So I read an article tonight that made me say WTF (what the F*&% for those of you who don't know what that is). Apparently a school district in Pennsylvania is making the minimum score you can get on any assignment/quiz/test 50%. Does this strike anyone else as ridiculous?
I mean, lets say that there are 2 parts to a class. On one part, you get 0/10 questions correct. The next you get 10/10 questions correct. Assuming equal weighting, this means that you get 50%, or an F. This means that you obviously didn't understand one of the subjects in the class. If this policy were enacted, you would get a 75%, a solid C. This would kinda imply that you understood roughly what was going on in most parts of the class. Two very different situations. I would like to think that in a class where there would only be 2 parts, you should come out knowing at least some material out of both parts, without getting a passing grade.
I know the example was simplified, but I could imagine a scenario where we are essentially rewarding people half the points on a test just for showing up. This isn't really new for some types of exams. But I would like to think we are better than that.
The idea for this policy is to let students "catch up" who do poorly at the start of a quarter. This type of thing could just as easily be addressed by allowing extra credit or allowing students to retake exams for less credit. This at least ensures that they learn the material at some point. In my classes growing up, this worked fine for me. I eventually learned everything, even if I screwed up big time.
But really, all this does is allow smart students the chance to slack off even more than they would and get the same grade. Lord knows I did that a lot. But I would always have to do more than put my name on the paper.
I'm sorry for the rant. But I don't see how this helps kids. There is nothing wrong with a kid having to make up work, or retake a class in summer school. Everyone I know ended up doing something along these lines. It is already ridiculously easy to pass high school as it is. We should reward the smart kids by letting them stand out. Not making the dumb kids seem smarter. Any opinions? Maybe I'm just a hardass...
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08266/914029-298.stm
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