26 September 2018

School doesn't allow grades of zero

Mrs. Tirado has been a teacher for more than 17 years. The 52-year-old began working at West Gate K-8 School this year as an eighth-grade social studies teacher.

She says she gave her students two weeks to complete an explorer’s notebook project but says some of them didn’t turn it in.

That’s when she says she learned about a no-zero grading policy, written in red in the school’s handbook, stating, “NO ZERO’S – LOWEST POSSIBLE GRADE IS 50%.”

Tirado says this sends the wrong message...
Her Sept. 14 termination letter doesn’t cite a specific reason, only stating she was contracted as a teacher on a probation period, and that she can be dismissed without cause.
The rest of the story is at the local ABC News affiliate.  The unnecessary apostrophe in the policy isn't discussed.

15 comments:

  1. The school denied it has this policy. We shall see.

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    1. It's possible there's more of a backstory than the local news channel was able to obtain.

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    2. More here -

      https://www.ksat.com/news/district-blasts-fired-teacher-says-there-is-more-to-story

      I may need to delete the post. As you say - we shall see.

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    3. "Tirade posted an update on her Facebook page Tuesday"...a bit of a Freudian slip by the reporter there? :)

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  2. I got all choked up, that leap from the third person to the first left me emotionally upset, dizzy and confused.
    I would have fired her if I had seen that letter, obviously in a 'Back to the Future' way.

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  3. The idea behind no-zero grading is to prevent students failing by ensuring that if they work very hard they can bring that 50% up to passing by the end of the grading period. And if that is the objective, instead of education, it sometimes works, though smart students understand how little they need to do to pass. Quite common policy in Texas schools.

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    1. But in this case the teacher is talking about not being able to give a '0/100' for turning in nothing at all. It isn't that they worked hard it 'failed' but rather that they didn't do anything, literally anything, at all.

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  4. I'm curious how a 17 year teacher is considered a contract worker, subject of a no-cause firing.

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  5. The whole contract thing about teaching in Florida is one of the most one-sided and, frankly, WRONG things that have been foisted upon education. In a nutshell, let's say that you have a principal who is a flaming liberal...and you keep wearing your MAGA hat to school. Or vice versa. That principal can simply decide not to renew your contract, and unless you have completed three years at that school, you lose your job. Period. Further, the principal doesn't have to explain AT ALL why a teacher has lost their job--EVEN THOUGH THAT TEACHER WILL HAVE A HARD TIME LANDING ANOTHER TEACHING JOB IF THEY AFFIRM THAT, INDEED, THEY HAVE NOT HAD A CONTRACT RENEWED!

    How do I know? I am a Florida teacher. A pretty good one, apparently, until a a principal decided that to not renew my contract. I wonder if it was because I was almost lost my leg and life in a 40 day stay in the hospital? Don't know--since they don't have to say.

    Now, consider how this plays on our civil rights? A principal can't stand that "uppity black" teacher? No problem. Just don't renew their contract. Or perhaps one of the attractive teachers did not respond to the principals flirtation? Don't renew the contract. Or maybe the principal really can't stand gay people? You can get rid of the problem.

    The truth is that whole contract thing in Florida allows a school to "fire" anyone for any reason (so long as they haven't been there three years and received what is called a "professional contract," which means they can only be fired for cause). No matter how repugnant the reason, it doesn't have to be discussed, mentioned, and certainly not documented!

    Thankfully, I wound up in better circumstances anyway (thank the Lord!). But I have never ceased to feel deeply wronged. I was a good teacher, but for whatever reason, I was let go. It's not called that, of course. And if other schools didn't read a non-renewal as a bad thing, and didn't flag you for having a non-renewal, it would be fine. Instead, it causes you to likely lose many opportunities to continue doing what many felt you were doing quite well...except the one person who really mattered.

    As for the zero thing.... I gave zeroes. In fact, I invented a thing called The Four Zeroes--things which would earn a student an immediate (but recoverable) zero: 1) failing to capitalize the beginning of a sentence; 2) failing to capitalize "I" in all it's forms (I, I'll, I've, I'm, I'd, etc.)--you'd be surprised at how many middle schoolers make those mistakes; 3) failing to capitalize a proper noun (which meant they would have to write it correctly 50 times to recover their "real" grade--unless they misspelled Tennessee, my home state, for which they had to write it correctly 100 times! and 4) failure to use their resources--e.g., If a test question read "What major river drains into the Mississippi River?" and the student, in their written response, misspelled "Mississippi," when it right there in front of them...automatic zero.

    Like I said, all of these were recoverable--and virtually every student recovered them. But it quickly eliminated the some of the biggest mistakes I observed in student writing.

    I also didn't allow recovery after a report card was issued (despite some schools wanting that). Instead, I offered a "pre-report card recovery." After all, no kid wants to take home a bad grade. Yes, they had to write, perhaps, 200 key facts from our history studies 2-3 times. But since they didn't get a passing grade while I was teaching it, then perhaps they might "get it" by writing key facts over and over.

    In any case, enough venting from me. I am still a blessed person despite some curves being thrown at me.

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    Replies
    1. Apparently, no zeroes for writing its with an apostrophe?

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    2. Modern grammar has eliminated the apostrophe in "its" as a possessive pronoun. Now it's only apostrophized when it's a contraction of "it is".

      https://www.scribendi.com/advice/using_apostrophes.en.html
      Scroll down to "When NOT to use an apostrophe".

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  6. No matter the backstory, her handwriting is abysmal.

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  7. It's Florida, a "right to work" state meaning no unions. I was fired from a University for failing students who did not show up for final exams. Of course, it is a business...If I was a Doctor, I could probably get fired for discharging a terminally ill patient.

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  8. 'failing to capitalize "I" in all it's [sic] forms'

    Another victim of Muphry's Law [sic!--look it up!].

    Lurker111

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    1. Guilty! Of course, you failed to capitalize the first letter of your post, as well as failed to use capital termination for that same sentence, as well as placed an apostrophe after "forms." Looks like Murphy is out to wreck us all! (SMILE)

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