Monday, January 21, 2008
Your dog ate your homework? No problem, Johnny!
From the front page of my local newspaper today, the Burlington Post:
Teachers with the Halton District School Board no longer take marks off student assignments for lateness, the Post has learned. A mark of zero per cent is given only if the work is not ever handed in.And, according to the article, this policy is apparently the direct result of a memorandum handed down by the McGuinty government:
Casey Kalvaitis, president of the Halton chapter of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, said he recently received a copy of a memorandum from the Ontario Ministry of Education, under the title Growing Success, which directly addresses the issue of marking late and missed assignments.So I guess the dog is allowed to eat Johnny's homework after all. Aren't liberal school policies just swell?
"Teachers must use assessment and evaluation strategies that are fair to all students," states part of the ministry document.
It later lists nine methods for dealing with late and missed assignments. The last entry, related to reducing marks, says it is to be "used as a last resort".
