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Chicago Teacher's Union members concede that grading their students involves negotiation, discussion & the art of perusasion.
Students Learn Being Persuasive Earns Better Grades
suntimes.com - 12 weeks ago - 108 views
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It all depends on the school. At my previous school I remember our principal asking about and advising us that failing students should be given extra credit assignments. "Have you really given them every opportunity to pass?" Teachers with too high of a failure rate were often called to account for every 'F' in the principal's office. You also have the sports influence. My first principal was found guilty in a grade changing scandal involving soccer players.
I've never been pressured to change a specific student's grade but my old school definitely had a climate where we certainly thought about our failure rate when assigning final grades. Schools and teachers are under a lot of pressure to succeed - especially in Chicago where chronic low performance can lead to a turnaround where every faculty and staff member loses their job. Are we really surprised by this?
Not really. On one hand, national policy since No Child Left Behind punishes schools that don't hit it's performance standards. Yet at the same time local policy under Renaissance 2010 is happy to replace a traditional public school with a charter if an excuse could be made. What you get is a culture were, honestly, it may be surprising only that the amount of pressure reported is as low as it is.
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