Teaching Failure (K-12th)

Dear Principal(s) and Superintendent(s):

I hope that your Spring semester is off to a great start! Today, while I was attending dinner with some colleagues, a relevant conversation arose, centered around one centric question, "What are the unintended consequences of failing to teach students how to embrace failure?"

Across the nation, teachers are expressing concerns about school leaders and school boards creating, amending, and adopting grading policies making it impossible for students to fail during the pandemic. Teachers understand that some students will and are experiencing non-academic hardships due to the pandemic; however, teachers believe that not all students are experiencing non-academic hardship. Teachers believe that taking a "one size fits all" approach to grading practices sends the wrong message to students that "teachers will pass us, regardless."

Pandemic Grading Practices:

• No "0" recorded in the gradebook.
• No grades lower than a "50" recorded in the gradebook.
• Reduce assignments. Modify assignments. Omit assignments.
• Substitute missing grades with previous grades.
• Allow makeup work to be completed by the end of the semester, without late penalty.
• Allow makeup work to be completed by the end of the school year, without late penalty.

While teachers have expressed moral objections to passing students who have not completed assignments during a grading cycle, new changes to grading policies and practices have left many teachers feeling like they are "taken away their students drive to be successful" and are unintentionally teaching students that, "it is ok to be mediocre," instead of teaching their students how to "overcome failures, in order to be successful."

My Take:

It is without question that this pandemic has caused non-academic hardships for many students and their families. However, despite these challenges, we as school leaders have an obligation to prepare students for the world they will live in. Students will most certainly experience setbacks and failures as adults, and life won't be so forgiving when they do. For this reason, we must teach students to harness the willpower to overcome their failures for the sake of their survival.

While it is proper for teachers to be flexible in the time allotted for completing and submitting class assignments during a pandemic, adopting grading policies and practices making it impossible for students to fail is not reflective of the real world. Such policies undermine the process of teaching and learning in its entirety, as the foundation of any student-teacher relationship is one that is built on "truth, trust, and accountability." With this in mind, we must hearken until the sentiments of our teachers — be accommodating, while still holding students accountable for their work during this pandemic.

My Recommendation:

• Adopt a process for reviewing academic and non-academic hardships.
• Create an Academic Hardship Petition/Form.
• Create a Non-Academic Hardship Petition/Form.
• Form an academic review committee to hear and rule on student/parent hardship request.

Sincerely,