Grades have been changed to protect the failing

 Grades Have Been Changed to Protect the Failing

 

The Maryland Office of the Inspector General has completed an audit of the Baltimore City public schools.  The audit determined that over the last several years multiple high schools in Baltimore City have changed grades from failing to passing.   This indiscretion is nothing new for Baltimore City.   Audit investigators have found this problem multiple times in the past 12 years.   The issue always garners lots of attention and criticism of City schools.  

The truth is the issue is not in the changing of grades.  Grades are essentially pretty meaningless except as an overall general indication of how a student is progressing.

While the headlines make this issue seem like a crucial indication of a pending disaster, the fact is grades were mostly changed from 58-59 to a 60 which is passing.  Really now, does anyone seriously think that our grade system is so precise as to, in any meaningful way, differentiate between a 58 and a 60?!   

Critics say that changing grades shortchanges a child’s education.  That is patently absurd.  What shortchanges a child’s education is the lack of learning that is going on in the classroom on a day-to-day basis.  And in many schools not much is happening.

It has been suggested that kids be given an extra project to push the grade up those last few points.  It would be good if that much concern was put into pushing the quality of education in the schools an extra few points.  Six months from now how much difference will it make whether a student got a 58 or a 60 in a course?   It might make a huge difference if the student feels him/herself to be a failure and quits school.

Some other folks have suggested that the central office and/or the principals in the schools are pressuring teachers not to fail anyone.  Maybe that is happening.  Or just maybe, the teacher looked at the grades on her own and decided arithmetic be damned, the kid didn’t deserve to fail the course for a fraction of a point.  

It is dramatically easier to focus on a few points changing in grades than it would be to truly address the real problems.  Grades have little to no relationship with how much a student has learned.  We have all experienced courses where our grades were high and our learning was low.   Ditto the reverse.  Any relationship between grades and learning is purely coincidental.  Culturally we just love grades because we believe if something can be measured it is real.  That belief belies the fact that the most important things in life aren't measured with a number.

Grades have been changed to protect failing students.  Wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy to protect failing schools.