By ZEN T.C. ZHENG
Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

The Aldine school district is among six school districts challenging a new state mandate that requires teachers to give a student a true grade on assignments and examinations rather than a grade of at least 50 on report cards.

Attorney David Feldman said he filed the lawsuit with Travis County district court Nov. 18 on behalf of school districts that also include Alief, Fort Bend, Klein, Clear Creek and Anahuac.

Texas Education commissioner Robert Scott is named the defendant on the suit, which claims he overstepped his authority in issuing an “erroneous” interpretation of the law and urging districts to abide by it.

The mandate, which was drafted as Senate Bill 2033 by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, came out of the 81st Legislature.

In an Oct. 16 letter to all school districts in the state, Scott stressed the legal requirement to record “honest grades” of students, along with an explanation of specific practices to follow the new law.

Nelson, a former school teacher, said she was “disturbed” by the school districts seeking to "sidestep" the law.

"A student's grades should always be based on merit. Basing them on anything else harms the students, the teachers and the credibility of our schools," she said in an e-mail to the Chronicle.

New mandate

Many districts across the state have policies that set the numerical grade of 50 as the lowest grade a teacher can give a student when student’s actual grade falls below 50.

Under the new law, a district "must require a classroom teacher to assign a grade that reflects the student’s relative mastery of an assignment."

Also, the district may not require a classroom teacher to assign a minimum grade for an assignment without regard to the student’s quality of work.

In addition, the district may allow for "a reasonable opportunity to make up or redo a class assignment or examination for which the student received a failing grade."

In his letter, Scott highlighted a TEA requirement of "decisions on promotion or course credit to be based on academic achievement or demonstrated proficiency," which should be reflected by "actual assignment grades" in line with the new legislation.

He said the new law requires “honest grades for each grading period,” which also is endorsed by an existing state law, which, since 1995, “has required decisions on promotion or course credit to be based on academic achievement or demonstrated proficiency.”

"If the six weeks grades do not reflect the actual assignment grades, they would not reflect academic achievement or demonstrated proficiency,” he wrote.

Scott also said the new legislation allows a student to make up or redo a class assignment or examination for which the student received a failing grade.

“Keeping students in school”

The lawsuit, however, argues that Minimum grading policies for report cards are “a key tool for keeping students in school,” and asks the court to allow the districts to interpret the new law individually.

“(The policies) ensure that a student may still gain credit for a course as a whole and, in turn, continue progressing towards graduation, even after receiving a failing grade in, say, the first grading period, provided they can attain requisite grades in subsequent grading periods for the course,“ Feldman says in the lawsuit.

"Under most grading policies, for a student to receive credit for a course, the student must attain an overall passing grade that is based upon the average of the grades received for each grading period. If school districts award failing grades below a minimum threshold, borderline students who perform poorly in any grading period might be unable to raise their overall course average to passing, even if they receive passing grades in all other grading periods for the course."

“Not morally right”

However, the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, which represents 50,000 public school members across the state, thinks otherwise.

"It defies logic that a series of grades not subject to an arbitrary minimum could somehow magically average to a higher minimum grade as a composite," it states in a letter to Scott while urging him to issue an interpretation of the new law.

Dwight Harris, an official with Fort Bend Employee Federation, a district teacher union, said he learned about the concerns from teachers personally.
“I don’t think it’s morally right and honest,” Harris said. “As a parent, I would want to know my child’s real grade, not something he didn’t earn.”

He said reflecting a child’s failure truthfully could spur the student to work harder and greater effort to help the student succeed.

Harris said he believes not showing any student grade falling below 50 would make the district look better.

“Or it could affect the district’ accountability rating,” he said.

Lawmaker “appalled”

In her e-mail, Nelson said the purpose of the law is "to prevent teachers from being forced to give students grades they had not earned."

Leading up to the legislative session, Nelson said she heard from teachers who were being prohibited from assigning grades below a 50, 60, or in some cases, 70 percent.

"I was appalled," she said.

She asked Scott if this was pervasive.

"He was as perplexed as I was, so at a conference of teachers, he asked for a show of hands if any of the teachers worked on campuses that had such policies in place. Half the hands in the room went up," Nelson said.

"Commissioner Scott has now told superintendents in very clear language that the law applies to all grades, including cumulative report card grades," Nelson said.

zen.zheng@chron.com