[speedgibson] Speed Gibson: Failure is not an Option

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Posted by Speed Gibson:
Failure is not an Option
http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1228437640.shtml


   I heard KTLK's Langdon Perry talking about this in his morning show.
   An enlightened school district has decided that students just cannot
   handle the stigma of flunking. [1]Out with the "F" for Fail and in
   with the "H" for Held. Quoting the Grand Rapids (Michigan) Press:

     No Grand Rapids high school students will find failing grades on
     their report cards when they arrive this week.
     Instead, students who performed poorly will see an "H" for "held"
     and an opportunity to make up the work and earn a passing grade by
     the end of the next trimester.
     Teachers union leaders argue the change is another late-marking
     period scramble to boost sagging scores and undermines their
     ability to get students to show up and work hard all trimester.
     Superintendent Bernard Taylor said the plan gives students a second
     chance to overcome problems and be successful.
     "We are not watering down standards or lowering standards," Taylor
     said. "We're giving people the opportunity to meet standards when
     they go astray."
     Taylor said the move is part of the district's evolving "Success
     Only Option" that calls for offering students multiple
     opportunities and methods to demonstrate they know class material.

   In a nation of 15,000 school districts we're always going to see a few
   stories like this. But this one is more than anecdotal as it
   illustrates a point I made last Friday: [2]do traditional
   Superintendent searches really work?
   Grand Rapids made all the right moves. They hired a consultant in
   2005, held public meetings, conducted interviews and narrowed the
   field to two finalists. The Board even traveled to finalists' current
   districts. Dr. Taylor was the unanimous choice of the Board, hired
   effective July 2006. Mind you, this is a nine member School Board,
   including a college professor and a minister.
   All that time, all those meetings, all those interviews, all that
   evaluation, all that effort, all that expense, and they still got it
   wrong.

References

   1. http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/12/grade.html
   2. http://speedgibson.powerblogs.com/posts/1227929378.shtml