School acts - not at all respectful of rights and best interests of students, That said, the school acts are all about the authority and who has final say.

” The School Act authorizes suspensions for only three reasons: if there are reasonable grounds for believing the teacher has been guilty of gross misconduct, neglecting the teacher?s duty or neglecting to obey a lawful order of the board.”
http://news.ca.msn.com/local/edmonton/edmonton-teacher-suspended-for-giving-0s

The third is of the utmost importance, - the lawful orders of a school board.

Now, what would be the actions of the Edmonton school board, if the entire school staff disobey the new rule, of the no-zero policies?  Would the board be in such a hurry to suspend all of the school staff, or would they be in a hurry, taking it to court to debate on the finer points on the so-called lawful orders of a school board.

No to both, and like other areas such as rules governing the naming of school clubs, healthy foods no one within the boards and the ministries are anxious to take it into the court arena, and let the courts decide if the school board have the lawful authority over and above the delivery of education services.

So, instead singular teachers are made examples of, but as I stated before, what would happen if a school disobey the no-zero policies?  It is happening in NL, where the no-zero policies have been in place for two years, schools not all,  across NL, are giving out zeroes for missed tests, assignments. I think in my region where I live, if the school board went the way of Edmonton board, they would end up suspending the whole staff of the 4 high schools, including the principals. Even if the board just pick on one school, the board would have their hands full, between dealing with the union and the parents who more or less are against the no-zero policies.

What would happen? More than likely, the no-zero policies will be dropped quietly by the school board, if all or some of the schools are disobeying the no-zeroes policies. Further more, how many parents would take the school to task for giving out a zero or not giving a zero for work that was not completed by their children? 

It is bogus to use the reasons, that it is a behaviour cause for incomplete or missed assignments, and than applied another set of parameters for grading that reflects ability. The two cannot be separated, much to the dismay of many, behaviour and ability are intertwined. Rather ironic, when behaviour of handing in assignments on time, are rewarded and has always been awarded since the 1960s.

Yes, I think the article correctly describes that the teachers have to follow the policies at the risk of being disciplined or even losing their employment.

One thing that happened to me personally was the following English homework assigned to my son: draw a mask that expresses what you felt when you were reading the Lord of Flies.
When I protested that this was an innapropriate assignment for English and that English should be about learning how to write and not about drawing half-hazardly the teacher told me that while she may agree with me to some degree, the situation is that not all the students are able to write well and the policy is to give assignments where everybody can so somehting. This assignment was a way to keep even the weaker students involved and make them feel successful!@??

POSTED ON BEHALF OF DOUG LITTLE

Make sure not to lump the union as part of the blob into the “no zero mark club”. OSSTF fought hard for the right to assign zero as a grade for work not submitted.

In Ontario the Education Act had been interrpreted over time as giving the principal the final authority over grades. I wish I had a nickel for every time I had to explain to an outraged teacher who told me “the principal changed my mark” brother, your mark is a RECOMMENDATION to the principal.

The union also opposed the “hand your assignment in any time you like before the year is over” policy. They are very dubious about ‘credit recovery’ programs. They are very easy to abuse.

The latest update -

Mr. Dorval is quoted - “According to provincial guidelines, schools get full funding if a student receives a mark of 50 per cent or more in a course, or if a student shows up half the time and gets a mark of more than 25 per cent.”
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2012/06/08/edmonton-no-zero-teacher-dorval-no-appeal.html

The official response -

“But a spokeswoman for Alberta Education says protections are in place to ensure schools don’t inflate grades or attendance numbers.

“We do a fair bit of auditing every year to check assignments and to check marks to make sure that we see what’s happening with kids that are falling between the 25 and 50 per cent,” said Kim Capstick.”

So students sitting at the 50 percent mark or lower, do not received full funding, compared to students who are 50 percent?  No WONDER, kids are not receiving the proper help, and parents have to fight and advocate hard for their children. This set of children are not receiving full funding.

Is it happening across Canada?  I have to say yes, because the only students who received early assessments, are the students who are failing core subjects, and I observed it, and follow suit in grade 3, and pulled home support for my child, so she too would be failing in all cored subjects. It just took 3 weeks for the school to call me and signed the papers, and then I put back the home support, to raise the grades of the core subjects. And I waited, and I waited, and the school was giving me excuses, and than I paid a visit to the lawyer and the family doctor, The assessment became a number one priority,

Could it be because her averages were above the 50 percent as well as having the extreme averages that dyslexics normally have, that led the school to put the assessment back on the back burner, because she was passing all core subjects? 

What a twisted response, for students that are failing, to received only partial funding.  If the education authorities were truly reviewing and auditing the work of students failing at the 25 % to 50 percent, it would be obvious even to them, there is a serious problem on the lack of a sound foundation in the 3 Rs.

Sure glad the local high school gives out zeroes, but I would hate to think if the school board decides to make a teacher another example like Mr. Dorval.

Student funding should only be tied in with attendance, but never on reducing student funding based on failing grades! ,

I still can’t comprehend this type of illogical thinking. It is not even rational, to think the prevention of grade inflation, the cure is to reduced student funding for the students who are struggling and receiving failing grades.

It is why the overwhelming responses of the 600 comments and climbing, are in total support of Mr. Dorval, and questioning the irrational and illogical reasons of the school board.