<p>Not only does Seattle Schools have grade inflation IMO, but even if your GPA isn’t stellar you can still graduate.
What happened to providing support for students so they can pass classes?
Oh thats right- there is more administrative support at the top, than in the buildings.
:rolleyes:</p>
<p>Back when I was in high school, a student could indeed graduate from high school with a D average. (The grade of D, though “poor,” is generally construed as passing). A C average was required to graduate from college, and a B average was required in graduate work. The latter two conditions still apply. I don’t actually see a problem with only requiring a D average to graduate from high school. </p>
<p>Even in university work, an undergraduate receives credit for a grade of D, the student just needs to counter-balance it with a sufficient number of B’s to reach a C average. I think a high-school student with a mix of grades of C and D still deserves to graduate.</p>
<p>If a D average is not ( currently) enough to pass a class as it shows that the student did not perform/understand the basic requirements of the class, how can an overall ranking of such be able to show that you have been educated sufficiently to recieve a diploma?</p>
<p>We all know, that you might have one teacher who gives every one A’s, if they show up occasionaly, combine that with classes that they outright flunk but that will be enough to graduate?</p>
<p>Why not just save everyone time and money and help them pass their GED test?</p>
<p>I believe all students should graduate high school with the opportunity to continue their education at some point if they desire.</p>
<p>By allowing them to graduate with a D average that all but guarantees that only by taking remedial courses first at a community college ( something that many adults don’t have time or money for), will they be ready for college level work.</p>
<p>However, I guess we want to keep the supply of Walmart workers comin’, right?</p>
<p>Maybe the situation is different in Washington, but I think in most states, a minimum number of credits (units) are required for high school graduation. Courses that are actually failed do not count toward that total. So the occasional “gift” A combined with failing grades in other courses would not enable a student to graduate.</p>
<p>I believe that D is considered a passing grade. Reading between the lines of the newspaper article, it does seem to be sufficient to earn credit for a course (unlike a grade of F). If D were not passing, you’d have two categories of failing grades, which seems a bit excessive to me. I have seen European transcripts, though, that translate the marks on the transcript into “failure,” “bad failure,” and “very bad failure.”</p>
<p>In many areas, community colleges place students into courses on the basis of their own placement exams, and not on the basis of high school grades. The student with a D average will probably have to attend a community college at first to continue with his education, but it’s not necessarily the case that he will have to take remedial courses. (I’m using “he” here on the basis of stereotyping, I admit–but the student who understands the material yet is slack about the busy-home-work in high school might fall into this category–and those students are probably preponderantly male.)</p>
<p>If D is a passing grade, a D average would be a passing average. It seems to me, you either pass or you don’t. If it’s good enough to pass, it should be good enough to graduate. </p>
<p>Full disclosure: I once changed a student’s grade from F to D- so he could graduate… I didn’t think keeping him from graduating served any purpose at all.</p>
<p>If a grade of C really means “average,” and if a C average is required to graduate, then we’d be extremely close to the situation where “All of our high-school graduates are above average–every single one of them.” </p>
<p>Of course, C is not actually “average” in most schools. </p>
<p>On the other hand, tying in with dmd77’s comment, it’s a lot easier to justify bumping an F to a D- to permit a student to graduate, than to justify bumping an F all the way to a C. I actually think that permitting students to graduate with a D average helps to preserve the integrity of grading. Otherwise, there’s a lot of pressure on teachers to award at least a C.</p>