The difference is that a judge has ruled that eleven school districts must stop doing this. The districts, most of them in my county and at least two of them fairly affluent in terms of socioeconomic demographics, are all upset. They don't want their teachers reporting any numerical grade lower than a 50, not even if such detail might actually be useful.
Not even if such detail is the truth.
They WANT to lie to their students, you see, because supposedly giving a kid a failing grade for crappy work will somehow damage his self-esteem to the point that he drops out of school altogether.
No word yet on what the dropout rate would be without this hokus pokus but last I checked, the state already has a pretty appalling rate of attrition when it comes to high school students.
The more cynical among us are less inclined to believe districts are lying to failing students to keep them happy because the districts genuinely want to help. Au contrare, we suspect that telling failing students it's all gonna be fine makes it easier to shuttle them through the system, let 'em screw up the test they have to take to graduate, tell them they've passed anyway, and then send them on to the local community colleges to be educated to the tune of $200 million in taxpayer monies a year. (See previous 'blog entries to learn more about this phenomenon.)
But, read excerpts from the actual news article and judge for yourselves, dear readers. Are the school districts in question truly altruistic in their zeal to convince failing students that what is, in reality, failure should be viewed as only sort of failure? I'll be interested to read your thoughts, so please comment at your convenience.
And now, for the educational travesty as reported by Ericka Mellon of the Houston Chronicle, June 28:
AUSTIN — A Travis County judge ruled today that Texas public schools are required to give students truthful grades on class assignments and on their report cards under a 2009 state law that 11 school districts were challenging in court.
The school districts — most of them in Harris County - argued that the law applied only to grades on assignments, noting that the statute didn't specifically mention report cards, semester grades, or six- or nine-week averages.
But state District Judge Gisela Triana-Doyal ruled that the statute is "not ambiguous" and clearly means districts cannot require teachers to give students grades they did not earn. The bill's author, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, has said she intended it to apply to all grades.
Richard Morris, the attorney for the school districts, said he would ask his clients whether they wanted to appeal the decision or to try to lobby for a change in the next Legislative session.
The school districts suing state Education Commissioner Robert Scott were Klein, Fort Bend, Aldine, Alief, Anahuac, Clear Creek, Humble, Deer Park, Eanes, Dickinson and Livingston.
The districts argued that their policies prohibiting teachers from awarding grades lower than a certain number - typically a 50 - helped keep students from getting discouraged and dropping out of school.
Without the policy, Clear Creek ISD Superintendent Greg Smith, said, "I think you close the light at the end of the tunnel for some students."
But the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, which intervened in the case on the side of the state, countered that the minimum failing grading polices were dishonest and didn't prepare students for college or the workforce.
"I feel like it's unethical," testified Mary Roberts, a teacher in Humble ISD.
Gee, do ya think?Look, I'm all for encouraging students to do their best and for helping them untangle whatever has them all balled up when it comes to academics. I do this sort of thing on a regular basis with my own homeschooled bunch. But one thing I don't do is tell my children they've done great when they've done just okay, or that they've done okay when, in fact, they've really screwed up an assignment. I don't berate, badger, name-call, or otherwise humiliate them, but I do tell them that whatever they've done needs to be redone because A or B or C is incorrect. If they need help, I help them. If the mistakes are careless with no pattern to suggest an underlying genuine lack of understanding, I advise them to attempt the corrections on their own. One way or another, we figure out what went wrong and then I watch for a repeat in the days ahead just to make sure there's no residual confusion.
Granted, I'm dealing with only three kids and not three hundred but my point is that schools that prevent their teachers from being honest with students and parents are not doing those children any favors. While a 50 and a 30 are both failing grades, as a parent I'd want to know whether my child was consistently scoring one or the other. Sometimes a lot can be learned from identifying patterns, and severely failing grades at the 6 or 9-week mark would be a definite red flag.
I understand the argument of the districts' in this story that a failing grade is a failing grade and that driving home the degree to which a student is failing might, in fact, prove discouraging. But honestly, folks, if you're already making an F of any sort, aren't you likely to already be discouraged? Will getting a 50 versus a 39 really make you feel better?
Truth in public education is sorely lacking these days. We see it in the failure of teachers and students to report abuse of students by peers or other teachers. It's in the drive to preserve the status quo of the educational bureaucracy by fudging standardized test scores. It's in the testimonials of teachers who want to speak up about abuses within the system but who dare not for fear of losing their jobs. It's in the countless children failed by a system that told them they were fabulous when, in fact, they were failing. It's in the students who pass the standardized test required for high school graduation who still can't read, write, or do math at grade level.
We shouldn't expect students to love the truth, much less tell the truth, until we began behaving in ways worthy of emulation ourselves. I'm glad the Texas judge had the nerve to shut down the practices of the districts involved in this debacle.
I'm sorry the districts didn't have enough intelligence to do it themselves.
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