TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1997
Grading minimum supported
To the editor:
This is in response to the letter from Charles Zaremba published Aug. 8. I
couldn't get past the first sentence: "Inflating grades is a well-known practice
among many of the Valley's schools." Well-known by whom? "Many" equals
how many? "Valley's schools" equals which ones?
He argues that a "typical" freshman class in a 5-A school has about 1,000
students, but only 500 graduate. He implies that schools falsify records.
"Creative" bookkeeping is a felony, whether in a bank or a high school. Mr.
Zaremba's point, of course, is that those 500 students are dropouts. His figures
are wrong.
The dropout rate last year at Donna High School was 1.7 percent! Out of
2,500, about 43 students withdrew with no intention to enroll in another school.
That's a "fact" reported to the Texas Education Agency. If that figure is grossly
in error, somebody's going to jail.
What caused the uproar? It was the McAllen school district's proposal to
change its grading policy, to whit: No student will receive lower than 50 on the
report card for the first six weeks of work.
As a teacher since 1965, I say, amen, brother, amen.
Simple humanity and simpler math explain the policy. Students who can't pass
are discipline problems in that class and throughout the school. Even if a student
gets 50 the first grading period, he must make typically 77 the next two
six-weeks and his final to get credit. "Give 'em what they make" results in
kiddos needing 85 or 90 each grading period to pass. Those students live out
the term in perpetual despair, angry at their teachers, the school, the world.
The 50 minimum ensures that every student gets a chance, regardless of
beginning semester jitters.
Carl Childress
Edinburg
via the Internet
