Only in America: California school district will give passing grades to failing students

Coddling students will ultimately do them no favors.

(Image credit: iStock)

published 30 October 2015

A public school district in Northern California will soon give passing grades to students with failing scores in order not to demoralize them. The schools will adopt the "equal-interval scale," which deems a passing grade to be anything above 20 percent; scores between 80 and 85 get an A-. "This isn't giving a student hope," said one angry teacher. "It's lowering standards in order to raise grades."