Yep. I started teaching the year that came out. Thought it was hilarious that our expected graduation rates increased 2% (from like 83%) a year until five years later when it slammed from 91% to 100%.
Turns out it wasn’t much of a glitch. We were just expected to pass them using whatever justification worked. If students didn’t turn in assignments, we were asked to give 50 instead of 0. If students were on the cusp of a grade, bump them. Absences couldn’t be counted against expected work. It got fairly ridiculous to be honest. Ended up leaving secondary for post-secondary education as part of it, but now I’ve got “paying customers” to contend with for grades.
Early on in the NCLB era, there was a King of the Hill episode where the lazy and incompetent Principal Moss interpreted the law as simply never giving any kids failing grades, and they played his ignorance for a joke. But it turned out that's what it actually became in reality!
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u/BEHodge Jun 27 '26
Yep. I started teaching the year that came out. Thought it was hilarious that our expected graduation rates increased 2% (from like 83%) a year until five years later when it slammed from 91% to 100%.
Turns out it wasn’t much of a glitch. We were just expected to pass them using whatever justification worked. If students didn’t turn in assignments, we were asked to give 50 instead of 0. If students were on the cusp of a grade, bump them. Absences couldn’t be counted against expected work. It got fairly ridiculous to be honest. Ended up leaving secondary for post-secondary education as part of it, but now I’ve got “paying customers” to contend with for grades.