"Your gonna do what?"

I have been asked several times over the past few weeks if I was crazy for changing my grading system. The questions that follow are typically good and they have been constructive as I put all of this together but the level of doubt is surprising.
Most of the doubt centers on wether this type of system will lead to a large amount of "our" type of students failing. There are a few points that I would like to flush out and I apologize if I seem to ramble a bit.

1. If "our" students are defined as the ones who rely on participation grades, completion grading, and other types of padding and if we accept what I said about a grade earlier, then I would say we have been lying to these students, their parents, our peers and administrators about their successes or the degree of failure. Most importantly, and this has inspired my change, we have been lying to ourselves. We have been assigning grades, that are intended to inform all parties involved, that the students with a passing grade know the content. If we are including grades that aren't intended to reflect the degree of mastery, then sorry to use such strong language but where I grew up that is called a lie. I know that not all students fall into this category and I am speaking in general terms about our students but even the students who do well benefit from using this type of system because of it's accuracy.

2. Another point I would like to make to those with reservations is that if I only changed the way I assess the students, then yes, I would end up failing a lot of "our" students. Along with the reworked grading system, I have also changed the way I use the grade as feedback. Students will have the standards listed on a coversheet in their notebook with a list of the performance indicators. I will provide space for students to predict their level of understanding for each SP as they complete the assignments and plot the progress of their mastery over the content as they receive feedback through assessment. Students will be required to revisit material until they reach the target level for the standard. Our school has put in place times throughout the week to be used for targeted remediation. This is key to keeping those students who typically fall through the cracks.

3. Finally the hardest point to accept as a teacher; If I do have students who fail the course, then I have to say that I own that failure. The truth is that in the past I have let students make up work in the "eleventh hour", knowing full and well that the student wasn't seeking mastery, they were jumping through hoops. I have done this, in part, because I didn't want to "own" that failure. From now on, the student will know that in order to bring up a grade, they will have to demonstrate that they know the content. I am going to make a poster that says," If you were accused of knowing Biology, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" The challenge will be tracking, communicating and intervening in a timely and constructive manner. More on that to follow, for now students are coming soon and fina