For some schools, using zero scores doesn't add up

show me a job that will pay you for doing nothing, or say - thats ok - go ahead and stay late today and get the job done now - even though we needed it done this morning - that’s just not going to happen.
with a no zero policy, students can do nothing for the year and still end up passing classes by putting forth minimal effort at the end. what does that say to the student who has been busting their rears since day one. if a student who generally does well messes up for a short time or “forgets” one assignment - it may affect their grade slightly and usually teachers will work with them. most teachers give out 20-25 assignments a quarter so one zero would not kill their grade. but by rewarding students who CHOOSE to do nothing, how are we preparing students for life after high school? does a junior or senior in high school benefit by getting credit for work they didn’t complete or even attempt? what’s next? forcing colleges or employers to do the same because the students can’t function in college or in the workplace?
and dont blame the teachers - they have to follow policy - if you want your child to actually receive an education - voice your concerns to th

You want to teach a child the idea of hard work and determination will make them prosper, It has nothing to do with a child missing an assignment and more the world they see, Wall street, Bankers, Sports players, Politicians, Hollywood. They learn this from Adults who were taught in the old ways. In my mind if a kid Gets and "A" on tests but doesn't do his homework, It is either he isn't being challenged enough, is bored with the way material is presented, or is prioritizing in a way that we should encourage not take away.
For students that fail tests a 0 isn't gonna change the fact he doesn't know the material. Take for example my son, 9th grade spends 8 hrs in school, 3 hrs on homework every night. If I want to take him out to dinner and a movie on Tuesday because I work nights the rest of the week, He shouldn't have to stay up till midnight to get his homework finished or face a 0. I really do not agree kids in school should be treated as bad as this, Also some teachers don't give zero's and some do. Kinda like teaching abstinence and then your kid gets pregnant. Its like we want these kids to fail.
Public schools is more about behavior modification and turning kids into

To accomodate busy schedules and to meet IEP requirements, I automatically build extra time in when setting due dates. I never give less than 2 school days for a homework due date, and give more time on most occasions. I still assign homework daily and collect homework daily. If homework assigned Monday is due Thursday, then homework assigned Tuesday is due Friday, etc. I do not assign homework within 48 hours of a test which gives a cushion to collect previously assigned work. If a student is absent on the due date, the assignment is due the 1st day the student returns. If a student is absent on the day work is assigned, the work is still due on the same day as the other students, however, I allow for negotiation depending on the circumstances. My course has 125 grades recorded per semester. A zero does not hurt badly.

So you say that they are just kids and they should get a detention. What about the parent who won't allow for the detention because Jimmy or Susie has football or Girl Scouts. Yes they are kids but unless you want them acting like kids until they are 40 (which while it is a trend these days, it is not a pleasant one) they will have to learn responsibility and accountability at some point. Would you prefer they learn it in the work force while you are having to finish their work for them?

You make the case of death in the family, or being sick... I know that teachers are reasonable and most systems have a 3 day policy for issues such as that(longer if it is an extended absence). Dealing with divorce or being over-scheduled... that can and should be blamed on the parent!!! Children can't sign up for 14 things without a "parents" approval and they certainly didn't create the marriage-- or the divorce. If they push that off on the child-- I guess maybe they should get a zero in Parenting 101.

I understand what some of the interviewed folks are getting at when trying to be supportive of students; however, this is inevitably still "dumbing-down" the system. This nation is already behind the rest of the world in several facets and it all starts amongst those hallowed halls.

I hated zero's. I busted my b*lls to stay away from them. I was crushed if I ever had anything close to it and my parents (key ingredient to success!) provided constant positive pressure and support to help if the chips were down.

It was never how you fell down, it was how you got up that was important. Most successes only happen through the lessons of failure.

Of the teachers I've talked with they all allow for "make up" work to be done to avoid a ZERO. IF the student asks for the oppurtunity right after receiving the grade. They are more hestiant when the student waits until right before the grading period ends.

Also, it was almost a given among these teachers that any student with a ZERO had multiple ZERO's, not just one ZERO.

Let's see. You can work hard and do what your employer requires you to do and get a good salary or you can sit home on your backside doing nothing and get maybe 60% of a good salary. Sounds like welfare to me. Maybe these kids ARE learning about the real world.

charlesr85353, if the little darlings are as smart as you assert then they will be in advanced classes, in which most of the homework goes well beyond what it taught in the classroom such as additional reading or research. This prepares them for university study where the lecture generally only teaches a relatively small part of the course material. Even if they don't go to college, no boss is going to let an employee decide for himself how much of a work assignment he 'needs' to do. As for this case-by-case business, the lesson you are teaching them is that they are smarter than everyone and the rules don't apply to them. There's a word for people like this but the Pilot won't allow it on these boards.

Of course if the kid is sick or absent for a good reason, give them the make-up work, otherwise a zero is a zero. Quit minimizing the work of the good students by trying to give a “50” to the slacker. That’s life.

Teachers are contracted to work specific hours on a daily basis. Most either choose planning for the next lesson or meeting the ridiculous requirements such as giving no zeroes. Remember, all additional work is gratis. Wake up Virginia, no zeroes is 100% achievable if you give teachers 4 classes, additional planning time, access to phone lines at school and smaller classes not to exceed 15 students. Virginia is not willing to pay for any of this. Do not penalize teachers for what society is not willing to pay for.

If these students don't learn to be accountable and take responsibility for their success or failure... then they will get hammered in college if they are lucky enough to get in and if not they will learn life lessons at some fast food joint.

Folks these are kids...they should get detention for lack of effort not a zero for not completing work on time...These grades affect there future.

A zero gives them no opportunity or incentive to get back on track for a momentary lack of judgement, being overscheduled, dealing with divorce or death in a family or illness..

To put this into some context, homework, especially in the junior grades, is sometimes hidden in the books/folders that kids bring home. It is no foul for the teacher to pick out incomplete work, put it in the front of the homework folder and mark it incomplete with the expectation that it will be done by the next day. It has happened to us a few times. Now if it is not done by the next day, ZERO is called for. We have to allow some sort of elbow room for parental/child mistakes but non-compliance beyond that deserves the consequences. Nothing more nothing less.

This will get worse as NCLB reaches it's 100% required pass rate. We will be passing students for just showing up. "Tearose" does not have a clue. Visit your nearest high school. "Reno" is right - teachers can do only so much.

There are two sides to every story. Remember the Pilot had total control over the slant of this story. You get to read what they want you to believe. Every effort for a student to make up work after receiving a zero takes away from grading and planning time of their teacher. Planning time is the time teachers use to create and duplicate materials for the lessons which students sometimes fail to complete (and thus receive a zero). Policies emphasizing no zeroes create an atmosphere of complacence. When a student chooses not to do homework, it now becomes the teacher’s responsibility? What are teachers teaching students by not giving zeroes? Reasons for zeros: watching TV, sports practice, dating, cell phones, parental apathy, jobs, personal cars, student apathy, truancy, sleep deprivation, peer pressure, these are just a few. Continued next post:

I can only hope that the assistant superintendent for Virginia Beach high schools was misquoted. If these three grades (100, 100, 0) are added, the total is 200. Then if 200 is divided by 3 (the number of grades), the average is 66. Each grade is counted equally. How is that counting the zero disproportionately?

I went to a rural High School. Our French Teacher/Vice Principal taught class for two weeks and then we had study hall. Our first and only test was our grade for the class. I got an A but did not learn French.

I had two college professors who did not teach. One was a music theory professor who had health problems. The other was a computer science professor who just stayed in his office during class. I felt cheated, yet I am still paying student loans.

Part of each school division's strategic plan is to prepare students for the global economy. The "getting something for nothing" attitude is why we are now having to bail out Wall Street at a cost of $700B plus.
While zero's do take a toll on student grades, a fair teacher will make accomodations, in some cases dropping the lowest grade, depending on whether it is a project grade, a homework grade, or a test grade.
Generally speaking, a student who fails to turn in an important grade is already failing. Those are the students who need immediate attention from the education system, but overlooking the failure to turn in a required assignment, I believe, does more harm than good.

There is nothing questionable about this post. When school systems report "Fully Accredited", they need the grades to match. It doesn't look good when a school system says they met their "Academic Yearly Progress (AYP)" or reached the minimum percent to be "Fully Accredited" but still have kids failing. How do students pass the SOL, but not the course? Now they have a way to get them to pass the course too. To pass the SOL in most subjects, it just requires 26 correct out of 50. That equates to 52%. Why are students in elementary school in VB already bringing home "SOL Review" material on stuff they haven't learned yet? Maybe by the end of the year they'll have it memorized. arents need to start asking more questions. It doesn't matter what the kids learn as long as the school system looks good on paper.

I don't think many readers realize that it takes 4 A's to make up for 1 Zero. Today's students are much more involved in extra-curricular activities and more students work a part-time job than ever before in our history. Schools need to eliminate the "Zero for Missing Assignment" policy as well as the over-dose of homework. We also need to move from the teacher-directed classroom to the student-centered classroom.
Our school system needs to move out of their 1950s time capsule and reflect the changes that have occurred over the past 50+ years in our society; school policies need to be changed in order to reflect these drastic changes. Virginia Beach also needs to put more emphasis in their Virtual Virginia Beach e-Learning program and get away from the brick & mortar mentality in order for our children to be able to compete in today's corporate world.
There is still too much emphasis on dril

I think we should institute the no zero dollars policy at work. :) I think I should skip work whenever I want and still get paid. That's exactly what this country really needs to do, train everyone to live off the taxpayer or mommy and daddy for the rest of their lives, and start them into this belief young. Instead of teaching math and science at school, why don't they have a course called 'working the system, how a lawyer and the taxpayer can do all the work.

I read this and could not believe what I was reading.....so we give them 60 points instead of a goose egg.....so how do we make this up to the kids that do well and make A's?....do they "get" an unearned 60 points?...as a resident of Chesapeake I was surprised to hear that this was already the policy.....this should be an issue during the next election of school board members....everyone that voted for this should turned out of office..and get rid of Mr. Nichols also...

My son is a teacher in the Rappahannock County Public Scholls and this year had a student plagerize a homework assignement. The student's ONLY concerns were the effect on his GPA and how it would affect his wish to go to UVA. My son gave the student a zero and pressed upon the individual the ramifications that his (the student) actions carried in as far as his grades and down the road of getting into UVA since this action did go in his permanent file. He was given ISS (In School Suppension), forced to give up the JV Football team, and to also make up the assignment(which would be weighted since it would be late, etc). As parent, we must take actions to instill upon our kids the importance of school work and meeting the teacher's time for the assignments to be due.

Children today are growing up in a society of immediate gratification. Doing homework has no immediate benefit for them. They have been told that it’s alright to fail – you will still get a trophy. I do not know of any teacher that has only 3 homework assignments in a grading period.
Most high school students have three blocks a day plus a lunch/study hall block. These classes meet every other day. It is impossible to give the 28 students in the room the knowledge and skills they need in two or three 90 minute blocks a week. This time is also taken up with announcements, fire drills, collecting money for the latest cause, required testing, taking roll, handling excuse notes, returning papers, and of course discipline. Reading and practicing must be done outside of the class. Can you imagine learning math without practice? Spelling? Spelling is already a lost art and math is following right beh

i thiink that charlesr85353 is missing something. Getting a zero on all homework assignments don't have the same weight. A book report should have more weight than doing some simple equations before class the next day. Plus, you are commenting about the top 5% of students, maybe even a lower percentage don't need reinforcement as you say. On other commentors, coming to work sick, making a mistake, won't necessarily get you fired unless you do something REALLY bad or you have a bad history. in which case, you should have stayed home or taken better care of yourself. If we don't stop this trend of caring more about someones feelings or running the mill of moving people forward deserving or not, you ALL are in for a rude awakening.

I work in a public school system and have been confronted with this issue many times. First, I see the point about the kids that already understand the material and don't need to practice. That is NOT what this issue is about. Homework can only count as a designated percentage of the grade in any class. They are not talking about a kid skipping #1-20 for homework one night and failing algebra. They can do 50% of the homework and only lose 5-10 points off their final grade. That will not cause them to fail a course if they are following the distrct grading poilicies. HOWEVER what this is about is nobody getting a 0 on anything. Say you have a kid that shows up every 15th day (so as to not get dropped from the roll- yes it happens quite often). They do not show up for class except 6 or 7 times period. They don't get a zero on anything they missed. Say you give them 60's… Some administrators are pushing to give the

I think what people are trying to convey here. It's the kids who are not putting forth an effort. The ones who just DON'T want to do that work. Myself personally, I am talking about the ones who are just down right refusing to do the work. Just because they feel they don't want to, or it's boring. I know there are kids who are sick, and in another instance. Another one of my kids was sick last week. I called the school to see if I can get her work for her to complete at home. The policy for the school is. They have to be out three days in order for work to be sent home. Now my child asked me to get her work. I think the school should have given it to me. That way giving time for her to do it at home, and turning it the following day. Not going to school. Making up the work in school, while still having that days work , on top of the previous days work. I think the school systems are just backwards sometimes. As I said, I think t

How much self-esteem will they have when they cannot pass an SAT with a high enough score to enter college; how good will they feel about themselves when they have the master of the art of saying, "may I take your order" or "do you prefer paper or plastic?" Do we really believe that setting the expectation so low is going to help them achieve a bright future or give them a great sense of self? The story uses 3 scores to show how bad one zero can hurt a student's grade. None of my kids have ever had only 3 assignments per semester, the number of assignments generally enters into the double digits, so that mathematical example is useless. It is my job as a parent, working or not, to make sure the homework is done. If she feels the need to "be a kid," she's got all weekend to play! It is a matter of setting priorities. Teach them now or they lose later.

There was a time in school (no, not the dark ages) when yes you did have 6 classes a day and homework each night in each of them. It is called reinforcement so you can learn the information/concepts. We learned how to read our assignments the night before (instead of reading DURING class), how to spell (which is a lost art now) and how to 'do the math.' We still had time 'to be kids' - it is called organization and planning. And if you can't organize and plan, you are in for trouble in college/trade school or the work force. All this is learned in school by doing assignments on time, not doping down the system. If you don't want your children to do homework, home school them -that option affords the ability for those students to learn at their own pace/style.

Let's see, if I am given an assignment at work to complete, and I don't, is my employer going to allow me to "MAKE UP" the work?
If you buy a new car, and don't change the OIL in it until the engine blows up, is the manufacturer going to give you a free engine?
If you don't turn in an assignment, you get a ZERO. "NUFF" said. If you dont like it, then MAKE UP your assignments. When i was in school, and I got sick, I was required to get my assignments and make them up.
If you dont care enough about your grades to do your homework, too bad. I do like the idea of detention for not doing homework. Additionally, if you are playing sports, poof, no more sports. If you cannot do your homework, you dont play sports.
Part of learning responsibility for your actions, is suffering the consequences of your "INACTION". How are the students going to learn, if there are no repercussions for doing the wrong thing?
All this weenie

Do away with all grades and just pass everyone. We're slowly moving to that anyway. We keep dumbing down to make sure everyone's a winner. Sorry but life's full of losers as it is, we don't need to make any more. And the sooner they learn what it takes to get ahead in life the better. Doing work, time limits and accountability all need to be taught. Making things easier doesn't help us or them in the long run.