Teacher Fails Students Who Won't Do Work and Her School District Fired Her
By: Mustafa Gatollari (Distractify)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Diane Tirado was told she had to give students at least a 50% grade, even if they handed in zero work. She didn't and now she's lost her job.
By Mustafa Gatollari
May 27 2023, Updated 6:44 p.m. ET
It seems like there's an age-old conflict when it comes to school educators, one that Florida teacher Diane Tirado recently learned firsthand.
Some people don't understand why teachers are always complaining about their salaries (or lack thereof) because "they have it easy." Others think that educators deserve a ton of more respect, and compensation, than they currently receive for all of the work they're expected to do for the sake of our children. I mean they are shaping the future generations of humanity, after all.
Regardless of what you think of educators and the United States education system, there are some statistics that can't be denied: like the fact that, year-by-year, other developed countries are kicking our butts when it comes to getting their learning on.
I'm no expert, but I'd like to think that the reason for a dip in education rankings might be directly attributed to a dip in the quality of education itself. There are tons of reasons for the quality of education to fly below par, but there are a number of people who believe that one of the contributing factors is how much "easier" school is nowadays.
Diane Tirado believed giving students 50% credit when they make zero effort to turn in an assignment was coddling and served no benefit to their overall education. So she decided to ignore her school's "No Zero" policy.
Diane opted to grade her students based on the actual work they put into during their time at West Gate K-8 School in Port St. Lucie. The first assignment she gave her 8th graders for the semester was something I personally found kinda cool: keep a journal for two weeks, as if you were a 15th-century explorer.
They were expected to note important historical events and draw maps in their notebook.
But there were many parents who felt the history teacher of 17 years was piling too much homework on their children. Soon, Diane was getting called into the principal's office after groups of parents began calling the school to complain."I got called down to the principal's office because parents were not happy with me. It was ruining my life for weeks," she told the NY Post.
During her talks with the principal, Diane learned of the school's "no zero" policy and that the lowest grade a student could receive, even if they did no work whatsoever, was a 50. While still a failing grade, if a student decided to turn their grades around, they'd have a much better shot than they would with a bunch of zeroes in the grade book.
Despite knowing the school's policy, when a group in her class failed to even attempt completing the assignment, Diane decided she would give them no credit. "I'm used to kids not handing in work… but then chasing them until the report cards are in to make sure they make it up. But I don't give a grade for nothing."
On September 14th, 2018, Diane was fired from the school — she worked there for less than two months. When questioned, the principal said she was let go because she was still technically under the school's probationary period.
For Diane, the reason for her pink slip was clear: she refused to give students credit for nothing.
"I loudly bucked the system. I refused to do their policy. I guess you would call that defiance."
Diane left a message for students on her classroom's whiteboard on her last day at the school. It read, "Bye kids! Mrs. Tirado loves you and wishes you the best in life! I have been fired for refusing to give you a 50% for not handing anything in."
She posted the farewell message on her Facebook account, where it was shared over 3,000 times and amassed over 2.4k reactions with tons of people commenting on the post. Diane further explained why she shared the post and thinks that lenient grading systems are making "monsters" out of our children.
"It's absurd to give someone something for nothing and to do that is creating a future that is pretty darn bleak. We're creating monsters out of our children," she added. "We give them too much.. people that experience that kind of childhood then that's what you want, you're entitled for the rest of your life."
In an interview with WPTV, the St. Lucie school said that their institution doesn't implement a "no zero" grading policy. "There is no district or individual school policy prohibiting teachers from recording a grade of zero for work not turned in."
However, Diane pointed out to The Post that in bold, big, and bright read capital letters in the West Gate and Parent Handbook it says, "NO ZERO'S - LOWEST POSSIBLE GRADE IS 50%."
I guess that's whoopsie daisy on the school's part.
Diane's story began picking up steam not just online, but on local news outlets as well. She issued statements doubling down on her belief that lax public school policies are ruining students by allowing them to easily pass through the system.
And there were tons of teachers who, after seeing the story on Reddit, relayed some of their own thoughts and personal experiences with the "no grade below" 50 policy. Many of them echoed Diane's own belief
On the one hand, I understand concessions need to be made and advantages provided for those who have been at a historic disadvantage, be it due to their country of origin, socioeconomic status, ability, or the color of their skin.
On the other hand, I only need to look how far the US education system has fallen behind other industrialized nations to see we are probably doing something wrong. Maybe these "coddling" policies aren't really that effective?
What do you think?
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The "no grade below 50%" has been the policy in our school system for years now. I vehemently disagree with it.
Florida is actively promoting stupid and doubling down on it.
Is this a state policy or a district one?
So is my county.
This happens everywhere.
More than one teacher has told me their Job is to graduate students, not educate them. Administrations only care students are passed, failing a student invites trouble.
Florida simply raised stupid to an art form.
As far as I can tell from the article, it seems to be a school or district one.
I suspect it's more bureaucrats or bureaucracy rather than actual educators that's the problem.
So not the state “actively promoting stupid and doubling down on it”.
The state seems OK with it. And given the states position in, shall we say, certain school curriculums, my initial statement stands.
Maybe you'll get the chance next time.
I did and it doesn't change what I said.
An especially hateful, sweeping generalization.
I never thought they had the best interests of kids on their minds. And I agree the trophy mentality is detrimental.
Nothing posted since mine affects what I said.
Given recent trends in Florida, I'd say not. More of a reflection of reality.
I have always had a problem with slackers being rewarded. This 50% BS by schools in Florida and elsewhere is a perfect example!
Then my response to your repost is the same.
Nah, it’s just a sweeping generalization and as such is just plain wrong.
No question about it.
things like this are what
Lob a stone.
Then fail to capitalize the first word in a sentence.
Classic!
Seems to me 50% is still an F.
Not necessarily. Not if it’s graded on a curve. Or if final grade is scored on an average of all grades. If they are making a point of giving it a 50%, i doubtful this is straight A,B,C,D and F scoring.
Yep, an extension of victims mentality and the dumbification of our kids.
Spell check police today?
Yes, sometimes 50% is an F. Feel free to play around with this grading calculator:
However, a zero grade is zero, which also takes into account promptness in turning in the assignment. But, if a student doesn't turn in an assignment, s/he should receive a zero, not 50%/F. No one should receive credit for not doing the work.
Teachers also might convert number grades to letter grades. In the US, we use the A - F system.
0% effort deserves exactly 0% score.
End of story.
If the facts of this story are true, they illustrate a failure of expectations on the part of the school district.
Kids are not motivated to excel in life by allowing them to cruise through grade levels without putting forth effort.
Or they can not put in the effort and fail? How is that the school's or teacher's fault?
There is all this bullshit about parental rights, bow about parental repsonsibilities? If parents want more say about what goes on in the classroom then they get more responsibility for the results.
It is not. The fault, per this story, is a district that lowers expectations and demands that students be moved along even if they do not put forth the effort.
This story is about a teacher who refused to give a passing grade to students who refused to do any of the work.
The teacher was correct (and responsible) while her district is incorrect and irresponsible.
There were several kids in my class growing up that were left behind a grade.
Always felt kind of weird about that. Doubt that they ever caught up.
My dad had to repeat the 2nd grade. After Grandpa made it clear this was unacceptable, he buckled down, did the work, and earned an appointment to West Point, which he declined. He regrets declining it now.
Times are changing, way back in grade 7 I put forth no effort for the entire year and guess what.... I failed and had to repeat
I've told this story before, and after reading the seed it's even more relevant and justified.
When I was in my young teens, around 70 years ago, we kids from the Niagara Peninsula area of Ontario, Canada, would mix with the kids from western New York State, Buffalo in particular, during summer vacations at Crystal Beach, located on the north shore of Lake Erie just west of the Niagara River border. There was a terrific sandy beach, a great amusement park with a famous roller-coaster, and the fantastic Loganberry juice drink. Of course we talked about school and we Canadians were dumbfounded to hear the Buffalo kids bitch about their final marks if they were as LOW as 97% when all their friends were getting perfect 100% scores. We Canadians had to bust our asses to achieve an honours score of 75% and if anyone got into even the mid 90s they were considered Mensa geniuses, and NOBODY ever got 100%. 50% was a bare minimum pass and nobody ever got it as an undeserved gift. It really made us wonder about the American education system back then.
Of course those days were WAY before the invention of CHATgpt and its clones which will be a real boon for any lazy or ignorant kid to get nice high scores on their essays whether they're in the USA or Canada.
Good for her.
I do recall a class I should have failed, AP English, my senior year, literally the last class I had to pass to graduate for the last 2 years.
Our grade was more or less based on 4 essays, I didn't write 2 of them and didn't show up for at least 35% of the classes. In my mind I was already done with high school since my sophmore year, these were just formalities. The third was clearly a doing it the morning of bullshit essay, but was still apparently not bad.
Then the final. It was an essay about the Grapes of Wrath, and that book bored the hell out of me. I only read about 2/3 of it. My teacher called me in for a meeting and told me "you have failed this class, but you should never have been here to begin with. Your final essay was one of the best I have ever read and so I am going to give you a C so you pass."
I was fully expecting her to tell me that I failed and would have to do some summer school shit, and I would have been okay with that. I know that I didn't do the work and essentially blew that class, and my senior year off.
Point being, I trust a teacher's discretion lol.