high schools without 50% minimum grade

[Anonymous]

Hello

I am interested in high schools in the DMV that can give grades lower than 50% when they are deserved.
Does every public school have this minimum grade policy?
Are there private schools that also have this minimum grade policy? Or maybe it's not explicitly written down, but teachers are expected to pass everyone?

I'm sure there are people out there who like the 50% minimum policy and I think you should go with what works for you, no judgment.
But where can a high-school aged child go if the family wants traditional grading for accuracy?

Thank you, and my apologies if this is already covered by another thread.

[Anonymous]

Catholic schools typically don't have lower grade thresholds. Ask me how I know! My DS had a 28% in algebra in 9th grade. He only passed with a 72% but that was after months of hard work and going to get extra math help during his free periods. No retakes either.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your reply!

[Anonymous]

You would have to go to private school.

[Anonymous]

The 50% minimum is to protect students with missing assignments, so that they can still recover and pass. It has no impact on students who do their work -- they can still get Cs and Ds for sub quality work. So why do you care?

[Anonymous]

My kids are at a private school and no minimum grade

[Anonymous]

FCPS has a hybrid policy. If kids do not turn in the assignment, it is a 0. If they turn in something, even if it is incorrect, they get a 50%. The idea is that it gives a kid some room to recover their grade.

My teacher friends tell me that most of those 0s stay 0s, kids are not turning in something to get the 50%. It is possible that some schools are keeping the 50% for all kids but I am hearing less of that happening.

The 50% came out of COVID and is slowly rolling back.

[Anonymous]

What about when the kids that abuse the rule on a daily basis ( I would say the number is 25% in honors classes and 75% in no honors), become the catalysts for the entire classroom to be loud and obnoxious so everyone's work and learning is stifled. All because a new rule is we have to give you credit for nothing and it is impossible to give detention or any negative consequences. Basically with this 50% rule incentivizes students to have the option of saying "screw it" and then still getting credit like something was turned in. Then you will get to a grade grubbing system where they do 20 % of the assignment so they want a 70% because 50+ 20 = 70. Teaching kids that nothing equals half is a bad lesson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about when the kids that abuse the rule on a daily basis ( I would say the number is 25% in honors classes and 75% in no honors), become the catalysts for the entire classroom to be loud and obnoxious so everyone's work and learning is stifled. All because a new rule is we have to give you credit for nothing and it is impossible to give detention or any negative consequences. Basically with this 50% rule incentivizes students to have the option of saying "screw it" and then still getting credit like something was turned in. Then you will get to a grade grubbing system where they do 20 % of the assignment so they want a 70% because 50+ 20 = 70. Teaching kids that nothing equals half is a bad lesson.

Are you a hs teacher? Because I am, and this is not my experience.

Especially with the idea that 70% of their grade is summative assignments, lazily futzing through busy work isn’t salvaging their grade. 50% on everything is still a failure.

[Anonymous]

Yes I am a teacher. So you know that all of us teachers will be pressured at the end of the semester to make makeup packets so we can say 2 hours of work is the exact same as a semester of studying hard. I'd say this type of normalization of doing the minimum is creating lazy entitled brats.

[Anonymous]

My son’s Catholic HS doesn’t have a minimum grade policy. He had a 28% or so in 9th grade algebra 1 after the midterm. He went to daily math help at school and I got a tutor once a week. He managed to bring the grade up into the mid 70s or so with a lot of hard work. He really didn’t want to repeat the class in summer school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes I am a teacher. So you know that all of us teachers will be pressured at the end of the semester to make makeup packets so we can say 2 hours of work is the exact same as a semester of studying hard. I'd say this type of normalization of doing the minimum is creating lazy entitled brats.

I'm also a teacher and this is not how the policy works at my school. Assignments are graded, and then the policy applies. So a 20% becomes a 50%. A 50% becomes a 50%. A 60% is a 60%.

Also, I say this with sincerity as a colleague, it sounds like it might be time to step away from the classroom. I certainly understand frustration with the job. I have it too. But referring to your students as lazy entitled brats because you can't motivate them to stop being disruptive long enough to participate in graded assignments is not appropriate. I urge you to find a better option for your own sanity! Maybe even another school system where you don't have so much administrative involvement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 50% minimum is to protect students with missing assignments, so that they can still recover and pass. It has no impact on students who do their work -- they can still get Cs and Ds for sub quality work. So why do you care?

NP.

Why so defensive?

[Anonymous]

What happens if admin and my union want to fire me for not falling in line. They kids attack their teachers and administration blames the teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if admin and my union want to fire me for not falling in line. They kids attack their teachers and administration blames the teachers.

If you’re following policy and documenting everything professionally, and the administration tries to fire you? Then you call your union rep.