• Livonia schools now lowering grades for bad attendance
    66 replies, posted
[QUOTE] If you have too many absences and you attend a Livonia High School, your grade can be lowered.That’s part of a new attendance policy which will affect a student that has more than 15 absences, according to [URL="http://www.livoniapublicschools.org/"]Livonia Public Schools[/URL]superintendent, Dr. Randy Liepa. WWJ spoke with Liepa about the absenteeism in high school. “I don’t know if I want to categorize it as a problem as much as I do the importance of students being in class in order to receive that instruction … to do the very best that they can with their educational program and opportunities,” said Liepa. Liepa says this new policy is just one of the steps to help prepare students for college and the work world. “With this review, we felt it was important to emphasis that being in school is as important as learning. And (we) wanted to provide an incentive to students to be in school,” said Leipa. Liepa says a student may be exempt from the new policy if they have an Individual Education Plan or long-term medical issues. [/QUOTE] There's an obvious problem with this, especially for teens with jobs, supporting their family, etc. There was a case related to attendance in Texas a while ago, that would serve a good example. [URL]http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/09/21/livonia-schools-will-lower-grades-based-on-attendance/[/URL]
"being in school is as important as learning" I don't even
I'm pretty sure if you have horrible attendance that's going to naturally lower your grades. Artificially taking even more off is just making the grading system unrepresentative of actual performance.
Good
[QUOTE=Goberfish;37793258]"being in school is as important as learning" I don't even[/QUOTE] Self discipline is important too.
We have a 5 day absence limit then anything over we have to pay as 'seat-time' $50.00 per class, or you fail the class.
Where I go to school they really don't care if you show up or not aslong as your grades are okay everything is peachy keen.
I'm surprised a school would want to lower the potential grades of students studying at it.
I agree on this. School is there to help you become more professional and attain discipline. A big part of that is going to classes and being there on time.
uh i'm guessing if you're not going to school on purpose you probably don't care about your grades anyway i don't know is that an unreasonable assumption?
[QUOTE=ThisGuy0;37793281]I'm pretty sure if you have horrible attendance that's going to naturally lower your grades. Artificially taking even more off is just making the grading system unrepresentative of actual performance.[/QUOTE] The thing is, it's not really that important when you get to Uni. I guess it could be dependant on what course you're doing. I'm doing my Bachelors in Visual Arts and I'm usually up to 30 minutes late and my grades are great
This is normal for every school in my country, even most universities. Is it really that shocking?
[QUOTE=ThisGuy0;37793281]I'm pretty sure if you have horrible attendance that's going to naturally lower your grades. Artificially taking even more off is just making the grading system unrepresentative of actual performance.[/QUOTE] This, the guys in my class that have bad attendance have bad grades as well, there's no point in doing this, all this is going to affect is people that have it hard in life and need to take a job and school at the same time, idiots that don't care about school in the first place won't care if they get their grades lowered since they're very probably already low to begin with.
I don't see whats the problem with bad attendance as long as you do the possible required essays and attend the exam. If you don't attend and you wont read the stuff at home you will get the grades you earn. Some people do stuff better at home, and it's a win-win situation because smaller group of students per teacher equals better learning (as long as the teacher is good at his job). I'm the kind of guy who can't focus easily during class because I get frustrated. Not because I don't care, but everything is designed so that it's so slow that anyone should be able to learn it. When I had physics lectures I always attended the first lesson and told the teacher I'm taking the course even though I won't be attending much. Because he was nice and knew I know my stuff, he didn't note down a single absence. During the lessons I was somewhere playing cards with my friends, and the teacher had less people to worry about and he still gets paid the same. I read the materials at home and it took a fraction of the time it would have taken to attend all the lessons. The first course was the only one I attended and I got perfect 10 out of every eight courses. The school rule says you cannot have more than 5 absences to get in the exam. But because it's a stupid rule only half of the teachers follow it after the first course. If you want to study at home you can appeal to study almost every course alone, but then you will have to do a shitton of, again, uselessly simple tasks that can take even longer to make than it would be taken at the classroom.
I go to this school. Before you all freak out, it's used in only extreme cases of poor attendance. The average student isn't even aware this system is in place because is never affected them.
I really hate the attendance requirement bullshit. I get sick more than 3 times in 9 weeks. I am naturally very prone to getting really sick. There's nothing I can do about it. I do all the work I need to do and turn it in if I miss it, but unfortunately many teachers have rejected my work because I was absent a day or two past my allowed absences. I really wish I was back in Virtual School. [editline]a[/editline] I would go to the doctor for a note, IF the nearest office wasn't a fuckton of miles from where I live.
Where I'm from they do this in public schools since the beginning of time. To avoid it the only solution is to go to a paid one where you basically buy your grades and you don't even have to go to the opening ceremony.
[QUOTE=ThisGuy0;37793281]I'm pretty sure if you have horrible attendance that's going to naturally lower your grades. Artificially taking even more off is just making the grading system unrepresentative of actual performance.[/QUOTE] Uh, have you ever been to public school? I mean, your point is completely valid, I know where you're coming from, I'm just saying.. it's completely possible to miss a lot of school and just blow-off all of the homework, and just ace the tests. Obviously not all schools are the same, mine for example, which is only twenty minutes from Livonia, (not implying they have the same curriculum), had a trimester system, and any student that had more than 9 absences during said trimester would get a failing grade for whatever class they accumulated 9 in, unless you appealed it with a doctor's note. In my opinion, it is a horrible system, I mean if you can understand the material easily enough, then I really don't see the point in punishing a student that can balance their absences and still pass a class. In my case, for example, I had over 90 absences for the overall year, but appealed it with a doctor's note, and again, it''s bullshit, at least to me. If I didn't have the note, they would of failed me regardless of my passing grades. Also, let me reiterate myself in saying that a public school education is far from glamorous... it's actually pretty disgusting how easy the work is.
But Livonia doesnt exist... Oh ! It's in TEXAS !
[QUOTE=Corey_Faure;37794099]I really hate the attendance requirement bullshit. I get sick more than 3 times in 9 weeks. I am naturally very prone to getting really sick. There's nothing I can do about it. I do all the work I need to do and turn it in if I miss it, but unfortunately many teachers have rejected my work because I was absent a day or two past my allowed absences. I really wish I was back in Virtual School.[/QUOTE] Here you just get a note from doctor and you aren't required to turn in the work as long as you're sick. Notes are really easy to get too, just go to a doctor and tell your temperature is above normal in the morning and you have a cough. Instant week off.
[QUOTE=ThisGuy0;37793281]I'm pretty sure if you have horrible attendance that's going to naturally lower your grades. Artificially taking even more off is just making the grading system unrepresentative of actual performance.[/QUOTE] The system is already unrepresentative of actual performance. I played the system for 12 years and essentially graduated school by doing less than half of the work that had been presented to me. They literally refused to fail me.
My school had a 3 day unexcused absence limit before you failed the quarter.
My school had no such rule, they calculated grades by a year's average, so some kid showed up the first three weeks, aced [I]one[/I] test and was away the rest of the year. At the end of the year he got a top grade in that subject, and the other ones he'd done nothing in he got no grades at all. It's ridiculous.
[QUOTE=Mingebox;37795358]My school had a 3 day unexcused absence limit before you failed the quarter.[/QUOTE] Whoa. I had over 10 unexcused days each half-year. Some people don't skip school because of lazyness. They should rather try to solve the cause of the bad attendance.
This is how most college courses work. My one professor this semester told the class that we're allowed only 1 unexcused absence for the semester and our overall score will drop a grade for every unexcused missed day after that. So basically if you missed 3 days, best you can hope for is a C. And his list of "excused" absences are only: 1. A death in the family, 2. A doctor's note.
Colleges with only one excused absence are kind of bullshit. Who gives a shit how many days you miss if you get a good grade and know the subject.
[QUOTE=FunnyBunny;37795603]Colleges with only one excused absence are kind of bullshit. Who gives a shit how many days you miss if you get a good grade and know the subject.[/QUOTE] It's subjective to each professor. And honestly, 99% that I've met don't enforce them in the most strictest manner. I could probably get away with a couple absences with no issue. Personally, if you're paying for the class (whether out of your own pocket or through a loan), I don't see the genius in missing any classes anyway. It's a waste of money.
My school had a similar policy and it did not cause problems, if you had a legitimate reason to miss class then you just had to attend make up days or get a waver from an administrator. Sure there are students who have real issues but those are normally excused or waved. If you are missing more than 15 unexcused days I would say that it is fair to penalize you.
[QUOTE=imptastick;37795672]My school had a similar policy and it did not cause problems, if you had a legitimate reason to miss class then you just had to attend make up days or get a waver from an administrator. Sure there are students who have real issues but those are normally excused or waved. If you are missing more than 15 unexcused days I would say that it is fair to penalize you.[/QUOTE] Make up days? Like you had to stay a few weeks further into June than the rest of your classmates? [editline]25th September 2012[/editline] Oh, I forgot to mention - Many, many professor count class attendance as part of your "class participation grade". So failing to appear drops your grade in that respect.
[quote]important to emphasis that being in school is as important as learning.[/quote] they could at least pretend as though they don't think of school as a holding pen
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