ARLINGTON — A change in how F’s are given, along with mandatory lunch-time study halls, are making it a lot harder for students to fail at an Arlington middle school these days.
Evidence can be found in statistics at Haller Middle School, where the number of students earning an F dropped from 110 to 31 during the second quarter of classes from last year to this year. The total number of F’s plummeted from 233 to 53.
“Are we just going to let kids sit in a class and fail?” said Haller Principal Eric DeJong. “Our answer is ‘no.’ We are going to give them every chance to pass.”
Perhaps the toughest tenet for education traditionalists to accept is Haller’s new approach to what constitutes an F. Students who don’t complete their work are given a 50 instead of a zero.
Huh?
DeJong knows that idea is hard for some people to swallow, but he believes it is the right thing to do, both mathematically and ethically.
“The bottom line is an A and F should average out to a C,” DeJong said. “But a 100 and a zero don’t average out to a C. It is still an F. I see this as being fair to kids.”
In fact, it takes three 100 percents to bring a one zero up to a C, he said.
“Being a math teacher, it’s all proportional and makes perfect sense to me,” said Adele Barborinas, a Haller teacher who adopted the new grading practice this year.
By contrast, on a typical 4.0 grade point average scale, an A and an F average out to a 2.0 or C average.
In the past, too many students given zeros on missing assignments early in a quarter were simply giving up and accepting their F’s for the term, DeJong said.
Haller didn’t invent its new F grading practice. It is simply following a growing trend that is a hot topic in national education journals.
The whole issue of whether an F should be a zero or a 50 could become moot as the school ratchets up expectations.
Each day at Haller, roughly 80 to 100 students are assigned to study hall during lunch to catch up on missing assignments or failed exams.
Study hall isn’t just for kids failing classes. It’s a wide net for students earning A’s to F’s who have missing work. Some show up for five minutes, finish their work, have a teacher check it and never have to come back again; others are regulars, munching on purple grapes or twirling ramen noodles on plastic forks as they write papers or solve math problems.
Students know they are going to be in study hall if they don’t do their work. There isn’t much room for argument.
Seventh-grader Brad Cover, 13, found himself in study hall the other day.
“I think study hall is here so that kids can keep up on their work and not have bad grades and it helps make them understand that in high school they should get their work done if they are going to graduate and get a job or go off to college,” he said.
Whatever the faculty’s reasoning, Cover said it is working for him.
“Last year, I would have a lot of missing assignments,” he said. “I really didn’t do the work sometimes and other times I would do the work but I wouldn’t turn it in. This year, I’m actually trying to get better grades and do the work and not be in trouble.”
Study hall is helping seventh-grader Derek Walkama, 12, get more work done on time.
“I’m learning a lot more,” he said. “Most of the work I do in school because I need to ask teachers questions. This helps a lot.”
DeJong acknowledges that the study hall means more work for teachers. Each day, most submit lists of students with missing assignments. Teachers also agreed this year to accept late work that is marked down for being tardy but still graded.
“We certainly aren’t making our work easier on ourselves,” DeJong said.
Many of his teachers are buying into the changes, including Patty Vaughn, a language arts instructor who works with honors students and recent immigrants learning English as a second language.
She desperately wants to see students succeed, even if hard work is not their first inclination.
“As the adults in the building, we can’t let kids make poor choices on their learning,” she said. “They are too young. We force the issue and let them know, ‘You are going to redo this until it meets standard.’”
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or e-mail stevick@heraldnet.com.
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