A few years ago two boys in my sixth grade class were shocked when they didn't pass and had to attend summer school. They actually came and talked to me and told me that they couldn't believe they weren't promoted to seventh grade. They told me that they had not done their work before and had been passed along anyway. The boys seemed to like the fact that they had finally been held accountable. They were smiling and laughing and were not in the least bit mad at me.
Another year I had a student who did absolutely no work all year. His teachers and his mother wanted him to repeat sixth grade, but the principal would not allow it. He said that research didn't support holding a student back a year. So, he placed the boy in seventh grade. I am serious when I say the boy did not do a lick of work all year long. I never graded a paper for him.
A math teacher recently quit his job due to a principal changing a grade so that a student would pass.
According to a New York Times article, Austin Lampros, a New York City math teacher, resigned from his teaching post at the High School of Arts and Technology in Manhattan this year after the school’s principal altered a student’s grade so she could graduate. Lampros told the Times that, although the student rarely attended class, failed to turn in homework assignments, and even missed the final exam, a school administrator gave her special treatment and a passing grade.
It makes me wonder why some students are allowed to go through school without doing their work. Missing an occasional assignment is one thing. It is a different issue for kids that routinely decide not to turn in assignments. What kind of message are educators sending to these kids? Are they being set up to fail when they eventually get a job?