Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

The issues surrounding the firing of the Delaware teacher, Adele Jones ("Not Making the Grade,'' Sept. 15, 1993), demonstrate the necessity of replacing our time-driven, sorting-focused educational system with a system that is outcomes-based and in which student evaluation has a clearly defined meaning. The problem in the debate described in the article is that both sides are right in their criticism and wrong in their solution.

Giving students inflated grades for poor or mediocre work does not improve students' achievement or raise their self-esteem. As the students interviewed for the article clearly expressed, they know when they did or did not do high-quality work. Giving unearned high grades undermines the grading system in use and contributes to the meaninglessness of high school transcripts. Failing large numbers of students,...