Dallas ISD's New Grading Policies ....

Dallas schools plan to ease grading standards angers teachers

12:36 AM CDT on Saturday, August 16, 2008
By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News
kfischer@dallasnews.com

Dallas public school students who flunk tests, blow off homework and miss assignment deadlines can make up the work without penalty, under new rules that have angered many teachers.

The new rules will be distributed when teachers return to their campuses next week. But many who have already seen the regulations say they are too lenient on slackers, and will come at the expense of kids who work hard.

For example, the new rules require teachers to accept late work and prevent them from penalizing students for missed deadlines. Homework grades that would drag down a student's overall average will be thrown out.

Dallas ISD defends changes in grading policy :

School officials said the new guidelines are needed to ensure that all district teachers operate under the same rules and to create a "fair system" for grading students.

"The purpose behind it is to ensure fair and credible evaluation of learning – from grade to grade and school to school," said Denise Collier, the district's chief academic officer.

Some teachers said the new rules offer kids too many loopholes.

"It's like we're sending the message to kids that deadlines don't matter, studying is optional, and no matter how little you do, you're still [going to] pass all your classes anyway," said Ray Cox, who teaches world languages at Franklin Middle School.

The intent may have been to create a uniform grading policy, but the result was to lower standards, said Dale Kaiser, president of the teachers' group NEA-Dallas.

The school board and superintendent "talk about elevating standards and holding high expectations for kids, but we're telling the kids that whether they do the work or not is irrelevant," he said.

The new guidelines were developed by district staff and did not require school board approval.

District records state that the changes are part of a switch to "effort-based" grading and are designed to give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate that they've mastered class material. Requiring teachers to contact parents instead of awarding zeros is designed to increase home-school communications, according to district materials presented recently to principals. Retests and deadline extensions are meant to motivate students to do better after initial failure.

Some of the rules are similar to those in place in nearby districts, but many of the district's new rules appear to be unique.

For example, teachers in Allen ISD can give zeros at their discretion. In Richardson and Fort Worth ISDs, teachers grade homework without regard to whether it will lower a student's overall class average. In Grand Prairie, students automatically incur substantial penalties for turning in late work.

Last school year, Dallas' board of trustees reaffirmed a policy that prevented teachers from giving students a grade lower than a 50 in any one grading period. The reason given was that students who fall below 50 have no hope or motivation to bring up their grades and just give up.

During the discussion, trustees asked administrators to develop standardized grading rules for elementary, middle and high school teachers.

Those rules were finalized this summer and have been sent to principals. Copies of the new rules were posted on The Dallas Morning News' DISD blog Wednesday.

Teacher reaction was swift and overwhelmingly negative.

One recent DISD graduate commented that he thought the new rules would give students the wrong impression of how businesses operate.

"Babying the rules so that [students] have almost unlimited chances to pass, that's unreal," said Joshua Perry, a 2007 graduate of Skyline High School. "In the real world, you don't get a whole lot of chances or other ways to make something up."


Staff writer Tawnell D. Hobbs, Stella M. Chávez and Karin Shaw Anderson contributed to this report.

Key points in DISD’s new grading policy:

•Homework grades should be given only when the grades will "raise a student's average, not lower it."

•Teachers must accept overdue assignments, and their principal will decide whether students are to be penalized for missing deadlines.

•Students who flunk tests can retake the exam and keep the higher grade.

•Teachers cannot give a zero on an assignment unless they call parents and make "efforts to assist students in completing the work."

SOURCE: Dallas ISD records

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Jacquielynn Floyd: Comments on DISD's New Grading Policies ....


New DISD grading policy, like, totally awesome

02:55 PM CDT on Friday, August 15, 2008

"Dude, you know what would be really cool? It would be so completely awesome if you didn't do some lame, like, world history report and you could just tell the teacher, ‘Chill, I'll get to it later,' and they, like, couldn't do anything to you!"

"That would be so excellent! You know what else would be, like, completely off the hook? If you got something like, a 12 on your language arts homework ... ."

"The rule says you can't get less than a 50, dog. Misty told me they changed the rules last year so that's the worst grade in the whole DISD."

"Who made that rule?"

"The principal, I guess. I dunno, maybe it was the mayor."

"You did get a 50 on your language arts homework. You left it in my car."

"Whatev. Anyway, what would be real awesome would be when you got a 50, they weren't allowed to count it in your grade! Those teachers would be so totally cheesed!"

"That would be so completely cool. Also it would be cool if, like, those clueless teachers …. "

"Except not Mrs. Schneider, she's hot …."

"OK, not Mrs. Schneider. But those other stupid teachers had to let you take a test again until you, like, passed it. Hey, quit hogging the bong!"

"Shut up. What if, like, when you didn't read that guy's book – that Steinbeck dude …"

"Chuck read it. He said it was good."

"Well, if you want to read books and do homework all the time like Mister Lame Pathetic Chuck, go ahead. Gimme a light."

"Listen, here's what else would be seriously, really, awesomely cool: If they couldn't give you a zero for anything. It would be completely not allowed! I could be, like, ‘Look at me! I didn't do any homework for, like, a very long time …. "

"Like from Halloween to Christmas!"

"Yeah, that long, and they couldn't give me a zero! Irregardless! So we could go, like, to some big college without doing any homework!"

"A party college!"

"Most def! Everybody would have really good grades so you could go to any college you wanted. Someplace in Los Angeles, like Princeton."

"That would be so cool! We could party at Princeton with movie stars' kids – they have the best weed."

"Yeah, and when you go to a famous college, you can be like, a bank president or a judge or some rich guy. And if they can't ever give you bad grades, you can go to any college you want!"

"Awesome! I could be a political dude like … a senator."

"A Texas senator or an American senator?"

"They're the same thing, fool. Anyway, I could be one."

"That would be so completely amazing! You could be on TV!"

"Or I could be like that science guy on TV. You know, he does experiments and stuff. And he's really famous! I saw him on a T-shirt."

"What did you get on your science report?"

"A 50. Mr. Farber said I copied it off Wikipedia."

"You should have written it in your own writing instead of giving him a printout."

"So what? Do you know one single person in the world who cares about viruses and bacteria? Like that's ever going to have anything to do with real life!"

"It would be so cool if all the stuff you don't need to know anyway – science and history …."

"And government! Government sucks!"

"…If none of that stuff counted on your final grades. So the stuff nobody cares about didn't count."

"God, that would be so totally awesome! Hey, let's order a pizza."

"You know what would be cool, dude? If pizza was free."

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I often disagree with Ms. Floyd and her opinions .... however this one she nailed!! In fact, I might take it one step further andf ask if the people who created this policy might also have been sharing a bong???