Ok, now this is ridiculous: a student at Sissonville High School in West Virginia is suing her teacher and the school board for a failing grade she received on a Biology project last October. The student, Lindsay Hay, had been on a school-sponsored field trip the day the assignment was due, and thus turned it in a day late. Teacher Jane Schultz had explicitly stated that no work would be accepted late on the project, which had been assigned for several months. Hay received a zero on the project.

The catch - Hay is a straight-A student, and a failing grade on this project would apparently bring her grade in the Biology class down to a B. So of course, Hay sues in response to the emotion stress of the experience, as well as the intentional damage Schultz caused to her academic record.

Let’s take a step back. Now, I’m very outspoken about the idiocy of both the American school system and American school students. As such, I won’t take a side on this issue, mostly because I think everyone taking it seriously is an idiot.

• Schultz: There is absolutely no reason for a single assignment to affect someone’s grade more than the final exam. It is also irresponsible for a teacher not to accept any late work - this sends the message that the rules are more important than what you learn (though in Schultz’s defense, she ended up giving Hay a 50% on the assignment).
• Hay: Get over yourself. This is a private matter between you and your teacher. You need to accept that the system is not always fair, and that you cannot always control every aspect of your world. You think getting a B and losing your shot at Valedictorian is bad for your college applications? Think about how a nationally-publicized lawsuit of you whining will look.

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Truth is, the student got shafted by every institution in the chain, from the classroom to the courthouse.

The heart of the matter is this: West Virginia has education standards — things kids are supposed to know and be able to do in various core subjects. For grades to mean anything at all, they need to reflect, for the benefit of all “stakeholders,” what the kid knows and can do relevant to these standards.

When a teacher assigns a numerical or letter grade as a punishment instead of an evaluation of standards, the teacher has not taught “responsibility,” but has, in fact, modeled the opposite, irresponsibility. The teacher has abandoned their duty to educate by failing to give honest feedback on the project and representing that same honest evaluation in the child’s grade.

This child wasn’t asking for a grade change, because the assigned grade wasn’t a grade at all. Did it reflect the teacher’s evaluation of the project according to state standards? No, it did not. So what did it indicate? Hard to tell, right, unless you have the teacher’s grading guidelines.

I’m a retired teacher (2003) and current board of ed member in Oregon. Believe me, when Ms. Schultz claims a victory for all teachers, she’s not talking for me. Ms. Schultz, the principal, the superintendent, the board, the school lawyer, and the judge (who apparently in telling everyone what the business of schooling is has supplanted the state legislature) need to do some reading in the field of classroom assessment and grading linked to standards, or as some of us call it, grading for achievement.

I started out the same way as most teachers do these days, adopting without criticism the ways of the “veteran” teachers. But, thank goodness, a lot of the veterans of today are not passing along the irrational and controlling aspects of classroom assessment to the next generation. That teachers should be the sole arbiters of grades is absurd. That grades should be used as behavioral interventions or punishments is inexcusable in this era of educational standards and the prevailing philosophy that we promote the success of all students, not sort them according to the normal curve.

Hugh O’Donnell
Hillsboro, OR