Is 99.9% Good Enough?

A lot has been said over the years in high schools about high expectations, usually accompanied by comments along the lines of how grades today are inflated and the quality of student work isn’t what it once was. I know a number of veteran teachers feel that way, but when one steps back, perhaps there is a lot more to the conversation than what is on the top layer. From my own background, growing up I was always challenged to do my very best. I can still hear my mom tell me “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well.” My dad did a lot of work as a professor with Deming’s focus on total quality and continuous improvement. All this takes me to a list that I pull out every so often to put in front of people when the conversation turns to effort and quality.

In most schools, grading scales are generally somewhere along the lines of 90% and above an A, 80% for a B, and so on. In this scale, 60% is good enough to pass. Now I have real issues with traditional grading, which is something I will address at length in future posts, but regardless of that, can we be satisfied with 60 out of 100 being good enough? Well, let’s take a look at that, and just to make it interesting, let’s look a little higher. How about 99.9 times out of 100? If we get it right than many times, shouldn’t that be good enough? Let’s see!

If we “settle” for 99.9% accuracy, that would mean:
• 22,000 checks would be deducted from the wrong bank account in the next 60 minutes.
• 12 babies would be given to the wrong parents each day.
• 107 incorrect medical procedures would be performed each day.
• Two airliner landings each day at O’Hare Airport would be unsafe.
• 291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly this year.
• Southwest Airlines would have 702 planes crash annually.
• 20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year.
• 32,000 missed heartbeats per person per year.
• 103,260 income tax returns will be processed incorrectly during the year.

So, should we allow our students to settle for 60% correct as a passing grade? I would argue “No!” From my perspective, it isn’t so much about what individuals are capable of doing, and it really doesn’t matter in terms of a grade. What it is about is self-respect and pride; a willingness to do one’s best. I think that is the difference between our current generation and one’s in the past. There needs to be a focus on doing one’s best rather than enough to get by. Otherwise, is it worth doing?