Helping or hindering? Raising the bar, or totally irrelevant? What do you think? http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/religion-and-the-robber-21168339#video=21169806
Possibly unpopular opinion: I think getting rid of the D;s is a little silly, but I also think that telling kids it's ok to be an underachiever is silly as well. If they do get rid of D's then there are going to be SOOOOOOOO many more kids failing and not graduating, IMO.
First of all, according to what was said early in the article, D is below 70. Where I live, anything below 70 is an F anyway! It was when I was in school, and it still is. In NJ, they're obviously using a 10-point scale - where 90s are As, 80s are Bs, and 70s are Cs. I never even heard of a 10-point scale until I got to college. When I started my little school, I decided on a 7-point scale where C = 80-86, B = 87-93, and A = 94-100. Below 80 is not acceptable. However, I don't really use letter grades but only report percent scores to parents, so they can draw their own conclusions. In the video, Allisyn makes the statement that we don't want to go to D doctors or C doctors either for that matter. But you know what they call the guy in medical school who gets by on Ds and finishes in the bottom of his class?? Doctor! Do any of us know our physician's GPA??
Hi here they have already eliminated the D's and F's I guess it's bad for self esteem or some such nonsense. Also kids are no longer held back if they fail. Push em through is the PS motto these days.
I think it would be a great idea to get rid of D's IF it was treated more in the way I do with my own children. If my boys score a "C" or lower on an assignment I go back and reteach the trouble areas and then give a second chance on the assignment or test. Though they are still young so I don't really give them grades except on tests, but I do check assignments and if they don't have "A" or "B" quality work then we reteach and redo.
Which is what they used to do in my day in school if somebody got left behind more than once - push 'em through! which is what resulted in kids graduating who couldn't read their own diplomas, which led eventually to No Child Left Behind and we all know how successful THAT is! 8-P It's funny that something called No Child Left Behind has resulted in "tougher standards" and tests which have resulted in more mandatory retentions than ever before, to the point that in some places they've had to lower those tougher standards in one way or another because so many were getting left behind that it was unbalancing the whole school system! (Like a HUGE fourth and eighth grade class and a very small fifth and ninth grade class.)
In my college, Cs must be retaken if they are core subjects to your major. Only As and Bs are "passing," though academic probation only occurs if you have a D average. And Cs are OK if they are in gen eds. I think this is a good system. Of course, in high school everything is a gen ed. But you get the point.
When I was in college, only Ds had to be retaken in your core courses for your degree. In grad school, it was all core courses so any D was verboten.
When I was in grad school, only an A or B was accepted. Anything less and you had to retake that course or another optional one to make up the grade.
Getting rid of a grade due to self-esteem is silly. Getting rid of a grade because a D, IMO, or anything under a 70 IS failing is fine.
I always thought the grading system was kinda weird (but I was homeschooled). Growing up, we just had a standard, and if that standard wasn't met we didn't pass. My parents just did a percent style, and there was a minimum percent we had to reach to pass. I don't remember what it was. Basically, as long as we could show that we knew what we had been trying to learn, that was enough for them. I do understand they have to do something like the grading system in public school though, just for the sheer volume of children. It's simpler when you just have to teach a handful of kids, like my parents did. Personally, I think the D being a passing grade is pretty weak. C or above is better, IMO. The one year I went to school was sixth grade, and the kids who got Ds weren't struggling, they were just lazy troublemakers who never did their work. So the fact that they could still get a pass was pretty lame I thought.
Funny....in my day....70% was a B An F was below 50% a D 50-59% C 60-69% B 70-79% A 80-89% A+ 90-100% I don't believe underachieving is the way to go.....but I also don't believe these kids need that much stress on them.
