It is my belief that the standard grading scale used in most public school systems is flawed. It took some time, research, conversation with other professionals, and a change of mindset to truly understand how unbalanced it really is. Hopefully, after this blog, you will have a better understanding as well.
For years, the standard grading scale has pretty much looked the same. Some district’s grading scales are stricter than others, but for the sake of making it easier to understand we will use nice rounded numbers:
A | B | C | D | F |
90-100 | 80-89 | 70-79 | 60-69 | 0-59 |
As you can see, all of the letter grades are based on ten point increments, except “F”. A simple way to picture this is to think of the grading scale as a basic number line:
As you can see, a grade of a D or higher is set up in ten point increments. Based on the number line and basic logic, why would an F not be 50-59? Why do we give a grade lower than 50?
Many teachers today still put zeros in their gradebooks. During my first few years in the classroom, I was guilty! I did it because that’s the way the system was set up. If a student failed to turn in an assignment, or missed every problem on a test, I gave them a zero. However, basic math principles show that giving a student a zero is unfair, sets the student up to fail, and does not produce a grade that is an accurate representation of the student. Look at the following scenario:
As a school leader, I do not force a “No Zero” policy in my school because it would violate board policy. However, I have shared my beliefs with my faculty/staff. I believe those that do give zeros, do so for the same reason that I did when I was teaching. “Why should I give a student a 50, when they don’t do anything?” They feel like they are giving students half credit for doing nothing! I get it…I used to think the same way! However, this is where a change of mindset makes all the difference. You have to realize that if an “F” was set up the same as all the other letter grades, a 50 would be the lowest numerical value for that grade. When you give grades lower than 50 (specifically 0s), you risk the chance of putting students in a hole that they cannot climb out of. Here are some dangers of giving zeros:
When you give a student a zero, you are not receiving an academic assessment, nor do you learn how much the students understands the standards/concepts that were taught.
Giving zeros decreases student motivation. When a student realizes they are in a hole that they cannot climb out of, they give up!
Giving zeros can be more punitive than motivational. I’ve worked with teachers before that would give a student a zero just to “stick it to them”. The teacher was tired of not getting work, or the student not understanding the content. Therefore, the teacher just gave zeros thinking it would motivate the student to try harder on future assignments.
I could continue listing the dangers of giving students zeros, but for the sake of keeping this blog to a reasonable length, I will stop here and just leave you with this little nugget: “When it comes down to it, we are in the kid business. I believe that we should always advocate for whatever benefits kids! It is clear to me that giving zeros is not beneficial to student learning.”
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