College students are not OK, writes Jonathan Malesic, who teaches first-year writing at Southern Methodist University, in a New York Times commentary. Photo: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels Remote high school and college classes have left students apathetic and silent. They’re still on mute. Last fall, he was teaching at a private and at a public university.  “By several measures — attendance, late assignments, quality of in-class discussion — they performed worse than any students

Many believe “extrinsic” motivators, such as incentives,  “decrease student effort by eroding students’ intrinsic desire to learn,” they write. In a 1993 book Punished by Rewards, Alfie Kohn and others promoted this idea. But inspiring students to want to learn for its own sake is very hard, write Tyner and Petrilli. There’s evidence that external accountability can motivate students. Exit exams are effective in countries where the standards are high, they write. Here, states

“Making graduation too easy” doesn’t just undermine “the motivations of students (and teachers),” writes Robert Slavin, who directs the Center for Research and Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins and chairs the Success for All Foundation. “It also undermines the motivation of the entire system” to improve. If educators can keep doing what they’ve always done, knowing that numbers will be fiddled with at the end to make everything come out all right, then the whole system can

Is 50 is the new 0?, writes Kate Stoltzfus on Education Week Teacher. Schools in Maryland and Virginia are implementing “no zero” policies to make it harder for students to fail, reports the Washington Post. Often, the minimum grade is 50. In Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Schools, “students will be allowed to turn in work late and they’ll be allowed to retake tests if their first score is less than 80 percent,” reported WTOP last year. In addition, a  “no zero” policy will

Telling kids they can go to college, even if they earn mediocre or poor grades, undercuts the work ethic they’ll need to succeed, writes Nick Ehrmann in The Atlantic. He describes bright underachievers who slide through high school with C’s and D’s, go to college and fail. Travis Hill at age 11 (left) and 17 (right). Photo: Nick Ehrmann “Bright and conscientious,” Travis Hill joined Ehrmann’s fourth-grade classroom in a Washington, D.C. school in 2000. “He participated consis

School assignments killed his son’s love of reading, writes Tony on Leading Motivated Learners. Reading logs and summaries became a chore, he writes. Written responses were “never checked or responded to.” “Book reports . . . became more about drawing some amazing picture to go on the cover of the report than anything else,” Tony complains. “They were also so formulaic that little thought went into completing them.” Johann Sebastian Bach Instead of reading a passage, then ans

“Academic apathy” is common in high school, writes Laura Handby Hudgens on The Federalist. She thinks  students are burning out in middle school. “Up until sixth grade I had never made less than an A in any of my classes,” Leo told her. “By seventh grade, I was just tired. I just didn’t care anymore. I just quit trying.” When her son started kindergarten, she “looked around his classroom and saw rows of tiny tables and chairs, but not a single toy. Where was the little kitche