No-Zero Policy: Sign of Rot in American Education

Just when one thought there couldn’t be fewer expectations in schools, the public-education establishment came along and tossed the rest out the classroom window. School districts across the country — from Arizona to Minnesota and Connecticut — have done away with zeros. Whether a student performs poorly on a test or simply hands in no work, the lowest grade teachers can assign is 50 percent.

This fad isn’t new. The New York Daily News reported in 2013 that it was “common practice” at individual city schools to forgo grades lower than 55 percent even if kids didn’t attend classes. As an emergency measure during the pandemic, it was an official policy for schools in New York to ban failing grades. While it’s no longer official policy to forgo Ds and Fs, the district pressured teachers to pass failing students, even many who never attended class.

About the Author

Daniel Buck

Daniel Buck is a research fellow and the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute.

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Just when one thought there couldn’t be fewer expectations in schools, the public-education establishment came along and tossed the rest out the classroom window. School districts across the country — from Arizona to Minnesota and Connecticut — have done away with zeros. Whether a student performs poorly on a test or simply hands in no work, the lowest grade teachers can assign is 50 percent.

This fad isn’t new. The New York Daily News reported in 2013 that it was “common practice” at individual city schools to forgo grades lower than 55 percent even if kids didn’t attend classes. As an emergency measure during the pandemic, it was an official policy for schools in New York to ban failing grades. While it’s no longer official policy to forgo Ds and Fs, the district pressured teachers to pass failing students, even many who never attended class.