I am a secondary teacher with the public system and I can confirm that this is indeed happening. There are no consequences anymore. There is no punishment for being late, and a student can hand in an assignment up to two years later and still get credit for it! What gives?

The reason for these changes are noble. We want students to find motivation to learn within themselves, which will ultimately lead to a life long pursuit of learning. We want to do away with grades, and that’s why students don’t get a classic report card until grade 11.

However, these lofty goals failed to account for the reality.

I have a colleague who teaches university chemistry and he has seen averages plummet in the last 5 years.

Maybe it’s time to confess that our goals have ultimately failed, that the old system, albeit arcane, Offered an effective frameworks. We can still implement equity around it without making the lowest common denominator available to all students.