The Sweet Smell of Compromise in the Morning

I've previously discussed the Pittsburgh School's policy on 50% being the "minimal" grade. I was pleased to see some different attitudes being used towards a failing school system, but I was concerned that the administration appeared to be largely just pissing off teachers. I'm happy to report back a few months later, that the administration did take teacher feedback into account and has adjusted their hard line. If students refuse to even do the work, they will get a zero. However, as long as they put in a "good faith effort", they will earn a baseline of a 50%.

If the school district continues to respond to teacher complaints with action, perhaps there is hope for Pittsburgh schools after all. That's something that the Mayor's office can learn, too.

UPDATE: The above-mentioned changes are effective immediately. However, next year, the school district is making a bold change and moving to a five-point scale, where students receive grades of 1 through 5. And as a result, they're doing away with F altogether?

Under the new scale, work scored from 4 to 5 will be an A, 3 to 3.99 a B, 2 to 2.99 a C, 1 to 1.99 a D, and zero to .99 an E.

Let's all cross our fingers and hope that this change was done with teacher input.