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Why Kansas City Public Schools stopped giving out zeros

A new policy at Kansas City Public Schools has changed the minimum grade from zero to 40%. Hear how it’s intended to help struggling students catch up.

During the last school year, Kansas City Public Schools launched a new grading policy intended to help struggling students catch up if they’ve fallen behind. Now, the lowest possible grade a student can get on an assignment is 40% even if the student got everything wrong or didn’t turn it in at all. KCUR's Nomin Ujiyediin spoke with education reporter Maria Benevento of the KC Beacon, who looked into the origin of the policy and how students and teachers feel about it.

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Kansas City Today is hosted by Nomin Ujiyediin. It is produced by Byron Love and KCUR Studios, and edited by Gabe Rosenberg, Madeline Fox and Lisa Rodriguez.

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As a newscaster and a host of a daily news podcast, I want to deliver the most important and interesting news of the day in an engaging and easily understandable way. No matter where you live in the metro or what you’re interested in, I want you to learn something from each newscast or podcast – and maybe even give you something to talk about at the dinner table.
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