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2024-07-13 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Minnesota public school district abolishes pandemic-era 'equitable' grading

[JUSTTHENEWS] A Minnesota school district is finally giving its students back the freedom to fail.

Rochester Public Schools implemented a "no credit" grading policy in 2020, in hopes of helping failing students who were struggling with virtual learning. Now, four years later, the district has overturned their policy to increase student accountability.

"Deciding that basic levels of effort were not necessary — because it wasn't going to show up in their GPA and they never got the very recognizable symbol of an ’F’ — there was a subset of kids who were seeing that possibility as a reason not to meet some level of basic requirements," Superintendent Kent Pekel said Monday.

Pekel, superintendent since 2021, said the old policy didn’t provide a clear picture to parents of how their students were doing, and did not count toward their grade point average. With a return to giving F's, the district hopes to raise student standards.

This is not the first policy Pekel has repealed, seeking to reverse the course of former Superintendent Michael Muñoz.

The previous administration implemented the now-overturned "Grading for Learning," which allowed for unlimited quiz retakes and did not count participation or homework as a part of grading. For the 2023-24 school year, teachers can now base up to 30% of their grade on in-class and at-home participation.

"If you give kids no credit for being ready for a test, and instead they take a test and then study it because they can take any number of retakes; or you never give points for class participation or homework — especially in a pandemic when kids were disconnected from school and a lot of social norms broke down — you had a disincentive to engage in the practice side of learning," Pekel said.

Posted by Fred & Skidmark 2024-07-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11136 views ] Top

#1
I have to wonder how many are walking around with a:

"I attended a Rochester Public School"

diplomas?

Posted by NN2N1 2024-07-13 04:40|| 2024-07-13 04:40|| Front Page Top

#2 ^"Your honor, please consider the circumstances: I have attended a Rochester Public School - I'm a victim!

Posted by Grom the Reflective 2024-07-13 04:53|| 2024-07-13 04:53|| Front Page Top

#3 In the before condition, students had to pass the test at some point of the endless retakes. In the after condition, teachers can max out homework and class participation scores to pass students who haven’t learned the material. I predict that the after condition will be worse than the current no grade state.

Posted by Super Hose 2024-07-13 08:59|| 2024-07-13 08:59|| Front Page Top

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