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For years, teachers have been told that students need accountability, responsibility, and high expectations. We know that rewarding students by giving a minimum grade of 50 percent for doing absolutely nothing is counterproductive and hurts everyone. But, many teachers have been required to follow these exact grading policies that seem to send students the exact opposite message. Now South Carolina is pushing back and honestly, every state should.
Beginning with the 2026–27 school year, schools and districts in South Carolina can no longer require teachers to give students a grade higher than what their actual performance warrants. Shocking, we know! That means schools can no longer require what many teachers know as a “minimum F” typically a policy in which the lowest grade a student can receive is 50%, even when the student earns far less or doesn’t turn in any work at all. South Carolina state Rep. Fawn Pedalino, who introduced the legislation, said the change is going to “make grades matter again.”
She has a point.
“No Zero Policies” Are More Common Than You Might Think
There isn’t a reliable national count of exactly how many states use no zero policies because these policies are often determined by individual districts or schools rather than state governments. However, we do know they are widespread. We see teachers complaining on every message board and in every related social media post. In a 2024 RAND survey of 967 K–12 teachers, 27% said their school or district had a “no zeros” policy. Even more interesting, 81% said that giving partial credit for assignments that were never turned in was harmful or very harmful to their students’ academic engagement.
Texas has already prohibited districts from requiring teachers to assign minimum grades for assignments. Now South Carolina is taking its own stand against mandatory minimum F’s.
Other states should follow suit.
A 50% for Doing Nothing Doesn’t Make Sense
The argument for no zeroes isn’t completely ridiculous. Supporters do have a point. On a traditional 100-point grading scale, the F range is enormous compared with every other letter grade. A student can earn one zero and watch their average fall off a mathematical cliff. Suddenly, they need approximately 20 perfect assignments, three extra-credit projects, and a minor miracle just to get back in the passing zone.
And yes, kids deserve grace.
Students get sick. Families go through crises. Kids struggle with mental health, unstable home situations, and circumstances they have absolutely no control over. Sometimes a missing assignment isn’t laziness. Sometimes a kid genuinely needs another chance. But, and this is a pretty important but, there is a difference between giving a student another opportunity to earn points and simply handing them points for something they never did.
This is where a wild idea comes in: What if we trusted teachers to make that decision?
Teachers know their students. We know the kid who has been working their tail off but is struggling. We know the student who had a terrible week at home and needs some flexibility. We know when extending a deadline, allowing a redo, or offering another opportunity is exactly the right thing to do. We know.
We also know the kid who looked us directly in the eye for three weeks while we reminded them about an assignment and still chose not to turn it in. We know the kid who slept through our class every day. Those situations aren’t the same, so why are we required to grade them as if they are? Instead of creating another blanket policy designed to remove every ounce of professional judgment from teaching, maybe schools could try something truly revolutionary. Wait for it:
Let teachers teach. Let teachers grade. And trust us to know when a student needs grace and when a student needs accountability.
Because sometimes the most compassionate thing we can give a student is another chance. And sometimes the most valuable lesson we can teach them is that doing nothing doesn’t earn 50%. It earns nothing.
And Let’s Be Honest: Kids Figure This Stuff Out
Teachers know how quickly students learn to work a grading system. If doing nothing earns a 50% and putting considerable effort into an assignment might earn a 60%, some students will understandably start calculating how little they actually need to do to pass. That’s not because today’s kids are lazy. That’s because they’re smart enough to recognize the incentive adults created.
Then educators are left trying to teach responsibility in a system that sometimes removes the natural consequences of not completing responsibilities. We need the natural consequences of failing when you do nothing.
Grace Doesn’t Have to Mean Free Points
Getting rid of minimum Fs doesn’t mean schools need to become punitive. Quite the opposite.
A student who struggles should have opportunities to recover. They can redo assignments, have extensions, or show mastery in a different way. The goal is to learn the material.
There are dozens of ways to show compassion without pretending a student demonstrated knowledge that they never demonstrated. Accountability and grace can exist in the same classroom. This actually should be the requirement.
Maybe the Bigger Problem Is the Grading System Itself
There is also a fair criticism of the traditional 100-point grading scale. Grading expert Thomas Guskey has argued that the huge range assigned to an F makes the mathematics of traditional grading problematic. He favors simpler grading systems, such as a 1-to-5 scale, that focus more clearly on levels of mastery.
That’s a conversation schools should absolutely be having. A report card grade is supposed to communicate something. Parents should be able to look at it and understand how well their child is performing.
If the same 50% can mean “This student demonstrated half of the required knowledge” and “This student didn’t lift a pencil,” we’re no longer communicating the same thing.
Other States Should Follow South Carolina’s Lead
Getting rid of minimum Fs doesn’t mean we need to start gleefully handing out zeros. Students have bad weeks, family emergencies, illnesses, and struggles we may know nothing about. Give them another chance. Extend the deadline. Reteach it. Let them redo it. That’s called teaching.
But giving a student a 50% for doing 0% of the work isn’t grace. It’s entitlement.
South Carolina’s new law won’t fix everything wrong with grading, but it does something teachers have been asking for forever: It trusts us to use our professional judgment. We know when a student needs grace, and we know when a student simply chose not to do the work. Other states should follow South Carolina’s lead. Give kids all the support and second chances they need, but let teachers decide what belongs in the gradebook.
If we want to “make grades matter again,” maybe we should start by letting them actually mean something.
