Bayonne Lowers the Bar to 65 – Your Tax Dollars at Work [POLL]

In a move to make students feel more successful, public schools in Bayonne have lowered passing grade for all courses from 70 to 65.

Five measly points may not seem like a lot to you…but it’s the idea behind it that should you make you recoil with disgust.

The message here simply is that if you can’t climb the mountain to the summit, well, just make it to the first cliff.

According to this:

Passing class is about to become just a tad easier for all of Bayonne’s approximately 9,600 public school students.

After several months of preparation and discussion, Bayonne public school officials have decided to lower the passing grade in all classes from 70 to 65 as part of a three-year pilot program.

The reason: success leads to more success, according to Bayonne school honchos.

“We have very high expectations and standards for each one of our students,”

Superintendent of Schools Patricia L. McGeehan said in a statement last week about the change. “However, we must be sensitive to the unique challenges they face and provide strategies and interventions that help students achieve their goals.”

The final decision to lower the passing grade was made at a July 25 Board of Education meeting, said Rosalie Moran, district director of Title 1/Curriculum Team.

Moran said a committee examined effective grading practices and looked at what other districts were doing as part of the study that led to this change.

The committee found that an effective grading policy should minimize failure and reward the positive efforts of students, Moran said.

“Success leads to more success,” said Moran, adding this grading policy change will make students more competitive with students in other districts.

I think she’s got it all wrong.

Lowering expectations doesn’t lead to more success…it leads to mediocrity. And that’s what we’re paying hard earned tax dollars in some of our poorest districts to achieve.

Mediocrity!

And besides…if standards are higher in some districts, how does Ms. Moran expects that students in Bayonne can compete with other students given the lower passing bar there.

By lowering the bar for Bayonne public school students, they're doing a grave disservice to to the ones for whom they're in charge.

And besides that, wasting our precious tax dollars.