56% BS

My district has been piloting (last year and this year, with volunteer teachers) a grading scheme, which puts a grade cut off at 56%.  This means that even if a student does not turn in a single assignment, the lowest percent they can receive is a 56%.

I understand the desire for this scheme, but it is completely contrary to a percent grading.

The issue is that when a student earns a zero it becomes extremely difficult to recover from such a grade.  With this scheme is allows students to recover from poor decisions or poor scores easier.

The problem is that this does not represent their learning.  And students will learn how to manipulate such a mechanism.

However, that isn't my issue.  My beef is because I am a stats nerd.  If you are forcing all sub-56% scores to 56% then you are no longer dealing with percents.  The statistical understanding of a percent is probably the simplest concept to understand in statistics.  This policy is an obvious manipulation of the ignorant populous on the issue of grades.

As a student that did not always make the grade, but always tried their hardest; I would be very insulted that a student that did nothing could catch up to my performance simply because it was not possible to earn lower than 56%.

As an educator, I feel it is a free pass for students that want to put forth as little effort as possible.  I would rather have to report a final grade of "F" than to award a student a grade because they managed to turn in the final high score assignments.

It truly turns "earning" into "giving" grades.