Chillicothe Schools Consider No-Zero Grade Proposal
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No-Zero Grades
The Chillicothe school board is considering a proposal to change the grading scale so that no student would receive a zero.
The Chillicothe school board is considering a proposal to change the grading scale so that no student would receive a zero. The lowest grade would be 50 percent.
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio —The Chillicothe school board is considering a proposal to change the grading scale so that no student would receive a zero. The lowest grade would be 50 percent.
Assistant Superintendent Jon Saxton proposed the idea of a no-zero policy to get students to do their school work.
Chillicothe Board of Education and administration say not all students are aiming high and they want to change that by removing what they consider a harmful practice.
“We look at the practice of giving students zeros for work that’s not completed and it’s punitive, as it, it’s like an F to the sixth degree, because the grade that’s given for a zero is six times greater than the work that’s poorly done,“ Saxton said.
Incoming freshman Emily Gray said she thinks the no-zero policy is a good idea because it will help students to pass their classes.
“It might be better for some of the kids because they, kids who get zeroes, it might bring their grades down lower and they might not be able to pass grades,“ Emily Gray said.
Gray’s father however, disagrees because he thinks students who don’t do their work shouldn’t receive the same grade as students who put forth more effort.
“But a zero is a zero and a 50 percent is a 50 percent and if you receive 50 percent for doing zero, I don’t think it’s a good way to teach a child,“ said Mark Gray.
Administrators said they’re trying to prevent zeroes from piling up.
“As a result of that, students get frustrated. They miss school. They create disciplinary problems,“ Saxton said.
“The whole policy is about encouraging them to do their homework. We want it done in a timely manner to teachers’ standards, but the bottom line is, we want them to do their work,“ said Randy Drewyor, Chillicothe Board of Education member.
Drewyor said the no-zero policy would be fair to all students, making an F just 10 points below a D.
He says it would provide equal intervals between each letter grade.
Supporters said they’re not holding anyone’s hand. They just don’t want students to give up once they get a zero.
The vote was tabled until July 22.
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Reader Reactions
To Get A Clue,Cheney just recently admitted that there never was a connection between Iraq and 9/11.This was simply a continuation of the first Gulf war.My brother (is/was) a marine in that war-it was a farce too.All Iraq wanted was a little more access to the gulf,our embassador to Iraq said the U.S. would look the other way if they just took it,when they did-we went to war.None of it ever had to happen!
Hi Get A Clue, Republican here, I’m not an oil mongering lying thief! Nor do I personally know any republicans that are. I work full time, pay all my bills on time, have no credit card debt, not receiving any type of government assistance, never filed for bankruptcy, don’t have a criminal record, I guess I could keep going but will stop there. It’s not nice to lump everyone in a stereotype because of a few people. Period!!
Fed Up When I read this….(your post) “The current idiot in the White House says we’re now no longer involved in a war on terror. Its an “overseas contingency operation”. 9/11 is no longer the murder of 3,000 innocent people. Its now a “man made disaster”. I wish Obama could’ve been there when I signed eleven sympathy cards for the spouses of my eleven co-workers killed in the Twin Towers that day!“ .... (again, your words) it leaves me in total disbelief that there are STILL people out there that ACTUALLY BELIEVE Iraq was involved with 9/11 - THEY WERE NOT!!! There is NOT A SHREAD of Evidence that says they we’re - GET A CLUE PEOPLE!!! Look up the facts!!! There is NOTHING out there that says Iraq is linked at all to the 9/11 attacks! Get your heads out of the toilet - look up the facts and choose a new party to hook up with because the Republicans are a bunch of oil mongering, thieving, lying, buggers who have made you look like the fool for believing that Iraq was involved - all they wanted was to get a hand into their oil! Period!!!
Oh wait… I get it. We’re promoting a mind set of something for nothing. This will result in future voters who will expect the government to pay for their mortgages and gasoline.
I used to teach in New York and experienced a district-wide policy similar to this. I will tell you _from experience_ that this is a bad idea.
Whatever we do in the school systems (and at home) with our children they will internalize and carry with them throughout their lives. If we handicap them with a policy that teaches them that life, and people will cut them some slack, simply based on the virture that they are breathing air, then they are in for more than just an initial shock when they exit the schools into the workforce. To some extent they will bear the damage from this policy throughout their lives.
This smacks of laziness on administrator’s and teacher’s parts. This will help to ‘move along’ children that would otherwise remain their responsibility.
Obviously I don’t like the smell of this.
Does this mean that if I’m employed by Chillicothe Schools and show up for work 0% of the time that I will still get 50% of my pay?
Dr. Dave, I am not too emotional about anything nor am I attacking you or your professionalism. I’m just telling the plain, raw truth and you don’t like it. What was it they said to Harry Truman? “Give ‘em h_ _ _ Harry!“ He replied, “I’m not giving them h_ _ _. I’m giving them the truth and they think its h_ _ _!“
Liberals like you are always on the opposite side of plain common sense. I can provide many examples, but I’ll just point out a few.
1) Starting with this nonsense of not allowing kids to fail. This mentality goes hand in hand with other things like not keeping score in sporting competitions and other psycho babble.
2) The current idiot in the White House says we’re now no longer involved in a war on terror. Its an “overseas contingency operation”. 9/11 is no longer the murder of 3,000 innocent people. Its now a “man made disaster”. I wish Obama could’ve been there when I signed eleven sympathy cards for the spouses of my eleven co-workers killed in the Twin Towers that day!
3) The liberals are worried about underwear on someone’s head at Abu Graib or waterboarding a murderer, but don’t want any revenge for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans. Frankly, after 9/11, I don’t care what they do to them. All is fair now.
4) Liberals scream bloody murder about animals and meat or fur coats. I’ve seen the bumper stickers on the animal wackos cars that say “meat is murder”. Funny, you eat meat or own a fur coat and that’s called murder, but a doctor can slaughter 60,000 babies and that’s called choice.
Get the point? This whole debate goes far beyond grades. This country is being destroyed little by little starting with our school students. It is way past time for all of us to wake up and get rid of the “you owe me” way of thinking. Whether its grades, health coverage, college educations or whatever. It is time for persoanl responsibility and common sense all the way around. Thank you for your time and for chatting with me. Take care.
Fed Up,you are so right! Schools should stop so much focus on extra curriculars and sports too,recognizing that school isn’t about socializing and games(and no longer have the money to support such programs)-you are here to learn.
They can participate in these activities outside of school.
You are still much too emotional about this simple proposal. No one is suggesting that a student who gets a 50% is deemed acceptable. It is a failure to get a 50%. However, if we are to help those students we need an accurate measure of what they know. Then a professional educator can begin to assist the student, not write them off.
It seems to me that attacks upon my profession and professionalism are not helpful. Based on that, I will sign off on this interesting debate as it is clear that reason will not assist you to see my point.
Dr. Dave, you are living proof of what I’m talking about. You are not in the REAL world! You have spent 35 years in fantasyland, aka academia. In my world, there is no such thing as tenure. You either do the job for your employer or you don’t. You work on an at will basis and can be fired at any time for any reason. As I stated before, my wife is a teacher and will be starting her 36th year this fall, so I’m very familiar with “teacher world” and it bares no resemblance to the business community at all. I’m in the accounting profession and I can’t even begin to imagine explaining to my employer why they should keep me around even though I only have 50% knowledge of my job. No one is using a twisted mathematical system to beat up kids. It has been deemed that anything below a performance level of 60% is unacceptable and rightly so. Grades are not intended to be the motivating factor. Achievement by doing things correctly is the motivator! The grade is the reward for that particular performance level. Its up to each individual how far they want to go in life. No one is guaranteed anything. In a nutshell, it all comes down to one thing. PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! The Obama theory of “spread the wealth” is pathetic and completely irresponsible. It takes away the incentive to work and achieve and you are trying to do the same thing with students. If these kids know that they can get away with only sliding by and they’ll still get credit for it, then that is all they will do because the incentive to achieve as much as possible has been taken away. At some point the ipods have to come out of their ears and they have to enter the real world. They can either make the choice to get a good education or suffer the consequences! Let’s quit dumbing down our kids!
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