Having trouble in school?

Gwahir

<div class="IPBDescription">Move to Pittsburgh!</div><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08266/914029-298.stm" target="_blank">Minimum score set to 50 in Pittsburgh schools</a>


Personally, I think this is a horrible idea. There are many ways to reward improvement, but this is basically removing the need to work for a lot of students. It also fails at enforcing the idea of consequences.

Faskalia

So, they still fail, but it looks better?

Gwahir

well, if your min is 50, and you get the occasional passing grade, you pass, even when you should fail.

Nil_IQ

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->At the same time, they said, the 50 percent minimum gives children a chance to catch up and a reason to keep trying. If a student gets a 20 percent in a class for the first marking period, Ms. Pugh said, he or she would need a 100 percent during the second marking period just to squeak through the semester.

"We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up," she said, adding a sense of helplessness can lead to behavior and attendance problems.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I can see the "logic" in play here; they don't want students to end up in a position where its impossible, or really difficult to catch up with their grades should they fall behind. The pretty obvious flaw in this line of thinking is that a student who falls behind in the first place is far less likely to be the kind of student who <i>wants</i> to catch up.

If no-one is allowed to fail then where's the value in success?