Failing Grades High School Students

While reading Ken Bain’s book “What the Best College Students Do” of the five different types of students he describes, I feel like I fall under the label of one having mediocre grades but achieving success. I make good grades, however I do not necessarily believe my grades always reflect my hard work, determination and effort put in, similar to his theory on false hope in standardized testing. Throughout my school career, I have consistently made A and B grades. I can remember only one C grade, which was a quarter grade, and very disappointing, but a lesson learned. At the same time though, and as Bain helped me realize through his text, grades are not everything and making a C is not something that is going to kill me; there is simply more to school than a letter grade. In fact he points out through most of the 1800s schools only used two grades, pass or fail. As seen nowadays, schools have since adopted the letter grade system.

For the duration of my high school years I have had my fair share of bad grades, just as any student has. An “F” on a vocabulary test, “D” on a math quiz, or even getting a “C” on my midterm exams is all failures to me. I will be the first to admit that I have never been the top- ranked 4.0 student, but getting a

Many students go through their academic career struggling to balance school and personal life while maintaining focus in the classroom. In the passage, “In the Praise of the ‘F’ Word,” Mary Sherry argues that the only way for unfocused students to become motivated in their academics is for teachers to threaten them with a failing grade. We should disagree with the author because many students struggle with obligations outside of school, personal problems, and family responsibilities. Therefore, many students would not improve their studies once they receive a failing grade, but instead, become overwhelmed with failing and attempting to balance numerous other responsibilities.

I agree with the author that the ranking of the school has become the most important thing for students to consider when applying for university. Since the students also believe it that way, colleges try to increase their ranking by using these students. The author says, “Colleges are increasingly deploying huge marketing machines that flood students’ mailboxes with glossy brochures whether or not those students are qualified.” To earn a higher ranking, the college must have a lower acceptance rate. Therefore, colleges are creating a false hope for families in order to receive more applications, so they can reject more and directly increase their acceptance rate. Other than that, the students also suffered a lot in order to get into the top college. Because of the low acceptance rate, the applicants need to be perfect in high school. They need to take almost exclusively AP and accelerated classes, participate in many clubs, serve the communities and sleep an average of four hours a night. This might affect the students’ mental physical health. For example, Kathleen developed extreme migraine, scoliosis, and ovarian cysts when she tried to get into the university she

The results from this study show that students from low income households have a significantly lower chance of receiving a bachelor degree than those coming from higher income households, which one could probably assume. Even the students that preformed at the top of their class in eighth grade, but lived in low income households had less than thirty-three percent chance of completing college (Roy). This astonishing fact proves that even the highest achieving students still do not have a guarantee of receiving a college education, if their parents have no way to afford it. Another study, conducted by the National Student Clearninghouse Research Center, tracked two million, three hundred thousand people from high school into college to track their performance while in college based on where they attended college. They found that low income students from lower income high schools tended to wait a couple years before enrolling in college while high income students attending higher income high schools enrolled in college the fall semester after graduating high school. Out of these participants, twenty-two thousand, one hundred eight students continued their education into college, and eighty-one percent of these college students successfully completed at least their second year of schooling (Sparks ).

Pérez, Angel B. "Want to Get Into College? Learn to Fail." Education Week. N.p., 11 May 2016. Web. 16 Sept. 2016.

“When students focus their attention on grades and how they are performing, learning may not result”-Joseph Holtgreive.

According to Alfie Kohn's essay "The dangerous myth of grade inflation," one of the most commonly-cited truisms in education today is that higher education is 'easier' than it was in the past. Critics contend that grades have become puffed up while student performance has actually weakened. Kohn believes this is a culturally-produced myth rather than a statistically justified reality. In fact, the notion that grades were less generously bestowed to students is a durable cliché which extends back to the 19th century, and is not merely relegated to our own era. Today, the perpetrators cited as the worst offenders are liberal professors from the 1960s who have lapped up a generally permissive attitude from that era. But "a report released just this year by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that fully 33.5 percent of American undergraduates had a grade-point average of C or below in 1999-2000" (Kohn 2002: B7). Kohn sees the anxieties about grade inflation as indicative of a larger cultural anxiety of what it means to be an educated person, and believes that a fixation on grades is a fundamentally misguided way to improve the American educational system.

“It’s not my fault, but it is my future.” This statement was a common theme throughout Jullien Gordon’s talk, ‘The Other 4.0’. I attended Jullien Gordon’s presentation last Thursday, and with full confidence I can say that it was one of the most inspiring, as well as informative, speeches I have ever heard. He talked to us about, how having a 4.0 GPA is wonderful and certainly honorable, but in the real world no one is going to care about how perfect your GPA was in Undergraduate and Graduate school. Professionals hiring you for jobs are going to care about your accomplishments outside of the classroom as well. While I was sitting listening to Gordon speak, I couldn’t help but notice that it was ironic that I was attending this presentation

Middle school, that odd transitional period of grades 6, 7, and 8, is an awkward time for all. Like the overlooked middle child, middle school is granted naught in the way of remarkable characteristics (neither the care-free fun of elementary school or the expanded freedom and importance that defines high school). Such a proving ground of inelegance, though, provides a magnificent springboard, a crisp sable slate, just primed for self-reformation. Failure is a step in the process, and only notable failures can contrast themselves against an environment as imperfect as a middle school jazz band.

In an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education titled “What Our Education System Needs Is More F’s”, Carl Singleton argues that the key to American education is giving out more F’s. Singleton believes that giving out a greater amount failing grades will motivate students to learn the required material and push them towards achievement. He argues that the more failures teachers give out, the more students will have to deal with the reality that their lack of knowledge on the subject is the reason they failed to earn the passing grade. He also states that increasing the number of failing grades will force the students’ families to play a more active role in their child’s education. Singleton also believes that a rise in failure would result in more school funding to accommodate the failing students.

But fear of failure, whether economic or academic, can motivate both.” However I believe some children do value their education just as much as an adult might; not all children need flunking as a means of motivation for them to act studiously and get good grades. Although, I do concede that some children disregard their education, I still maintain not all children disregard their education. There are many children who value their education as much as an adult might without the fear of failing. AP students for example, AP students show how much they value their education by taking AP classes.

If a student has a poor grade they might be too busy with an extracurricular activity. For example if you do a sport like soccer, track or basketball they might be too busy to do any work once they get home. Because during track tryouts after school I would go to the tryouts, then I would do my homework, get in the shower and study Spanish until I had to go to bed, and I only had about 30 minutes to study. I wouldn't even enough time to do any extra credit work. Did you know that on 40% of high school students get straight A’s! I bet that at least another 20% of students get at least one poor grade. If that's true then students wouldn't have enough time to bring up a

With the pass-fail system it is easy to judge and give all the negative reasons for why it would not work; however, when digging under the seeming faults of the pass fail system one will be able to see the ways around the faults. The pass fail system in fact would craft a better system than letter grades. Critics challenge the pass-fail system on the assumption that students will not be motivated to work. In contrast, in the pass-fail system the classes would be cumulative with a final oral presentations and portfolio due at the end of each semester instead of a final test. For students to

1. Family problem – family issues affect students performance in school as students are not cognitively developed but psychologically,emotionally, or affectionately developed too therefore if they are in a bad state or when family issues such as child abuse,sibling rivalry and many more are burdened on students there is the possibility for the student to flop especially in a case where the student is an excellent child.