Despite that people both in and outside this province seem to believe there is a no-zero policy in local schools, Darrin Pike, CEO and director of education for the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, has a different opinion.
“We don’t have a no-zero policy,” he says.
In Wednesday’s Telegram, there was both a letter to the editor and an article quoting educator and author Michael Zwaagstra, who ridiculed the local policy of teachers not being able to give zeros or fail students for incomplete work.
Peter Whittle, the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of School Councils, also told The Telegram Tuesday the federation is waiting for proof from the school board that a no-zero policy works.
“They’ve had three years to prove that it works and we’d like to see if it is demonstrated to be so, because right now we’re really not seeing a whole lot of research evidence that strongly supports this particular assessment evaluation policy,” Whittle said.
Which begs the question why a policy that doesn’t exist is getting so much ridicule.