Interesting timing, the Chamber deciding to pay off CUEE’s debts from pushing
school consolidation, followed shortly by a media campaign to discredit the
Lowndes School System.
- 17 January 2012:
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Chamber of Commerce board decides to repay CUEE’s outstanding vendor debts
in exchange for owning CUEE’s education document. - 3 February 2012:
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Maureen Downey blogged for the AJC,
No zeros in school any longer. But aren’t there well deserved zeros?
Despite admitting that the Lowndes school grading policy is a common practice
in many systems and is intended to make sure students actually learn,
she ends with this spin:But aren’t there well deserved zeros?
I would argue that middle school teachers have some students who
simply don’t do the work. They get it; they just don’t do it. The
Lowndes policy calls for multiple interventions for obdurate
students, but wouldn’t a zero make an important statement?How else do adolescents learn that there are consequences for failure to
comply with assignments? In the classroom, it is a zero. In the workplace,
it is termination. - 3 February 2012:
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Lowndes School System Superintendent Dr. Steve Smith
explained Lowndes grading policies, including this bit:
The Lowndes County Schools recently released grading guidelines for
parents to clarify what has been our current practice on reporting
of grades and to reaffirm our commitment to mastery learning by all
students. For the past year and a half, our practice in grades 3-8
has been….The point being that this is not a new policy.