In November, NPR uncovered a graduation scandal at Ballou High School in Washington, D.C., where half the graduates missed more than 90 days of school. Administrators pressured teachers to pass failing students, including those whom teachers had barely seen.

Four years ago, when I began my teacher training, a tenured teacher gave me some advice: “Just give them a D; it’ll be so much extra work for you to fail anyone.” At the time, I thought it was strange wisdom, but soon I learned that it’s part of the “common sense” of survival in the world of teachers.

There were district-wide policies that were ingrained in teachers from the start such as:

  • Discouraged from having “hard” deadlines or assigning penalties for late work
  • Discouraged from giving a student less than 50 percent on an assignment (regardless of the quality of work or level of completion)
  • Encouraged to allow retakes to on all major assignments if a student earns less than an 80

Not only do these policies create extra work for already overworked teachers, they also promote an attitude of low expectations that does a disservice to our students in the long run.  In my experience, being complicit in this system eventually weighs on you. Teachers know it’s unethical, and they know that the students will suffer the consequences when they leave high school misinformed about their abilities and unprepared for college and the workforce.

No teacher wants students to fail. I didn’t, but I also believed students could reach my expectations and, more important, exceed their own, if they were held to certain criteria and received help along the way. Weakening expectations for behavior and academic achievement was not the way I had envisioned “helping” students when I decided to become a teacher.

Read the full article about being complicit in grade inflation by Emily Langhorne at The 74.