning a pleasant experience. A lot of subjects require mastery before moving forward, like math and reading and some sciences and foreign languages. Unfortunatly, as long as we rely on standardized testing to dicate curriculum, quantity will prevail over quality.
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8-23-2006 @ 2:50PM
ann adams said...I've never understood the reason for grading on a curve.
For the most part, I agree with VL who said "A lot of subjects require mastery before moving forward". My youngest spent one day on angles. Now she's on to something totally unrelated in class while she and I are mastering angles at home.
It was the same all through last year. She never caught up. She was promoted because her other grades were good and now she's in a middle school "math intervention" class. They go over the basics and I can already see improvement; both in her skills and her attitude.
Learning takes time; something the public schools don't have because the entire year is spent cramming for the tests.
Which of course leads right back to NCLB.
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8-23-2006 @ 4:34PM
Lil' Liberal said...Hm. Wouldn't the F slide up and cover 60 percent, rather than the C sliding down to cover 60 percent? That seems to be the natural way of "eliminating the D because kids that haven't gained mastery shouldn't pass". Sliding the C-passing scale down wouldn't make much sense?
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8-23-2006 @ 9:06PM
John D. Van Dyke said...Why not do what they do in Europe? Give grades from 1 thru 10. That way you can nuance all learning levels!
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8-23-2006 @ 10:54PM
Uly said...I never got letter grades in high school, that was strictly an elementary school thing. Aside from "don't grade on a curve", it's always seemed counter-intuitive to me to give letter grades. Just give the actual number grade and call it a day!
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8-24-2006 @ 12:44PM
Tony said...When I was in H.S. I need the "D". I was horrible in Algebra (which by the way is a sham subject--never have used it for anything in life). Tutors for years, extra-credit, and I was a solid "B+" student in every other subject.
If the "D" wasn't around I would probably still be in H.S. at 32.
I say keep the "D". Or kill Algebra.
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