We are told too

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Home : 2003 : January : 9

We are told too
By Dawn

This happens at our school too. The principal has called it the secret 50. No matter the grade, even if the student NEVER DID THE WORK or turned it in, they get a 50. They are not to know of this however. They think they
really got a zero or the grade printed on their paper. We secretly enter the 50 in the gradebook.
I don't agree with this. I can see both sides of the issue but really, I agree with the poster above. We aren't giving such difficult work (I teach 6th), we offer extra help, we drop the lowest grade to account for bad days, and special ed students are accomodated and graded on their

own scales. So WHY should no work get a 50? I don't want to hold any child back or discourage them, but if a child earns a 30% average on their work, they have to almost TRY to do that poorly, at least in my class. It usually means they aren't doing the work at all.

Another angle on this, is that when I call parents to discuss how to motivate their child to do their schoolwork, the parents aren't concerned because their child's grade is a C or a D. How does this help me get the child to do their work? It actually undermines my attempts to do so.

But of course, the secret 50 keeps the parents from calling the school board to complain about low or "unfair" grades. They think their child has really earned that C or D. I wonder if they would approve if they knew that their child's grade was artificially propped up? Good luck to these kids, their parents, and their teachers when they get to high school...

Chap, my short answer to your question is that I have no idea how legal it is. Does anyone else have any ideas?