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ED3604
Craig Findlay
A Critical Analysis of
The Current No-Zero Policy
Tanner Bexson
09/05/2015
was able to make the school look much better on paper since its on-track rates skyrocketed. Yet, this is to be expected since it was nearly impossible for students to
fail anything. With respect to the students, Cavena stated:
Many students continued to fall into similar categories-the students who didn't do
homework still didn't do it, those who didn't do much class work still didn't do much
class work, and a few opted out of an exam. But there was one major change: The
kids who once worked hard to pass by attending tutoring sessions decided to forego
the sessions. (Cavena, 2014)
Even though it is clear that the policy did not accomplish what it was set out
to accomplish, what is truly noteworthy is that administrators still did not reverse
the policy after teachers wanted it gone. Since, as Cavena states, a major metric
for rating a school, the freshman on-track rate, had increased nearly 30%, it is no
wonder that the administrators kept the policy (Cavena, 2014). Therefore, not only
is the no-zero policy seemingly not helping students, it is being enforced simply to
make the school look better at face value. Now it is granted that this case is done in
the USA with a letter grade based system and in Canada we typically use a
percentage-based scale, however we still enforce no-zero policies for the same
reason as the case above and still claim that zeroes unfairly skew percentage
grades towards 49%, which is considered a fail in most Canadian schools.
Tanner Bexson
09/05/2015
13. Report academic achievement, behaviour, and socialemotional development separately and accurately (pp. 145146). (AAC, 2013)
Another article from the AAC states:
Conversations on the topic of the use of zero often centre on only a
portion of the issue, and that is whether or not a mark of zero should
be used. The more important part of the conversation is in regard to
the premise on which the practice of not using zero is based. Simply
put, it is as follows: Students should not be given a zero for work not
completed; rather, they should be required to complete the work.
(AAC, 2013)
So, it seems that the AAC believes there is a dire misconception of what the
no-zero policy is actually trying to accomplish. As it is seen in the above quotations,
the AAC has found that the no-zero policy is to be used to instill motivation in
Alberta Board of Reference rule that his termination was unjust and that he had the
professional right to challenge his schools policy.
Given all the information, research and attempts made to implement the nozero policy, the central themes tend to gravitate around 2 main ideals in education:
Accountability and professional discretion. Perhaps no-zeroes works for one teacher
but not the one next door. It should be up to the teacher, a trained professional, to
decide what works best in his/her classroom. The no-zero policy hubbub could have
academics. There are things that everyone agrees on, such as keeping behavioural
assessment separate from academic assessment, accountability and expectation:
These are the key ideas that revolve around not giving a student a zero. As said
before though, imposing dogmatic policies have caused nothing but chaos and
distress in the educational system in Canada.
Tanner Bexson
09/05/2015
Works Cited:
Alberta Assessment Consortium (2013). Issues and Trends in Education. The Use of
Zero: Not the Real Issue. Retrieved from http://www.aac.ab.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2013/12/The_Use_of_Zero.pdf
Alberta Assessment Consortium (2013). What support is evident within Alberta
Education for a no-zero policy? Retrieved from http://www.aac.ab.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2013/12/No-Zero_Policy_Alberta_Context.pdf
Caneva, Gina (2014). For Students Sake, Say No to No-Zero Policy on Grading. The
Education Digest, 79.7, 52-54. Retrieved from http://0-