BOISE, Idaho – In the Boise School District, students will now automatically get half credit for tests and assignments, regardless of their effort.

District officials are implementing a “no zero” grading policy for the 2016-17 school year that will require teachers to give students at least a 50 percent no matter how well they perform, following a nationwide trend aimed at boosting students’ confidence and preventing them from falling farther behind, KTVB reports.

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“We’re now saying that the learning is important and that we’re not just moving on to the next concept, we’re going to make sure that the student has learned it,” Debbie Donovan, administrator of student programs, told the news site.

The new approach also allows students to re-take important tests and assignments to improve their grades, including high performing students striving to maintain a high GPA, she said

“The new practices encourage that and motivate the students to want to learn the content, rather than take the easy way out and get a zero or not redo an assignment if they are struggling with it,” Donovan said.

Students who are given re-dos are required to attend study session during their lunch and after school before they’re allowed to retake tests or assignments. Stacy Roth, another district administrator, also touted the alleged benefits of giving students credit for points they didn’t earn.

“Students can still fail, that is absolutely possible, but this is really about encouraging students to keep trying and keep learning until you get it right,” she told KTVB.

“Is it important that they know the information on Tuesday third period?” she questioned. “Or is it important that they know the material? At the end of the day, they’re going to be better off for the workplace, they’re going to be more prepared for college and career having learned the material.”

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Boise’s transition to the “no zeros” grading system follows numerous other school districts across the country that have made similar changes in recent years, and The Washington Post pointed out earlier this month that the feedback in districts that have implemented the changes is mixed.

In Virginia’s Fairfax County and Prince George’s County in Maryland, grades are limited to a minimal of 50 percent if students make a “reasonable attempt” or “good-faith effort” at the assignment.

Proponents argue that the new grading systems make it easier for students to improve their grade after a failed assignment, something that contributes to students dropping out of school.

“The bottom line is that a zero on the 100-point scale distorts a student’s overall grade,” said Gregory Hood, principal of James Madison High School in Fairfax County. “A zero provides no information about what a student has learned, and it negatively impacts a student’s grade when averaged with other grades.”

Critics, meanwhile, argue that the practice actually harms students who plan to attend college or enter the workforce.

“It reflect this soft bigotry of low expectations around student effort and student behavior,” Fordham Institute president Michael Petrilli told the Post. “Is it because we think certain groups of kids aren’t capable of them?”

Teachers in several schools that have implemented the “50-percent” rule also claim students are learning how to game the system.

Walter Johnson High School math teacher Amy Watkins told the Post some students use the policy to earn credits for courses “when they have not mastered any of the content.”

Special education English teacher Sam Hedenberg, who teachers at Fairfax’s Mount Vernon High School, said the school’s lowest possible score of 53 percent “definitely provides that opportunity for a kid to catch up,” but noted that “many students have already started to figure out that they don’t have to do very much but they can still pass.”

Prince George’s County Educators’ Association president Theresa Mitchell Dudley told the Post that a recent survey of teachers showed that about half of teachers in the district are concerned about the impact of eliminating zeros and starting students at a 50 percent.

“We have no problem being fair to students,” she said. “But if they are not doing the work and not performing, and we give them a grade they did not earn, how does that make them college and career ready?”

“You can’t go to an employer and say, ‘Here is my work, it’s two weeks late,’ and expect that your boss is not going to fire you,” Dudley said.