Pueblo's 'no-zero' grade scale to award half-credit for cheating

recently related a story about a young woman (college student) who believed that her "F" course grade should be changed to a "C - or, I suppose a C minus would be acceptable" because, she said, "as long as you try, you shouldn't fail".

She was disabused of that notion, but it makes us all wonder where she developed an attitude like that. I thought gold stars for effort were something they stopped doing after the 2nd grade or so.

If the Tucson USD is any example, it looks like anything goes for a passing grade. gads.

... kind of like the Pontiac Aztec: "How the hell did it ever get that far in the first place?"

my daughter's teachers grading scale in which you extrapolate the number of points that can be taken off when a wrong answer costs 20% of the total grade (1 of 10 questions for example getting a -2) and easily get a -100% if every answer was wrong. That type of grading was a bit infuriating.

WTH are those teachers doing?

While it may be infuriating, this type of grading is done on objective tests by the College Board to penalize guessing. An answer left blank does not have a penalty, but does not contribute to the number of questions needed to pass the exam. A student does not get a negative 100% though, just fails to get credit for passing the test. If you encountered this being used elsewhere on regular classroom testing I would wonder why, especially in the early grade levels.

I just don't think the teacher understood how to weigh the questions.

The sad thing about the no zero policy at Pueblo is that people tend to blame its students and faculty. Yes, there are a large number of entering freshmen who have poor study habits, poor attendance and who will resort to cheating. They enter four and five years behind grade level. Hardly a wonder that they fail, then drop out in droves, but there are many hardworking students that stay and persevere. There have also been good teachers at this school and its graduates have had an excellent retention record at the University of Arizona. The administration creates this "crap," er I mean policy then "informs" the faculty that they will be following orders. It is somewhat akin to "change my water into wine." The tragic thing is with more leadership like this the school is bound to perform poorly resulting in Ms. Watt being removed and the faculty put through the wringer to keep their jobs.