No Homework
But That Isn’t a Zero
By Daniel Muniz

The Council Bluffs Community School District in Council Bluffs Iowa is recommending a novel approach to the grading of homework. If a student does not turn in his or her assignments, the grade will be a 50 instead of a big fat zero. So in other words, if a kid doesn’t do squat and turns in absolutely nothing, then he or she automatically earns 50 points.

This idea has already caught on with lots of schools across the country and the rationale that Council Bluffs uses is pretty much the same; that is to prevent a bad grade from doing irreparable harm.

A score of zero can be detrimental to a child’s grades but it is not anywhere close to being fatal. It just means that he or she will have to be diligent about ensuring that everything else gets turned in for the remainder of the semester so that the zero can be offset by good grades elsewhere.

So if one score of a zero is not the end of the world, then why implement such a drastic grading scheme?

The answer is that these districts are not addressing the kids who have a one-time fluke but it is really a measure intended to help out the children who hardly ever turn in homework. One zero doesn’t hurt all that much but having a whole slew of zeros guarantees failure for the term. However, all a failing kid has to do is actually turn in “some” homework and then he or she has a shot of bringing up that average.
 

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The educational leadership loves this idea because all of a sudden, a whole bunch of flunkies can expend a minimal amount of effort to pass a class. The slackers love it because their apathy and laziness is handsomely rewarded. And some parents like it because they are already so detached from their child’s abysmal academic performance that all of these second chances mean that they still don’t have to get involved in their education.

Granted, administrators cannot win them all because even when these generous chances are given, there will always be kids who don’t care about failing so they won’t take advantage of any opportunities. But for the most part, a huge chunk of freeloaders have a perverse incentive to slack off because they still have a shot of passing a course provided that they have not already flunked out of too many tests.

However, not every parent in Iowa Bluffs is greeting this development with open arms. Here are a couple of comments:
 

"I have an 8- and a 10-year-old. And as they excel through school, I would rather have them be held accountable for their actions. If they don't turn in an assignment, I would think they deserve a zero for not completing it." "I think it's great to give them a second chance to make up for it. I don't want to see anyone fail, but they need to be held accountable for their work." Source: KNBC.com

There is nothing wrong with giving second chances. Plenty of school districts already have some kind of framework in place such as penalizing a grade by 15 or 20 percent for late work and then applying a zero only after nothing has been turned in after a certain length of time. Even so, the problem is with the slackers who don’t want to turn anything in. Not only are they thumbing their noses at second chances, they simply don’t want to do any work at all.

So what about the parent? What role does the parent play in all of this?

The intent of this new grading scam is to keep them out of the loop. The issue is not with responsible parents because they will always hound their offspring to finish their homework and to study for tests. This new system is simply a way for the educational leadership to circumvent the irresponsible parents who don’t care if their kids never study for exams and never turn in their homework. Administrators don’t want to deal with those kinds of people who are breeding another generation of flunkies and this is a great way to bypass any confrontations.

Sadly, for too many school districts, the confrontations have been with the educators. So many teachers complain about being blamed for the lack of effort from their students. An educator can only do so much to encourage and motivate kids and after that, it is beyond their control. But that has never stopped a principal from placing blame on their faculty.

As a result, some teachers have even gone so far as to not assign homework.

They are sick and tired of being reprimanded by their administrators and being hounded by angry parents. Instead, a growing number of educators simply use class time to complete assignments. Although doing homework in class reduces the quality of education because there is now far less time available to cover the required subjects, it sure beats having to deal with upset principals and outraged parents.

Whenever a kid doesn’t do his or her homework that is now a disciple problem. It is time for the educational leadership to stop finding ways to excuse this behavior. They have to begin to directly confront parents with it instead of trying to find ways to dodge it. It is not the teacher’s fault that homework doesn’t get turned in and neither are the zeros that result from not doing any work.

If our school districts really want to reach a level of academic excellence, then they have to start raising standards and raising the expectations of the local community. And that means that they have to hold students and their parents accountable when no homework is completed.

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