This is why open enrollment and 50% minimum grades need to stop

[Anonymous]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/69e8a356-393a-11ee-be2e-0cc7309dc5b8?shareToken=3a5551270297afd4971127896429e48f

Colleges in the UK are experiencing record drop-out rates ending up in students saddled with debt and no degree due to lax grading policies.

We have the same thing here in districts that adhere to open enrollment policies and 50% minimum grades.

Open enrollment is purportedly designed to prevent teacher bias from shutting out students from courses, but in fact ensures that students who aren't ready for the course will sign up for it anyway, resulting in pressure on teachers to lower standards and/or inflate grades while the student learns little or nothing. If you're worried about teacher bias , give all students automatically graded competency exams that they have to score specific grades on to enroll in specific classes.

It doesn't help disadvantaged students in the long run to just give them a pass. Everyone has to show competency at some point down the line. It's also deeply prejudicial to cast a shadow on the achievement of bright, hardworking students from disadvantaged backgrounds who absolutely belong in those courses and legitimately earned their grade to lump them in with privileged but not too bright nor studious kids who also milk these policies.

50% minima also outrageously inflate averages and mask lack of mastery.

These policies are bad for the country on so many levels.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

Huh??????

[Anonymous]

Wut

[Anonymous]

All this says is some UK schools need to do a better job managing admissions. Nothing else you said is valid and your need for a bell curve in grading is peculiar.

[Anonymous]

And BTW, any comparison of our system to the UK’s is ridiculous. Students taking A-level are on university track to begin with. They are by definition not open enrollment. The dummies do O-levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this says is some UK schools need to do a better job managing admissions. Nothing else you said is valid and your need for a bell curve in grading is peculiar.

NP. Making classes test-in rather than open enrollment is not a bell curve?

Your post is unresponsive. So I guess you have no real support for open enrollment or 50% rules, just attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And BTW, any comparison of our system to the UK’s is ridiculous. Students taking A-level are on university track to begin with. They are by definition not open enrollment. The dummies do O-levels.

So you're saying that students in the US on college prep tracks or taking AP are no comparison? Buncha dummies? Or did you have a different point?

[Anonymous]

OP may not have been clear but they have a valid point. Minimum grade of 50% along with the push for equitable grading has resulted in grade inflation in almost all public schools. That combined with open enrollment in AP classes tends to have those classes move slower, hence the constant nagging from parents to start school in mid-August or earlier so their little darling can do well on the AP exam.

Education needs to be returned to a meritocracy in the US, as it is in the UK. Have you kid take a semester or year abroad at a quality UK university and they will see how easy they have it in the US.

[Anonymous]

My public school kids work hard, don't drop out and deserve their diploma. They took/will take multiple APs and avoid "on-level" classes which are remedial these days. One is in college.

You've got to know how to work the system, whatever system it is. I'm European and studied in the UK and France. Over there too, you need to work their system! It's never a full meritocracy, people. Obviously we want to push for as much transparency as possible, but "fairness" is a complex subject. When you try to be fair to some people, you end up being less fair to others.

So I can't get too excited about this, OP. Just deal with your own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP may not have been clear but they have a valid point. Minimum grade of 50% along with the push for equitable grading has resulted in grade inflation in almost all public schools. That combined with open enrollment in AP classes tends to have those classes move slower, hence the constant nagging from parents to start school in mid-August or earlier so their little darling can do well on the AP exam.

Education needs to be returned to a meritocracy in the US, as it is in the UK. Have you kid take a semester or year abroad at a quality UK university and they will see how easy they have it in the US.

+1 DH is from the UK, and he was telling our kids how the grading was done in his school there, and it was so much tougher than here. Universities were meant for serious students.

Today, both here and there, it's now become a business. The "everyone should have a degree" is not working. It just makes the degrees meaningless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My public school kids work hard, don't drop out and deserve their diploma. They took/will take multiple APs and avoid "on-level" classes which are remedial these days. One is in college.

You've got to know how to work the system, whatever system it is. I'm European and studied in the UK and France. Over there too, you need to work their system! It's never a full meritocracy, people. Obviously we want to push for as much transparency as possible, but "fairness" is a complex subject. When you try to be fair to some people, you end up being less fair to others.

So I can't get too excited about this, OP. Just deal with your own kids.

OP. I'm a teacher, and my kids graduated long before this nonsense. They always had top grades so this wouldn't even have applied to them, except that if their class was too slow or not on level, people like me could supplement. The poor but bright and hardworking kids whose families can't supplement are the ones hurt when standards are lowered. And kids who aren't well prepared don't do well in college.

[Anonymous]

50% is an F. An F is an F. Is an F.

you want to demand some kind of Super F?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:50% is an F. An F is an F. Is an F.

you want to demand some kind of Super F?

This always comes up in these types of discussions. Students don't just get one grade in a school year. A 50 for an assignment that doesn't deserve a 50 or is not even attempted gets averaged with other grades that may be higher, so that the student passes while doing a fraction of the work required. In my district, homework is 10%. That means that a kid who blindly copies homework answers all year is at a 60 and needs just 4% to pass, even if he/she is scoring 10% on assessments. Add in a couple of projects and bingo--the student passes for the year.

You have to realize that teaching less, slowing things down, and passing everybody makes my life much much easier. But it's not good for students.

[Anonymous]

Occam’s razor, the dropout rate is up in the UK because UK unemployment is down.