Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesFanStrandedInEDM
The "No Zero Policy" does not inflate grades....It just doesn't deflate them. If that kid goes all semester and doesn't do a lick of work. They will be taking the course again. Teachers are not handing out free grades like a new candy bar outside of a football game.
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First lets look at how this system is supposed to work. The teacher is expected to hound the student for the incomplete assignment until it is done. This might even involve talking to the parents according to the articles I've read. So yes, in theory everyone is being held accountable and grades are not being given out freely.
I just don't think this works as well as hoped for in the real world, especially for teenagers about to enter the real world. Obviously the teacher is going to let some incompletes slide since your not going to hold a student back just because he didn't complete a couple assignments but what is the limit? Does each teacher decide what is an acceptable number of incompletes? This doesn't seem fair at all and in fact could inflate lazy students grades vs the ones that did all of the work since you would be taking a smaller sample size. Why can't you just give the student a zero? He didn't do anything to show he knows the curriculum so why should he get a "pass" on that one assignment?
I completely agree that using zeros as a measure to control your class (ie. student talks during an exam therefore automatically is given 0) is not acceptable as a teacher but I fail to see how this system is productive for young adults. To me it does exactly as the tag implies though, encourages entitlement and laziness. Anyways I'm really thankful for FFSIE's response as this is a subject I really don't understand so its good to hear from the side opposing my opinion.