This is a case of the Educational system, although technically right, is looking very stupid and out of touch with reality when it comes to giving zeros to students who have not done their work. It is shameful though that a veteran teacher is going to lose his job over the issue.
“The Edmonton physics teacher who broke school policy by giving zeros to his students has decided not to appeal his suspension.
Lynden Dorval, a 35-year teaching veteran, had until Friday to file an appeal. He consulted with a lawyer who told him that based on past cases, his odds of winning are slim — a position also taken by the Alberta Teachers’ Association.”
Fighting the system is never cheap. The economic requirements essentially make the appeal process a joke.
“There’s a rare chance, or small chance, that I may have to pay for the whole hearing if I lose,” Dorval said on Friday. “I can’t take that kind of hit.”
Dorval became a hero to many for refusing to comply with the so-called ‘no-zero’ policy for incomplete assignments and missed tests at Edmonton’s Ross Sheppard High School.
We should seize the spirit of the Montreal protests and hold a demonstration to show our support for Mr.Dorval. It won’t happen because, unlike Quebec, the atomization and “me first” attitude quashes most impulses of solidarity before they begin.
“The thinking behind the policy, which was adopted by the school a year and a half ago, is that a failure to complete assignments is a behavourial issue, and marks should reflect ability, not behaviour.
But Dorval believes not giving zeros tells students that they don’t need to be accountable for their actions.”
The EPSB completely dropped that ball on this one. The PR that is dominating the news is almost completely negative against them. The issue of accountability is one that most people out of school can quickly and easily relate to. It spurs the gut reaction and the quick media analysis, as people tune out the explanation of why the board has a no zero policy in this particular school.
It should be a lesson to the Administration of the school and the superintendent as how not deal with an issue. This should have been resolved in house, because the nuance involved in putting forth their position is a no-win PR proposition.
“Dorval admits he first wondered if it was right to take a stand. But the response he’s received since then — calls, emails and letters from complete strangers, and talks with frustrated teachers — has validated his decision.
“It certainly has made my resolve even stronger than ever because the support I’m getting from people is just unbelievable,” he said.
Last week, Dorval said that he spoke out because as a 35-year veteran, he could retire and live on his pension if he lost his job, a price he expects to pay for speaking out.
He still hopes he can return to teaching, even on a part-time basis, once his suspension is complete.”
People of principle are hard to come by these days, I think Mr.Dorval would be an asset to any school that employs him.
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
8 comments
June 9, 2012 at 11:49 am
bleatmop
I’m not so certain I can fully support Mr. Dorval. First off, what did he do before he openly defied this No Zeros policy? Did he try to enact any change from within or did he go straight to open insubordination? What grade level is he teaching? What socioeconomic status level are the children’s families at that he is teaching? I think this story would pan out very differently if he were giving zeros to grade 12 students from upper middle class affluent students whose parents work 9-5 Monday to Friday (and thus have plenty of time to parent their children) as opposed to a poverty level grade 5 student whose parents work 3 jobs 18 hours a day and have no time to help their children with their homework.
I also think that the public reaction to this could be entirely different if the news articles were printed in a different way. If the article was printed to say that “Over-payed decadent unionist teacher has a 40% failure rate in his class and refuses to use administrations methods to support students. He is going to be suspended and then retire with his golden parachute pension, laughing all the way to the bank”, that the same people who are praising him now would be the ones bemoaning what a horrible person he is.
Is it any surprise that the Blogging Tories, the Wildrose Alliance, and the National Post have jumped all over this story? I haven’t been able to find any of the USian news agencies that have interviewed him, but my bet is that Fox News is one of them. Of course the overall narrative that I’ve read from the first three is that there is something rotten in the state of public education. None of them have been so bold as to suggest their solution, but I would also bet that the solutions they propose as this narrative develops is a private education system.
I’m not an educator and have no knowledge to the merits of this No Zeros policy. Is it supported by research? Is a blanket application of it an appropriate use? Would it be better off used in targeted circumstances? I don’t know the answers, but the skeptic in me feels that these are appropriate questions to ask the experts in this case.
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June 9, 2012 at 2:45 pm
The Arbourist
Did he try to enact any change from within or did he go straight to open insubordination? What grade level is he teaching?
Unknown for the first bit. He teaches grade 12 physics.
What socioeconomic status level are the children’s families at that he is teaching? I think this story would pan out very differently if he were giving zeros to grade 12 students from upper middle class affluent students whose parents work 9-5 Monday to Friday (and thus have plenty of time to parent their children) as opposed to a poverty level grade 5 student whose parents work 3 jobs 18 hours a day and have no time to help their children with their homework.
He taught at Ross Sheppard High School. I’m unsure of the socio-economic make up of that particular school.
Is it any surprise that the Blogging Tories, the Wildrose Alliance, and the National Post have jumped all over this story?
Like most right-wing flak machines they will use the story in the most beneficial light that supports their agenda.
I’m not an educator and have no knowledge to the merits of this No Zeros policy. Is it supported by research?
I am, and it is. :) It just that, as I stated in the blog post, it requires a bit of explaining as to the merit of not giving zeros. It takes about 2 minutes past what a reasonable soundbyte is allowed these days.
Is a blanket application of it an appropriate use? Would it be better off used in targeted circumstances?
It is on a per-school basis, depending on what admin’s opinion on the issue is.
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June 9, 2012 at 8:21 pm
Intheknow
bleatmop, I’m posting here to find out if you want to know what the real deal is or if you are just trolling for a reaction. You’ve garnered the attention of someone who can answer your questions.
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June 9, 2012 at 11:17 pm
bleatmop
Intheknow – Yes, my questions were sincere. I apologize if my post came off as trollish. Text forum comments are a horrible to convey tone.
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June 9, 2012 at 11:23 pm
bleatmop
I was more wondering if it could be applied to certain students only, perhaps ones that meet certain criteria, rather than just anyone who decides not to hand in an assignment.
Also Kudos to you for being an educator! It was actually between education and nursing for me when I was choosing my career. It just so happened that nursing called me first.
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June 10, 2012 at 10:38 am
Intheknow
As the policy was instituted (note here that it was not “discussed” or “slowly implemented”), there was a lot of discussion about how to make it work in the reality of the classroom. The teacher in question was active in those discussions. As far as I know, he was also compliant with the policy to give it a fair shake while also researching its pedagogical validity. It seems there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence supporting this policy, but not a lot of hard evidence. He raised awareness by emailing his research to the staff. If you consider the document found at the following site:
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Read+EPSB+letter+suspending+teacher+Lynden+Dorval/6708659/story.html
The result of his “awareness” campaign is listed as point number 3 on the list halfway down the first page.
Continuing with your questions, the school where the teacher worked is a grade 10-12 school. He was teaching mostly grade 12 students at the time of his suspension. To answer your question about SE status, I regrettably link you to some info from the Fraser institute. While I don’t appreciate their practices, the raw data speaks to the issue.
http://alberta.compareschoolrankings.org/high/Ross_Sheppard_School/Edmonton/Report_Card.aspx
That will give you an idea of our student population and how we’ve been doing recently on exams. To contrast, I am including links to 2 other schools, the first being a known proponent of no zeros and the second refraining from using the policy.
http://alberta.compareschoolrankings.org/high/Eastglen_School/Edmonton/Report_Card.aspx
http://alberta.compareschoolrankings.org/high/Harry_Ainlay_School/Edmonton/Report_Card.aspx
The suspended teacher said quite plainly that it was not his intention to retire at this time. His work looking into the policy resulted in a lot of information from researchers indicating _anecdotal_ evidence that the policy would work. The application of the policy has some interesting effects: students are less likely to tip a funding flag that occurs when at-risk students score 25% or less in a course, something that typically happens when a student is placed in a course that they are unprepared for or decide partway through they don’t want to take. This accounts for a small percentage of students but is a financial drain on the system as these students require a proportionately large amount of energy to track. It also serves to frame the district’s “Vision 2020” plan: “The District’s Vision 2020 of 100 per cent high school completion…” (Source: http://www.epsb.ca/board/april27_10/item02.pdf)
Regarding the implementation of a hybrid “targeted” policy, I think the following reading suggests something on those lines:
http://www.seenmagazine.us/articles/article-detail/articleid/845/compassionate-and-accountable-assessment.aspx
Again, sorry to accuse of trolling, and sorry about the factual tone on my end. I don’t want to shine a spotlight on myself, but the amount of conjecture floating around there is bothersome, so I decided to say something about it.
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June 11, 2012 at 7:35 am
VR Kaine
“The thinking behind the policy, which was adopted by the school a year and a half ago, is that a failure to complete assignments is a behavourial issue, and marks should reflect ability, not behaviour.”
That statement makes little sense to me. If a student put zero effort into an assignment, doesn’t a mark of zero reflect that?
It just appears to be more of an example of a PC nanny state to me? To Bleat’s point I can Fox News getting all bent about this, but although i wouldn’t agree to the same degree I do agree with the point. I don’t see how socioeconomic status has much to do with whether this is a good policy or not at all. No matter what, a kid has to understand that there’s consequences to his actions whether they have support or no support at home. In fact, if they have no support in my opinion at the Grade 12 level they’d have to be more self-reliant, and understand that there’s adult rules to follow.
When we’re treating Grade 12 students like little babies and there’s this much huff over a teacher handing out a zero to a bunch of near adults, I’d say it’s a pretty sad state of affairs.
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June 11, 2012 at 7:39 am
VR Kaine
Oops – hit “enter” too soon. I was going to finish with the comment that we’re encouraging adults to get mad and “take the zero” yet we’re discussing here on whether kids one year from adulthood should even be exposed to one. Seems a little off to me.
Either way, I say congrats to this guy for having the balls to stand out on his own as a leader and take a risk rather than waiting for someone else or a bunch of sheep to go ahead of him first.
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