Taking "Dumbed-Down" To A Depth Where No Student Has Gone Before

Why bother with educating them at all. When they're born, simply
fill-out a birth certificate and a PhD "diploma" in any discipline
their mammy desires.
________________

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THE NEW MATH: FAILURE=PASSING

Do lenient temporary rules to round up grade-point averages of .5 or
higher amount to 'soical promotion' in the Recovery School District?

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Under a new and exceptionally lenient grading policy, high school
students in New Orleans' Recovery School District can pass their
classes even if their quarterly grades average an "F" for the year.

For example, a student can earn F's in three quarters and a C in one
quarter and still pass for the full year. Another way to pass: two D's
and two F's, under a policy that educators locally and nationally said
falls far below typical standards.

Mathematically, it would be nearly impossible to design an easier
standard: The only way to fail a course is by getting F's for all four
quarters. That's because the policy calls for rounding up grade-point
averages of .5 or higher. If, for example, a student makes two D's and
two F's, the .5 grade-point average is automatically raised to a 1.0,
or D "average."


And even students who fail to meet that reduced standard can still
earn credit for one semester: Three F's and one D -- mathematically a
..25 average -- earn students a "half credit," meaning they only have
to repeat half the course.

The state-run Recovery School District, which operates 21 New Orleans
public schools, revised the grading policy several weeks ago and said
it will apply only to this school year.

The district lowered the standards in recognition of the stress many
students have undergone since Katrina and the fact that many trickled
in well after the school year started, including some who had not been
enrolled in any school last year, system Superintendent Robin Jarvis
said.

Critics say the policy codifies the low expectations that plague many
struggling school systems.

"These standards are just horribly low -- there is no way to fail. You
have to work to fail," said Martin Davis, a senior writer and editor
at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based
education reform group

(HA HA HA. You have to work to fail, but watch how many will.)

Davis said he has also come across lenient standards to pass classes
in districts in Tennessee, Illinois, North Carolina and Virginia.

Thomas Payzant, former superintendent of Boston public schools and now
a senior lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, said
school systems hurt students by lowering standards. That only makes
the transition to college and the job market tougher, he said.

(NO ****! Brilliant observation.)

(snip)

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa...l=1&thispage=1

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Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:48:36 +0000, Way Back Jack wrote:

Why bother with educating them at all. When they're born, simply
fill-out a birth certificate and a PhD "diploma" in any discipline
their mammy desires.
________________

THE NEW MATH: FAILURE=PASSING

Do lenient temporary rules to round up grade-point averages of .5 or
higher amount to 'soical promotion' in the Recovery School District?

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Under a new and exceptionally lenient grading policy, high school
students in New Orleans' Recovery School District can pass their
classes even if their quarterly grades average an "F" for the year.

For example, a student can earn F's in three quarters and a C in one
quarter and still pass for the full year. Another way to pass: two D's
and two F's, under a policy that educators locally and nationally said
falls far below typical standards.

Mathematically, it would be nearly impossible to design an easier
standard: The only way to fail a course is by getting F's for all four
quarters. That's because the policy calls for rounding up grade-point
averages of .5 or higher. If, for example, a student makes two D's and
two F's, the .5 grade-point average is automatically raised to a 1.0,
or D "average."

And even students who fail to meet that reduced standard can still
earn credit for one semester: Three F's and one D -- mathematically a
.25 average -- earn students a "half credit," meaning they only have
to repeat half the course . . . .

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpa...l=1&thispage=1

Affirmative action for the lazy and stupid.

Why not expect and even demand of the students that they work harder to
make up for lost time, rousing up their esprit de corps, their school and
community spirit?

Apparently that concept is alien to such educators.

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