Word: grades
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Though Sherri continuously inspires me, creating a relationship with her has been a difficult and ongoing process. When I think about my closest friendships, I realize that many of them were ignited by similar interests. Whether impersonating Madonna at my fifth grade talent show with Rachel, traveling from Camp Scatico to Cannes with Dina, hitting seedy New York dance clubs with Judd, gorging food with Madeline or sharing a room the size of a closet with Heather, my friendships have emerged out of shared experiences. While I'm not best friends with these people just because we had a jazzy...
...giving students who pass the MCAS an "honors diploma" sounds an awful lot like the grade inflation that Alejandro Jenkins talked about in his column ("A Fool's Complaint," Opinion, Dec. 1). Under this system the MCAS would quickly fade into the background along with all of the other standardized tests that high school students take...
Much has been written lately about grade inflation in American colleges. I am uneasy addressing the topic, having benefited so abundantly from it. But there can be no doubt that this same unwillingness to label anyone as fundamentally unfit lies behind it. Intelligent students at the University of Costa Rica can hardly expect to go through college without failing a couple of courses, some of them two or three times in a row. A friend tells me of a math professor who gives no credit if a problem in a test has an incorrect answer. He then goes back...
Some parents criticized this cutoff, which is just above the "failing" level, as too low a standard. However, judging from last year's eighth grade test results, many students will not be able to raise their scores enough over the next three years even to reach the "needs improvement" level. Last year, 40 percent of students scored in the "failing" category on the math section, while 13 percent failed the English portion. If these same students took the test tomorrow, they would not receive their diplomas...
...students who will be clawing for their passing grade were first exposed to this type of test in eighth grade, and their low scores did not come as a great shock. The standardized frameworks for English and math, on which the test is based, were completed only a couple of years ago. Since they were distributed, teachers have been expected to adapt to these frameworks, and students have tried valiantly to mold their answers to the format that the MCAS encourages. However, the timetable has been too short, and it is the students who are being shortchanged...