An article from QNS, a local news outlet covering Queens, New York, released an interesting article about a local high school under investigation by New York City Public Schools. Teachers at the school claim they are forced to pass failing students. Such blatant grade-inflation policies are uncommon, but I suspect softer versions of the policy are rampant in our public schools nationwide, including here in Missouri.
The quotes in the article speak for themselves, so I’ll just copy and paste them here without commentary:
“Students regularly fail tests and other assignments, teachers [said], but still receive passing grades.”
“‘Students have mentioned that it’s not fair that they’re trying and then they see classmates show up half the time and have nearly an equivalent grade,’ the teacher said. ‘They get frustrated, which will then demotivate them from doing work because they think it’s an unfair policy.’”
“Last year’s mastery grading policy stated . . . that any grades a student receives that are not 100 would not be included in their [final] grade.”
“While teachers maintain the ability to draft their own syllabi, they said that many teachers have been forced to adjust their expectations over time due to the current school administration. ‘I was guided in trying to avoid failing students,’ [one] teacher said.”
“The teacher . . . said that if they did not reach a certain percentage of students passing the class—80%—they would be called into a meeting with the administration to discuss how they could improve the grades of students.”
“One teacher said out of around 100 students, they haven’t seen over 20 of them all school year. If they must pass 80% of the students, that means anyone who shows up to class must pass in order to achieve that goal, regardless of whether the students do any work.”
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I know I just copied and pasted this whole assignment. It seems lazy, but in my defense, this is A-level effort in many of our schools.
