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The “Points” Problem
Rethinking student accountability
This morning, the New York Times posted an opinion piece titled, “Teachers Can’t Hold Students Accountable. It’s Making the Job Miserable,” written by opinion columnist Jessica Grose. The article highlights many issues that public school teachers face and gives a fair shake to those problems.
Yet, Ms. Gore missed something.
The way we try to hold students accountable is inherently wrong.
It’s not a flaw in the system but a feature, one that needs desperate reform.
Grose spoke with and surveyed several teachers. Many of these teachers shared a grading policy that their districts are looking to implement, for better or for worse:
Several teachers whom I spoke with or who responded to my questionnaire mentioned policies stating that students cannot get lower than a 50 percent on any assignment, even if the work was never done, in some cases. A teacher from Chapel Hill, N.C., who filled in the questionnaire’s “name” field with “No, no, no,” said the 50 percent floor and “NO attendance enforcement” leads to a scenario where “we get students who skip over 100 days, have a 50 percent, complete a couple of assignments to tip over into 59.5 percent and then pass.”
