Things change, children grow and so does The Columbus School. As far back as middle school, TCS students received zeros and extensions for their missing work. Yet this year this system is changing, for the better. Many individuals may differ with the new IE strategy since it’s very strict and harsh, however in the wake of hearing high school principal Roger Arbabi’s position, my opinion has changed.

For the last 6 months, the new IE approach expects students to demonstrate that they know what has been taught and show it to educators. This strategy is being utilized by all instructors at TCS and gives students an awesome chance to recover missing assignments and meet failed standards. “If a student doesn’t hand in a piece of work, it is hard to say that they don’t have the skill, so the idea behind it is that you put an IE in and the student would have to come in and make up the work,” Emily Butterworth 11th grade English teacher said. “The idea is just to help demonstrate if the student has or doesn’t have the knowledge,” she added.

The school realized giving students zeros in not successful because they compute their grades, figuring in the zero to see whether or not they pass. If students realize they end up passing with the zero, many choose not to do the work. IE’s have been created to help students and not ruin their grades since zeros increase the chances to fail a class. “One of the things that happened in our campus is we would give a zero to a student, and if you take a look at the grades from zero to one hundred the passing is sixty-five, meaning there are fewer chances of success and more of failure,” Arbabi said. He later added “Students were playing this diversion with numbers by computing their evaluations to check whether they wouldn’t fail in the event that they didn’t do the assignments.”

As indicated by NSBA.org giving students zeros for missing work ought not to occur on the grounds that it is a disciplinary issue and not a scholastic one, zeros should not be utilized as punishment for missing assignments. “Some might argue that neglecting to turn in an assignment is a behavioral issue rather than an academic one and that the best way to deal with a behavioral issue is with an appropriate behavioral punishment… No studies support the use of zeros or low grades as effective punishment.” NSBA.org

The IE arrangement at TCS will change for the following semester since they are simply beginning to implement them; once it’s set up it will be advantageous for all students rather than a punishment.