Should there be a school policy of no zeros?

Here's a story where the state school board changed the definition of the letter grades.

I'm all for teachers have flexibility within the framework of the provided system. I don't think teachers can ignore the framework. You entered letter grades into a computer. Did you randomly decide to give a student an omega or did you use the scheme dictated by the school board?

So what does that mean?

The teacher says the kid get's an 83 based on the teacher's own grading policies. I don't think that is a very big change. The teacher still calculates the grade her students earn.

Are fewer kids failing now?

That is very similar to how my ddaughter's school approaches this. The school system determines the overall grading parameters .... A-F system and/or number as in a GPA (which they all so use in high school). But the teacher derives how the students obtain those grades. Most teachers like you state hand out precisely how they grade so you know from the start.

There are many teachers though who are flexible with their grades where if the math calculates you on the cusp they may boost you to the next level ...say you are a kid who is always in class, participates and seeks extra help, etc. .... or drops you ..if you are a kid who is not engaged, disrupts.

Exactly! The school system determines the overall grading parameters.

There should be a school policy that you can't even take a test or do work unless you seek to learn. The idea of free/compulsory public education gets misinterpreted as meaning teachers have to try to teach students irregardless of whether they seek/strive to learn. All it really means is that students have the right to receive education if they seek it.

If students don't seek to learn, they can be simply trained to follow instructions from managers, which is what is mostly emphasized in education anyway. They use knowledge-based dogmas as 'work' that students are required to perform in order to measure how well they follow instructions, but very little actual learning takes place beyond some rote memorization and skill-practice.

Instead of a 'zero,' students who fail to adequately attempt to pass exams should be noted as 'uninterested in learning' and only receive a score when they actually seek to learn and put effort into meeting challenges like projects and tests.

WoW. 50% for doing nothing. i wish they introduced that policy when i was at school