Florida School District Won’t Give Grades Below 50
Middle and high school students in Orange County will not get a grade lower than 50 at the end of each term. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
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ORLANDO (CBS Tampa) – Orange County secondary students will find it impossible to get a failing grade after the school board formally eliminated zero grades for middle and high school, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
The new policy won’t affect individual assignments, but at the end of a quarter or semester, no student will have an average grade lower than 50.
The move was met by opposition from teachers.
“I’m against inflating school grades in violation of our contract,” stated Wendy Doromal, who teaches at Timber Creek High School. “This forces teachers to commit academic fraud and sacrifice their professional integrity. This also conflicts with state statutes.”
But district officials argued the change is meant to help students who might give up school altogether if they think they are failing.
“It’s really giving kids an opportunity who have slipped up in a marking period,” promised Jesus Jara, the district’s deputy superintendent. With the change, “they don’t fall so far behind that they can’t make it up in an academic year,” he said.
He added that treating an F as spanning from 50 to 59 is similar to the 10-point ranges for other grades, such as 80 to 89 for a B. “Fifty-nine doesn’t mean that you’re passing. We’re not moving that goal post.”
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