Broken System Is Broken

Another disappointing discovery in the local policy department. I got an email from a student's counselor yesterday asking what grades this girl would need for the final quarter and the final exam to pass. She has failed all three quarters so far.

So this morning I sat down to start doing the math. Her three quarter grades averaged to a 45%. I was a little confused how to figure out how this would affect the rest of the year for her, but I was doubtful she could pass if she earns less than 100% from here on out. So I went next door to another (English) teacher to ask how he figures those things out.

However, he told me I couldn't use a number. I had to use a letter grade. Umm, but teacher, letters can't have averages. Apparently, though, each letter is assigned a number much like the GPA scale: A is 4, B is 3, C is 2, D is 1, and E is 0. Ok, I guess that makes sense.

But here's the broken part: A student needs a total of 5 points to graduate. Which means my failing student -- a girl who rarely comes to class, never completes her homework, bombs most tests, and barely completes classwork -- can theoretically get an A, then a D, and then it doesn't matter if she fails the last semester or the final. Think about that: we have built a system that actually encourages students to slack off after just nine weeks of school.

If you have failed three quarters, I don't think you should be able to pass the course. Otherwise, we are teaching children that it's okay to be lazy for most of your life as long as you do *some* work the last month or so of school. Teaching life lessons? We're doing it wrong.

Grades do not equal achievement.

When will students, parents, administrators, and politicians realize this?

At the staff meeting this week, the principal informed us that there was a small percentage of students with D's and E's compared to students who had earned C's and above. His comment in response was, "This tells me that you all are doing incredible work" when it comes to helping our students achieve. Ummmm, ok... really? Just because a kid gets a C doesn't mean that he understands the material. Even a kid who gets an A hasn't necessarily mastered the material. I have students who have D's who are putting in more of an effort than kids with B's and C's; they may just not be as naturally bright. Personally, I would rather have a class of dummies who work hard than a class of smart asses who do no work. Apathy really, really bothers me.

Also, kudos to the principal for giving us accolades, I suppose, but how about giving some of that credit to the kids? After all, teachers always talk about how we don't "give" grades, but rather, how students "earn" them themselves.

Anyway, the end of the quarter was yesterday, which means we're halfway done!

Standardization baaaaaad... Curiosity goooooooood

Every month, the English department (like every other discipline) has a dept. meeting. Invariably, the meeting entails reiteration of what the county and/or principal wants us to implement, and then there is the requisite whining. This week, there was a raucous ruckus (see what I did there?) about the new grading policies that will most likely begin next September. Currently, we can basically weight the grades however we want, as long as homework is not a ridiculous amount (I think 15% is the max). However, the administrators on high in their infinite "wisdom" have declared that now, homework and classwork together can now not count for more than 20% of a student's grade. Which means that 80% comes from tests. What happened to all their bitching about not wanting us to "teach to the test"?

On the one hand, I can see where having a student's grade based primarily on their knowledge makes sense, and the practice with which to master this knowledge counts much less. However, students will quickly realize with this system that they can do little to no work in class and at home and they can still most likely earn a passing grade. But what they will fail to realize is that they can only master the information on tests if they spend enough time practicing. Therefore, students who just care about grades and not learning skill sets (which, let's face it, is how most of them think, as do their parents) will not be motivated to ever attend class unless there is a test. (Just like many college students... but that's another subject.)

Furthermore, as one colleague pointed out, this will mean we have to "test the shit out of these kids" in order to get enough data for sufficient grading, which will make them even less engaged in school and more apathetic toward learning in general. Another teacher pointed out that in the city in which he taught before he came here, these standards were implemented, and because of them, teachers had to have a specific number of homework assignments, tests, seminars, etc., and because it was almost impossible to fit all this in and not make themselves (or the students) crazy, teachers ended up randomly calling a classroom activity a test or project, and thus the categories lost all meaning.

Yikes.... I could go on, but I won't. Sooooo glad it's the weekend and there are only four more days of school before Winter Break. Before I sign off, I thought I would share this, with which I agree 100%. That's where we should be headed, not prescribing random percentages to classroom procedures.