From the reading this week, the reasoning behind school “no-zero policies” is that schools do not want students who have otherwise performed well to be penalized for missed assignments. Their final grades would not be reflective of their actual work in the class. For example, a student who has a 90 average but gets a 0 on a major assignment would drop to a 45 average. Even if the student received all 100s for the rest of the grading period, that 0 would still pull their average down to below failing. If the student got a 50 instead of a 0, that only pulls the grade down to a 70, which is still passing, and there is a chance that the student can make up the difference to raise their grade back up.

A variation of this “no-zero” policy is where students are not penalized for missed work but instead must attend school on Saturdays or during the summer to make up work.

Do you agree with these policies?

• Explain your reasoning in terms of grading and evaluating student achievement.
• Respond to one of your classmates.
  • State whether you agree with their answer and why.
  • Suggest a grading system that would mitigate one missed assignment from dropping someone’s grade point average too low or making it impossible for students to bring up their grades because they had too many zeros. You may want to include factors such as lost points for late work instead of all or nothing, requirements for staying late or attending extra school to turn in work, extra credit, or other methods that you can implement with grades.