Posted on 08/26/2012 2:23:51 PM PDT by SMGFan
Passing math class is about to become just a tad easier for some 9,600 Bayonne public school students. After several months of preparation and discussion, Bayonne public school officials have decided to lower the passing grade in all classes from 70 to 65 as part of a three-year pilot program. The reason: success leads to more success, according to Bayonne school honchos. "We have very high expectations and standards for each one of our students," Superintendent of Schools Patricia L. McGeehan said in a statement last week about the change. "However, we must be sensitive to the unique challenges they face and provide strategies and interventions that help students achieve their goals."
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
“IIRC, D was 75 through 82, C was 83 through 87, B was 88 through 92. Cs were tolerable on rare occasion.”
That’s the grading system I recall. I’m sure in my “denial vault” are memories of a report card with a C that I had to work to bring up. It’s probably a miracle it didn’t kill my parents when I had to repeat high school geometry (I just didn’t get it.) That and a C in chemistry are the only bad grades I remember. Shamed to this day. LOL.
Yea I know teachers are only doing what fools in higher places mandate for them to do. If I had to attend school in todays structured classes I would never pass and I don't consider myself stupid especially when looking around at what schools are turning out now. Some of those kids are in serious trouble.
I do have some life long serious what they call learning issues I had working against me like C.A.P.D. and I use books usually just to obtain a certain needed bit of info. I mainly passed my two Voc Tech courses by On The Job knowledge I had already figured out by other means. Now I'm retired medically so it doesn't matter anyway.
I worked Maintenance in a nursing home and some of the nurses including the DON I hoped never were in charge of my care. LOL Others though were tops. A good house supervisor made my shift go a lot easier. One we had though could have qualified for a room on the secured floor. :>{
My full time job now is I've been caregiver for 27 years for my wife and did the hospice care for my dad last year. I did have one doctor about 10 years ago I nearly decked. Pyschotic episodes do not make patients go unconscious into a near Coma state. Antidepressants can do it though and cause major pyschosis. He didn't know that :>{ I learned it fast for him.
“God help these kids when they step into the real world and find out they don’t get an “A” just for showing up”
Yeah, but there’s a lot of union jobs that can be held for “just showing up”.
We didn’t have an E, just F for flunked. When I went to school, it was shameful to get a C. Other students considered you slightly less likely to end up in Juvie than the one student with a D.
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Pompous. I failed courses and attended Summer school three years, when I made straight A grades in the same courses. The difference was the prejudices of the teachers during my regular semesters.
I joined the Naval Air Reserve as a Weekend Warrior early in my senior year of HS. When I completed my 6 year committment, I earned an AAS, BBA and MBA. I had a successful career in various management positions.
The big problem is not the students; it’s the teachers!
“Pompous.”
I wasn’t being pompous. We didn’t have an E grade. We had an F meaning failed. I grew up in a small, bedroom community and the competition was ridiculous to be best of the best. I failed geometry. I felt like a pariah. The pressure to get straight As was intense, and a B was a forgivable downfall, but a C had students whispering in the hall. With a D or an F, one was written off, which is why failing geometry was traumatic. My 30th high school reunion was this past week-end. I didn’t go. I can’t do the beauty pagent, who’s smarter any more.
In other words: Don’t raise the bridge, lower the water.
I presume that you were referring to a passing grade of 40% in Algebra. Then, you should have seen the text books, absolutely no examples given. So, if a student didn’t get the lesson in class, there was no hope of taking it home and studying the example until you they understood it, or even getting help from a parent, who would need to review the example before explaining it.
Tests were all scantron, so there was no learning by reviewing the mistakes on the tests, either. Even Geometry tests were scantron, multiple choice tests.
Our grading system was:
93-100 - A
84-93 - B
76-84 -C
68-76 -D
60-68 -E
below 60% -F, no credit, no summer school. If you failed English, you automatically had to repeat the whole grade, likewise if you failed two major subjects.
Makes you wonder who thought this up, doesn’t it. A child subjected to this learning model can only pray for a math enabled parent.
In CA, some board picks the text books that the schools can choose from there was no way for me to review the math, so that I could help my daughter. I did ok in math, but not well enough to remember it all these years later. I had to go out and buy a separate math Algebra books for myself, so I could help her with hers.
Today, there is actually, a lot of help available on the internet.
That was a very good move on your part.
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