After we all submit our scores each week, a list is generated of all students receiving an "F," and lists the classes in which they are failing by teacher. This list is sent to all teachers every Friday. As you can probably guess, some teachers have more failures than others.
I typically do not have many failures. This rarely fails (ha!) to get noticed, and I have teachers coming to me to discuss exactly what I do in my standards-based scoring system.
The number one comment I get after my explanation is this:
"So, basically, it's impossible for kids to fail in your system. What if they don't do any of their work? They should fail, shouldn't they?"
I wouldn't say it's impossible for students to fail my class, but it is pretty difficult. But that's not because my class is easy. If they do not show enough evidence of understanding on each of the I can statements, they get a "No evidence" in my gradebook until they provide enough evidence. Since I do my best to provide opportunities for displays of understanding during class time, this usually isn't a huge problem (unless they are chronically absent and do not take advantages of those opportunities as makeup work).
But I'm also a big believer in what Doug Reeves says in his video on toxic grading practices: the consequence for a student not doing the work should be that the student has to do the work. I do not assign work so students can choose not to do it; I would like to believe my assignments are crucial to their success in understanding and mastering concepts and skills. Therefore, students are required to do all the work. I do not fail students who don't do it--I give them incompletes. After this appears on a report card and after a few well-timed calls home, I usually get the evidence I need. For example, at semester time, I gave 23 students incompletes. Yes, you read that right: twenty-three. Why? Because they didn't complete or turn in their semester exam ePortfolios, which was their final, most recent evidence of understanding for the semester. I called all parents, informed counselors and administrators, and checked in on them every day. The result? Out of those 23, only 2 still have not submitted it (21 of them turning it in within a week of it being late). And every week I check up on those two, letting them know they must still turn it in.
In other words, I don't believe in giving students an F to punish them for not doing their work, to teach them some kind of lesson. In my many years of teaching, I have never seen a student on whom I have slapped the "F" label find this the motivation they needed to do better in class. I do believe in giving students many and varied opportunities to demonstrate understanding, and I believe it's my job to make sure they follow through with completing those opportunities.
I also believe that all students know something, and they all can learn and improve and make great strides towards mastery. I also believe it's my job to report at what level students are in their understanding. In the grading system I use, a mark that says "they know nothing" isn't viable or truthful--not when I know students do come in with a start at understanding. If they do not improve this understanding, that's my fault, not theirs, since I see my job as providing the right environment necessary for improvement in their learning. I just can't see slapping the label of "FAILURE" on students when I'm the one that failed to help them learn by not doing my job correctly.
Don't get me wrong--I'm not saying that students who don't do their work are totally blameless. It's still their job to do the learning, to work towards mastery, and fix their mistakes. I try to set up all my learning activities so students have to be active learning participants. I find that students that are used to skating by in the "students are to sit quietly and be passive vessels to be filled from the fount knowledge in the front of the room known as the 'teacher'" system of education are the ones who won't do my work--because they are not used to doing/don't know how to do real learning. These are the students that keep me busy--visiting them in study halls, talking to counselors and support staff, calling their parents, and sitting next to them in class, helping them through the process of learning on their own.
When a teacher asks me if students should fail if they don't do their work, these are the questions that have started rolling around in my head: Why is being able to "fail" a kid so important? What does that "F" really mean when teachers assign that label on a student? And, more importantly, to whom is that evil little letter more meaningful--the student, or the teacher?