Pittsburgh takes a dump on education

It's been awhile, I can't sleep, and even though I posted this on Facebook, I think it merits repetition, even if it's late-night, drowsy, nonsensical repetition.

A post appeared on Slashdot today titled, "Students Are Always Half Right In Pittsburgh. A curious title, but what's truly astounding is what the article is about. Apparently, Pittsburgh public schools are, in a no-child-left-behind fashion, are going to be limiting the lower bound on grades to 50%. Seriously.

The reason is relatively obvious; the Post-Gazette article quotes a spokesperson saying, "We want to create situations where students can recover and not give up." Quite a noble reason, I suppose. Yet, the consequences seem to be alarming. Wait, no they aren't, because "it's not grade inflation." Guess that settles that. Or not. Slashdot commenter Jason Pollock explains just how bad this system actually is. Essentially, you can easily get a passing grade, with very, very little effort. The example is somewhat incorrect, since grades are done differently than simple overall percentages, but the effect is the same.

I don't know how this managed to come about, given the fairly obvious ethical concerns, never mind the fact that you only need a 20% in each grading period to pass a class. It scares me that so many high level officials in the Pittsburgh area seem to agree with institution of this policy. The solution to the goal thoroughly destroys the essence of a proper education. Incentive to actually learn material is diminished, when students are always "half right" anyway. There aren't many ideas that I can think of that would be less apt to striving for "Excellence for All."

It's not like trying to help students boost their grades is a new subject. Giving free points for no work is simply not the correct answer. One district made students redo homeworks until it was A or B material. While I think this could be a good idea, to some extent, it sounded like they actually were given an A or B in the end. While it's great that they learn the material, grades don't mean much if everyone gets an A or B. The basic concept, however, I agree with: Give students opportunities to make up bad scores, rather than just giving them away for free. Giving remedial homeworks, allowing a redo of homeworks for added partial credit, or some forms of extra credit are all better, logical, ethical alternatives. I just hope that this decision is contained, if not reversed.