TUESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1997

Grading minimum supported

To the editor:

This is in response to the letter from Charles Zaremba published Aug. 8. I couldn't get past the first sentence: "Inflating grades is a well-known practice among many of the Valley's schools." Well-known by whom? "Many" equals how many? "Valley's schools" equals which ones?

He argues that a "typical" freshman class in a 5-A school has about 1,000 students, but only 500 graduate. He implies that schools falsify records. "Creative" bookkeeping is a felony, whether in a bank or a high school. Mr. Zaremba's point, of course, is that those 500 students are dropouts. His figures are wrong.

The dropout rate last year at Donna High School was 1.7 percent! Out of 2,500, about 43 students withdrew with no intention to enroll in another school. That's a "fact" reported to the Texas Education Agency. If that figure is grossly in error, somebody's going to jail.

What caused the uproar? It was the McAllen school district's proposal to change its grading policy, to whit: No student will receive lower than 50 on the report card for the first six weeks of work.

As a teacher since 1965, I say, amen, brother, amen.

Simple humanity and simpler math explain the policy. Students who can't pass are discipline problems in that class and throughout the school. Even if a student gets 50 the first grading period, he must make typically 77 the next two six-weeks and his final to get credit. "Give 'em what they make" results in kiddos needing 85 or 90 each grading period to pass. Those students live out the term in perpetual despair, angry at their teachers, the school, the world.

The 50 minimum ensures that every student gets a chance, regardless of beginning semester jitters.

Carl Childress
Edinburg
via the Internet




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