Teacher says she was fired for giving zeroes to students who didn't turn in their work

[ch33zw1z]

That what happens when Progressheviks need to give everyone safe space participation trophies.

I can tell you don't have kids. The problems illustrated in this situation is not really about the kids, it's about administration bean counters fudging numbers to look good on paper, which in the end will likely yield a substandard education, and then we end up with imbeciles such as yourself.

 

[balloonshark]

If I knew I could pick and choose getting a 50% for not handing in a paper/project I would have skipped drawing that geography world map project with over 1000 items back in my first year of junior high. I still can't believe our teacher went through each student's map and marked each thing we missed.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Kids don't exactly get held back any more and most parents are either incompetent or working too much to raise their kids right (or both).

It's worse than that, this isn't parent apathy. This is parental demand that their snowflakes are special and any system that does not pass them is automatically to blame. If parents see that their kids last four projects were not even turned in it's not the kids fault for being lazy and it's not the parents fault for being busy. It's the teachers fault because their kids are not getting the attention they need. And it's the schools fault for not supervising the teacher. And it's the districts fault for not overseeing the school. And it's the states fault for allowing a rogue district to exist in the first place. It's the fault of anyone else and everyone else, just not them or their shithead kids.

 

[Phynaz]

We can't have children failing, now can we? Everyone gets a ribbon, now everyone gets a diploma. Everyone is a winner!

So incredibly glad my kids didn't get their education from the disaster public school system.

 

[dasherHampton]

My grade school kind of did this, but in a different way. We were almost immediately separated into groups that reflected our ability to learn.

We had reading groups, math groups, history groups etc. that sat in corners of the room, and the teacher would move around from group to group. If you worked hard and outshone your group mates you would move up to the next group. It was always a big deal when someone did. The top kid in each group was the group leader.

The groups of lowest achievement were graded more easily than the higher groups. A student in the bottom group could easily get a passing grade in the context of their group but would have struggled achieve a passing one in the highest group. It was almost impossible for someone in the lowest group to fail iirc.

Everyone got a passing grade, everyone was happy, and slower kids didn't bog down the quicker ones.

 

[Phynaz]

="dasherHampton, post: 39586464, member: 412761"
Everyone got a passing grade, everyone was happy

We're they happy with the education they received when they tried to support themselves with it?

 

[dasherHampton]

I have no idea, man. I didn't stay friends with those people once I got out of grade school.

I know they did learn to read and write and do arithmetic, even if only at a basic level. So that's something.

 

[pauldun170]

Out of curiosity, pulled up the policies we have in place for our district.
In our policy, if your kid earns a zero, they get a zero. The teachers make the call. The only ones who can change it are the Principal or the asst superintendent and they have to explain why to the BOE or Superintendent.

 

[fskimospy]

I would be interested to see if this was actually the school's policy or if there were other nuances to it. My mom worked for 20 years at one of the toughest school districts in the country, one that was desperate to show improvement in student achievement. She did get pressure to allow kids to turn in assignments late and to grade kids more leniently sometimes but they never had anything like a 'no zero' policy.

Not saying it didn't happen but if it's right there in red in the handbook someone should be able to show that very easily.

 

[Viper1j]

https://abc3340.com/news/nation-wor...didnt-turn-in-their-work-09-25-2018-134627104

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (WPEC) — A teacher in Port St. Lucie, Florida claims she was fired for refusing to give students partial credit for work that is never handed in.

“I got fired. I was packing my stuff, and I was not going to see the kids,” Diane Tirado said.

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%.”



What kind of insanity is this? How does it help the kids at all? It seems like a ridiculous policy designed to inflate the school districts numbers. The superintendent can go wow look at the big improvement we're making! But then the kids get to college or work and it's going to be a tough lesson to learn.

And this would be why Florida is full of retards.

 

[Phynaz]

I just read an article about a college director that thinks public schools shouldn't use standardized testing and should be able to choose what tests they want to use.

Gotta keep those graduation rates high! Forget that schools are supposed to provide an education, push 'em out the door!

 

[fskimospy]

I looked into it more and there is a copy of the 'no zero' policy but there also appears to be an option for 'incomplete' when people get below 50% for which they simply get a zero for the course. It's hard to be sure though. If they consider below 50% simply incomplete that could be defensible but if they are saying kids should get a 50% for work they are not turning in as this teacher claims that's ridiculous.

 

[fskimospy]

I just read an article about a college director that thinks public schools shouldn't use standardized testing and should be able to choose what tests they want to use.

Gotta keep those graduation rates high! Forget that schools are supposed to provide an education, push 'em out the door!

This is actually an incredibly smart idea that all school districts should adopt!!!

1) Standardized tests are fundamentally flawed because there is no overall agreement on the goal of education.
2) These tests are generally poor measures of future student success.
3) These tests are often poorly tailored to the highest-need students.
4) Using standardized tests as a primary measure of school quality forces lower performing schools to waste incredible amounts of instructional time drilling kids instead of actually teaching them.
5) That sort of monotonous, rote memorization deadens kids' desire to learn.

I think that not only should we get rid of standardized testing, we should also get rid of things like Teach for America as local communities should be empowered to teach their own kids. The main problem with public education today is that we depend on the taxes of rich people to fund the education of poor children. The rich people, not unreasonably, want to know where their tax dollars are going so people devise standardized tests as a requirement for funding. These tests get out of control and poor schools spend all their time trying to keep their testing heads above water, preventing them from engaging with their students in more effective ways.

Standardized tests are very bad and an incredible waste of everyone's time and effort. That doesn't mean there should be NO standards for education but these tests should be drastically scaled back. Like 90% or more.

 

[Homerboy]

I love how so many in here are painting every kid and every parent and every teacher and every school administration with the same wide, all encompassing brush.
It really speaks volumes for how people see the world.

 

[Phynaz]

This is actually an incredibly smart idea that all school districts should adopt!!!

It's a ridiculous idea. Schools would continue to lower standards so they can show a high graduation rate.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that 50 percent of U.S. adults can't read a book written at an eighth-grade level.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ing-in-plain-sight-the-adult-literacy-crisis/

 

[UglyCasanova]

I love how so many in here are painting every kid and every parent and every teacher and every school administration with the same wide, all encompassing brush.
It really speaks volumes for how people see the world.

What brush are we painting them with

 

[realibrad]

I love how so many in here are painting every kid and every parent and every teacher and every school administration with the same wide, all encompassing brush.
It really speaks volumes for how people see the world.

Sadly its how the world works.

Dems are all hippies. Repubs are all molesters. Short people are angry.

 

[realibrad]

What brush are we painting them with

An eye brush.

 

[fskimospy]

It's a ridiculous idea. Schools would continue to lower standards so they can show a high graduation rate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ing-in-plain-sight-the-adult-literacy-crisis/

It's a ridiculously smart idea. Standardized tests are making education WORSE, not better. Did you miss the part where standardized tests don't do a good job of measuring outcomes anyway? ie: the quality of education?

Teachers are forced to drill meaningless bullshit about sentence construction when they could actually be teaching their kids how to read and think. I don't know if you know anyone who works in urban education but I would be amazed if you could find one who thinks that standardized tests are improving the quality of education.

 

[pauldun170]

This is actually an incredibly smart idea that all school districts should adopt!!!

1) Standardized tests are fundamentally flawed because there is no overall agreement on the goal of education.
2) These tests are generally poor measures of future student success.
3) These tests are often poorly tailored to the highest-need students.
4) Using standardized tests as a primary measure of school quality forces lower performing schools to waste incredible amounts of instructional time drilling kids instead of actually teaching them.
5) That sort of monotonous, rote memorization deadens kids' desire to learn.

I think that not only should we get rid of standardized testing, we should also get rid of things like Teach for America as local communities should be empowered to teach their own kids. The main problem with public education today is that we depend on the taxes of rich people to fund the education of poor children. The rich people, not unreasonably, want to know where their tax dollars are going so people devise standardized tests as a requirement for funding. These tests get out of control and poor schools spend all their time trying to keep their testing heads above water, preventing them from engaging with their students in more effective ways.

Standardized tests are very bad and an incredible waste of everyone's time and effort. That doesn't mean there should be NO standards for education but these tests should be drastically scaled back. Like 90% or more.

I'm not disagreeing or agreeing with you but did just want to toss my 2 cents in since I have experience as a parent and active PTA member. That and we are friends with teachers\Principals\Professors and all that stuff.

We have always had some form of standardized testing.
We've had NY state Regents exams or ACT's or whatever for decades. SATs.
Now we have state tests where kids spend 2 days taking the assessment tests.
This is in addition to whatever final exam the Teacher has for the kids.
The state assessment test is there to measure the schools performance. It's up to the local district make the decisions on how to respond.
My kids spend zero time preparing for the state assessments. While our kids take it, most of the kids in our school opt out of it.
All the teachers I've dealt with have structured their class around teaching the kids the material that applies to the course\grade. Not test prep.

The thing that should be stressed is that it really comes down to the community, local BOE and individual districts in how they handle all this stuff. then you have the various crap from state to state where laws vary.

 

[Maxima1]

This is actually an incredibly smart idea that all school districts should adopt!!!

1) Standardized tests are fundamentally flawed because there is no overall agreement on the goal of education.
2) These tests are generally poor measures of future student success.
3) These tests are often poorly tailored to the highest-need students.

That's bullshit. Generally whoever does best on the tests do the best in university. That doesn't necessarily translate to better job performance, but what else in academia would?

The highest-need students would simply be challenged more, and it's impossible to teach one-on-one anyways. Standards have been coming down just so kids can score better. Kids today have a much better GPA average as a result than a few decades ago. I remember not really having to study at all in high school to get As (New York as well, which is suppose to be one of the better states), and I don't think I'm some kind of genius.

4) Using standardized tests as a primary measure of school quality forces lower performing schools to waste incredible amounts of instructional time drilling kids instead of actually teaching them.

5) That sort of monotonous, rote memorization deadens kids' desire to learn.

This is laughable. Let's use math as an example. You have a set of problems, and the teacher can go over each which generally resembles the problems they'll be tested on. Aimlessly just trying to get up critical thinking skills generally falls flat for those not in the highest quartile of IQ range. I always roll my eyes at instructors who get annoyed at university students getting help outside of class via services offered with knowledge on what's actually going to be on the test for that instructor. If they do better, at least they actually learned something rather than someone going through textbook/homework problems and finding out more than 50% don't even resemble the test questions.

I think that not only should we get rid of standardized testing, we should also get rid of things like Teach for America as local communities should be empowered to teach their own kids. The main problem with public education today is that we depend on the taxes of rich people to fund the education of poor children. The rich people, not unreasonably, want to know where their tax dollars are going so people devise standardized tests as a requirement for funding. These tests get out of control and poor schools spend all their time trying to keep their testing heads above water, preventing them from engaging with their students in more effective ways.

The teachers don't make the schools. The students make the schools. A lot of bullshit I encountered in high school and beyond had shit to do with standardized testing (e.g. ludicrously having high school students read pages of a book while in class).

 

[Puffnstuff]

These are the same kids that cannot pass a college entrance exam.

 

[fskimospy]

I'm not disagreeing or agreeing with you but did just want to toss my 2 cents in since I have experience as a parent and active PTA member. That and we are friends with teachers\Principals\Professors and all that stuff.

We have always had some form of standardized testing.
We've had NY state Regents exams or ACT's or whatever for decades. SATs.
Now we have state tests where kids spend 2 days taking the assessment tests.
This is in addition to whatever final exam the Teacher has for the kids.
The state assessment test is there to measure the schools performance. It's up to the local district make the decisions on how to respond.
My kids spend zero time preparing for the state assessments. While our kids take it, most of the kids in our school opt out of it.
All the teachers I've dealt with have structured their class around teaching the kids the material that applies to the course\grade. Not test prep.

The thing that should be stressed is that it really comes down to the community, local BOE and individual districts in how they handle all this stuff. then you have the various crap from state to state where laws vary.

First, like I said I don't think there should be no standards for education. Some degree of standardized tests are fine to maintain minimum standards but that's not what's being done in low performing districts. Second, I suspect you are in a school district that is considered high performing or at least decently performing and in those standardized tests don't do much damage at all because student aptitude is high enough that for the most part the district doesn't give a shit about the tests as they will be in no danger of 'failing'.

In NYS, schools that are considered low performing can be taken over by the state, putting their entire staff at risk to be fired and this designation is largely related to state math and ELA proficiency scores. Needless to say people don't want to get fired so what do they do? Jack up the test scores by any means possible. They know this is bad teaching but they feel they have no choice and in these schools you'll see a tremendous amount of time devoted to teaching the test as opposed to teaching what they think best represents the material that applies best to the course and their students.

 

[Moonbeam]

What if school is what destroys the love of learning?

 

[kn51]

First, like I said I don't think there should be no standards for education. Some degree of standardized tests are fine to maintain minimum standards but that's

Nice contradiction.