For more students nationwide, the grading alphabet ends at "D," as school districts eliminate policies that allow children to be given failing marks. At public schools in Grand Rapids, Mich., high school students will no longer receive "F"s but instead will earn the letter "H" when their work falls woefully short. Superintendent Bernard Taylor told ABCNews.com that the "H" stands for "held," and is a system designed to give students a second chance on work that was not up to par. "I never see anyone doing anything but punishing kids," said Taylor. "If the choice is between letting kids fail and giving them another opportunity to succeed, I'm going to err on the side of opportunity."...
Alan Kazdin, a professor of psychology and child psychiatry at Yale University, believes that schools that veer away from giving children the grades they have earned, even when it's a zero or an "F," aren't doing anyone any good.
"Children aren't going to gain from ambiguous information regarding their grades," said Kazdin.
"The fact is children are failing yet we don't want to call it that," said Kazdin. "It's this whole notion that everyone's a winner and everyone gets a trophy."
Kazdin argues that children are perceptive enough that they will eventually realize they aren't doing well in school whether teachers give them "F"s or not, and that hiding their true level of achievement will only confuse them further.
"The task is to change the reality, not the labeling of it," he said.
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