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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>How different are these two
students?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Student 1 scores: 100 100 100 50</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Student 2 scores: 100 100 100 0</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>When you do the math, they come out much different
that one might think at first glance.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Student 1 percentage = 87.5 (mid-high
B)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Student 2 percentage = 75 (mid C)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This kind of shows that with F's getting 60% of the
weight from 0-100, it is hard to recover from getting a low score every now and
then - no matter how good your other scores are. Add another 100 to
each student's scores and student 1 gets an A and student 2 gets a B (using
Moscow's system of no +/-).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Possible solutions:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>1 - Score on a 0-5 scale - giving each grade equal
weight (note: this is very similar to the Pittsburgh method and probably would
have created less of a stir)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>2 - Allows students a fair amount of time to turn
in late work - with a fair late penalty (e.g. one grade for each week
maybe).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>3 - Give students optional work that could be used
to replace low scores</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>4 - Variant of option 1, but limit the number of
0's a student can receive before significant penalty (e.g. must
retake)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>5 - others I can't think of. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Shawn</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title="mailto:vpschwaller@gmail.com CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:vpschwaller@gmail.com">Glenn Schwaller</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, March 03, 2009 5:16 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Schools say whut?</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<P>“PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pittsburgh Public Schools students get an "A" for 90
percent or above, a "B" for 80 percent to 89 percent, and so on. They get a
failing grade of "E" for work from 59 percent to 50 percent.</P>
<P>The administrators say giving a failing grade for scores from zero to 59
percent gives the failing grade too much weight. As such, students who make an
honest effort but fail — even if they get everything wrong — will still receive
the 50 percent minimum score.</P>
<P>School officials are now retracting the grading policy saying that students
will now receive zero percent on assignments they don't do instead of the former
minimum failing score of 50 percent.</P>
<P>School officials are making the change because critics say some students
skipped assignments content that they'd still receive a 50 percent score”</P>
<P>Hmmmmmmm . . .<SPAN> </SPAN>so what exactly does “doing an assignment”
mean? <SPAN> </SPAN>At what point will students not get a zero yet still
put forth a minimal amount of effort?</P>
<P>Sad, sad, sad.</P>
<P>GS</P>
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