5 Comments
User's avatar
June Kessinger's avatar

At the local high school, graduation rates are everything, mandated by the state to prove school excellence. Ha! Second semester of their senior year these do nothings are adopted by a teacher who drags across the finish line by one of the means you described.

Expand full comment
Jenna Vandenberg's avatar

Oh, this is all so frustratingly true. I've had students tell me that they'd just fail my class (which required essays and scored discussions...ya know, thinking...) and just do the online credit recovery class in May. Students typically click through the online class in a few hours and earn credit.

So, so, so maddening. Like you write about, the guise of this all being done to "help" students is doing just the opposite. We need to bring back the gift of failure,

Expand full comment
Endi's avatar

I couldn’t agree more

Expand full comment
Clelia Casey's avatar

Replacing summer school, which at the very least reinforced consequences of failure, to save money

Expand full comment
Endi's avatar

This definitely undermines the integrity of the school system like you said and is so sad for the other students to work hard and see their peers get away with doing less work

Expand full comment