Grades for sale at Naples High
A journalism class at a high school in Naples, Florida is grading their students based upon how much advertising they are able to sell for the school yearbook. A practice which not only runs afoul of journalistic ethics but the principles behind a public
According to NBC2, the students must sell $600 in ads to receive an A, $500 for a B, $400 for a C, $300 for a D, and students who are unable to sell at least $300 in advertising for the school yearbook will receive an F. While it's certainly true that advertising is an essential component for almost any news organization, it is typically not the role of journalists to solicit these dollars. In fact, there is usually a wall between the advertising staff and the news staff to prevent conflicts of interest when an advertiser ends up in the news.
The ethical considerations of journalists selling ad space are huge, but they pale in comparison to the ramifications inherent in grading students based on their sales prowess. Students who come from families that are well off will have a far easier time networking with family friends to solicit advertising and they are far more likely to know people who own their own businesses. Students from poorer families will probably be connected to fewer individuals with disposable income, and may possibly feel less comfortable about approaching establishments for advertising where they could never afford to shop.
While the City of Naples is reported to be the home of director Steven Spielberg, 5.9% of the population lives below the poverty line including 15.1% of those under 18. For some students such as Courtney Dahl who told NBC2, "It shouldn't be a problem. There's so many people that would buy a page or something, doesn't bother me," the $600 is a cake walk. Other students are bound to find it more of a challenge than Dahl. Some of them will do everything they can to sell $600 worth of ads; others will likely give up knowing that even if they manage to solicit $295 they'll still fail.
For the children of those with money, their parents will probably just purchase the advertising themselves the way my family would buy chocolate bars we didn't particularly want. The 15.1% living below the poverty line wont have that luxury and stand to suffer academically as a result. After all, $600 has a much greater impact on a strained budget than $25 in candy bars.