Should We Do Away With Zeros?
by Dr. Richard Marshall
A few days ago, one of the country’s premier educational organizations published a short piece titled, “Should Schools Eliminate Failing Grades?” I was particularly interested in the article, because I had written a manuscript several years ago arguing against the use of zeros in schools.
There are many reasons to stop using zeros in every school system. One of our earliest episodes on The Mental Breakdown podcast was on this topic! You can listen to it here.
The biggest reason is that a grade of zero sends all the wrong messages to students. In the first place it is mathematically incorrect. Virtually all grading systems are based on segments that span ten points. That is true except for the grade of F which has a span of 59 points. If all other letter grades span 10 points, then a grade of F should span 10 points. If a D is 60 – 69, then an F should be 50 – 59.
As soon as this is recommended, however, some folks get all excited about giving students credit they don’t deserve and that we are not preparing students for the real world. Rather than getting into the statistics and psychometrics of it, how about this: Instead of having an F span 59 points, let’s make an A worth 59 points. This means that if a student earns any score from 100 to 40, that student would get an A. That’s crazy you say? Why is that any crazier than making an F worth 59 points? Regardless of the letter grade, it illustrates how much a 59-point span distorts the grading system. It doesn’t matter whether the grade is an A or an F, the distortion is the same and it is huge.
The second reason for not giving a zero is that it puts a student into a hole so deep that it is very difficult for him or her to work out of it. For example, if a student earns one A and one C, the student’s average grade is a B. That’s because the two letter grades have an interval of 10 points. But if you get a grade of 100 and a grade of 0, the average is 50 (an F). If a student keeps earning 100’s on every assignment, they will have to get nine 100’s before their grade is a low A. That’s the effect of one zero.
A third argument against giving zeros is that when a teacher gives a zero, the teacher is saying “This assignment is important for your education. But if you decide not to do it, I will accept your decision to fail.” That is certainly not the message I want my children to get from their teachers. If the work is important enough to do, then let’s hold students accountable. Many argue that if a student doesn’t do the assignment, the student should get a zero. The student is either unable to do the assignment or the student is choosing not to do the assignment. If the student is unable, then more teaching must be done. If the student is choosing not to do the assignment, should the adults in charge accept a decision that has such negative consequences. It is the obligation of schools to educate students. By accepting that a student is unable to do the work that is assigned or by accepting a student’s decision not to do his or her work, a school is relinquishing its primary responsibility and it is giving up on this student. Is that really how we want our schools to function?
You can read the Washington Post article here. As you read it, be careful not to fall for those arguments that students deserve a zero, or that we are coddling students by making 50 the lowest F, or that we have to prepare them for the real world. No one deserves a zero, 50 should be the lowest F, and I can’t think of anything in the real world that operates as a zero does in education. A zero means a student can’t or won’t. But if all we are told is that a student “earned” a zero, we have no way of knowing which it is.
There is another example I use with my college students. Let’s say two middle school girls come to class and they do not turn in their homework. Typically, they are given a zero. No work, no points. But let’s say one student didn’t do her work because she was on her phone, planning a party, texting, and watching YouTube videos. The other student didn’t do hers because she had fled the home that night to protect her younger sisters from her mother’s boyfriend. Do both girls “deserve” a zero? Should a teacher give the second girl a zero? Both of these girls need an intervention. But they each need different intervention. And in neither case does a zero serve as an intervention.
We can, we must do better. And getting rid of zeros is an excellent step in the right direction.
Dr. Berney administrator
Dr. Berney is a Licensed Psychologist with over 10 years of clinical experience and specializes in pediatric psychology, neuropsychology, and forensic psychology. Dr. Berney provides a wide array of mental health services to his clients, including individual therapy, family therapy and parent training, psychological and neuropsychological assessment, forensic evaluations, and group therapy. In addition to his clinical services, Dr. Berney has conducts workshops and seminars to professional and community groups across the nation. He writes a weekly column in The Ledger entitled The Mental Breakdown and is co-author of several works, including the Handbook for Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child (available on Amazon Kindle), The Elimination Diet Manual (available on Amazon Kindle), and the Pediatric Behavior Rating Scale. Dr. Berney is also the co-host of two weekly podcasts, The Mental Breakdown and The Psychreg Podcast, both of which can be found on iTunes.
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