Education without Limits

I am still trying to wrap my mind around the following new policy in the Dallas school system, as summarized today by the Dallas Morning News:

• Homework grades should be given only when the grades will “raise a student’s average, not lower it.”
• Teachers must accept overdue assignments, and their principal will decide whether students are to be penalized for missing deadlines.
• Students who flunk tests can retake the exam and keep the higher grade.
• Teachers cannot give a zero on an assignment unless they call parents and make “efforts to assist students in completing the work.”

No, this is not a practical joke. It is a case of city school officials doing something intolerable for teachers who see their job as a vocation. First, the new policy sends a completely wrong message to students, thereby giving them false expectations about life. Second, it tells teachers that the administration will henceforth not treat them as professionals and stand behind their judgement on matters that relate to the classroom and individual student performance.

As Ender of Red Monkey writes, “Apparently, deadlines no longer matter. Turning in crappy homework does not matter. Flunking a test doesn’t matter.” She observes that teachers sometimes need to make exceptions to the rules, but these occur on an individual basis and depend on context. She also points to how teachers could get stuck with an endless cycle of grading and evaluation, long after a topic was supposed to be covered and the students are learning other material in the classroom.

And principals are supposed to decide on penalties for missed deadlines? How will they get their other, real work done?

Denise Collier, chief academic officer for the school district, justifies the new policy thusly: “The purpose behind it is to ensure fair and credible evaluation of learning—from grade to grade and school to school.”

Sorry, but I’m not buying it. It’s more like the new policy was designed specifically to erect a shiny Potemkin village of academic fairness that in reality hobbles the school system and hurts student achievement.