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

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."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Hooray for Brollywood: the UK’s film industry is booming – for now
In The Spotlight US production giants are moving operations across the pond, but Trump tariffs threaten to bring British golden era to a sudden end
-
Child trust funds explained as over £1.5 million remains unclaimed
The Explainer HMRC data shows hundreds of thousands of young people have yet to claim money they are entitled to
-
How historically accurate is House of Guinness?
In the Spotlight The glossy Netflix show about the family behind the world-famous stout mixes fact with fiction
-
Penn wipes trans swimmer records in deal with Trump
speed read The University of Pennsylvania will bar transgender students from its women's sports teams and retroactively strip a trans female swimmer of her titles
-
Supreme Court may bless church-run charter schools
Speed Read The case is 'one of the biggest on church and state in a generation'
-
Harvard sues Trump over frozen grant money
Speed Read The Trump administration withheld $2.2 billion in federal grants and contracts after Harvard rejected its demands
-
Harvard loses $2.3B after rejecting Trump demands
speed read The university denied the Trump administration's request for oversight and internal policy changes
-
USC under fire for canceling valedictorian speech
Speed Read Citing safety concerns, the university canceled a pro-Palestinian student's speech
-
Florida teachers can 'say gay' under settlement
speed read The state reached a settlement with challengers of the 2022 "Don't Say Gay" education law
-
Biden administration to forgive $39B in student loan debt for 800K borrowers
Speed Read
-
Advocacy groups challenge Harvard's legacy admissions policy
Speed Read