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In a perfect world this would apply. In our current world, the public, parents, and politicians demand graduates.
As a result, educational administrators are forced to "adjust requirements" to accommodate and graduate virtually everyone. (AKA: Participation trophies. )
To the woke, anything less is racist.
Nothing to do with Race in this case. Because we admit from the entire Dallas region, we have a very diverse mix -- including wide range of socio-economic. Some of the kids are dirt-poor, and some kids leave Top End local districts, and some leave $25,000 a year private schools in the region to come here.
But the Institutional Ethos is where the problems seem to come from. It is upper level Institution that is afraid of F(s) and Zero(s).
During all of this my school / district has more or less moved to a grading method where we are to give the student their test grade for their classwork / homework grade. For example, lets say we have a test on Friday (virtual or in person) and we have classwork / homework assignments that week building up to the test. Kid does none of the classwork but scores say a 60 (passing score) on the test. We have to award the student that same grade for their classwork grades that week that they did not even bother to even look at. So where as prior to covid the student would've had a 60 on the test and 0's on the classwork assignments now that same student during covid has a 60 on the test and 60's on all the classwork assignments leading up to that assessment. Some teachers absolutely hate it, others are ok with it and still others embrace it.
Professionally I have no issue with this since it has always been my grading philosophy that a students test grade SHOULD be an indicator of what they know not how much work they put into it.
During all of this my school / district has more or less moved to a grading method where we are to give the student their test grade for their classwork / homework grade. For example, lets say we have a test on Friday (virtual or in person) and we have classwork / homework assignments that week building up to the test. Kid does none of the classwork but scores say a 60 (passing score) on the test. We have to award the student that same grade for their classwork grades that week that they did not even bother to even look at. So where as prior to covid the student would've had a 60 on the test and 0's on the classwork assignments now that same student during covid has a 60 on the test and 60's on all the classwork assignments leading up to that assessment. Some teachers absolutely hate it, others are ok with it and still others embrace it.
Professionally I have no issue with this since it has always been my grading philosophy that a students test grade SHOULD be an indicator of what they know not how much work they put into it.
This sounds like a neat philosophy. It's hard to make everyone happy but this is good. I agree that tests are what student's know too.
The only way I believe we will ever eliminate the entrenched underclass in our ghettos would be to do what Israel did with it's newcomers after it was reconstituted as a nation...boarding schools.
Put all of the kids born to mothers receiving TANF (AKA: welfare) and those who have been abandoned or with other adverse circumstances in Public boarding schools staffed by teachers along with trained night-time personnel. Housing would have to be constructed adjacent to the school sites.
Let the students go home on weekends/holidays only if they want. As long as the programs are well run, many will choose to remain at the schools on weekends when the alternative is perhaps drug-addicted and/or violent families.
In one generation we could break the cycle of poverty for most and make them productive citizens.
Israel did this with great success. It couldn't cost any more, in the long run, than the dysfunctional schools, prisons, and welfare systems we are operating now.
Of course, there are many who have a financial stake in keeping things just the way they are now.
The only way I believe we will ever eliminate the entrenched underclass in our ghettos would be to do what Israel did with it's newcomers after it was reconstituted as a nation...boarding schools.
Put all of the kids born to mothers receiving TANF (AKA: welfare) and those who have been abandoned or with other adverse circumstances in Public boarding schools staffed by teachers along with trained night-time personnel. Housing would have to be constructed adjacent to the school sites.
Let the students go home on weekends/holidays only if they want. As long as the programs are well run, many will choose to remain at the schools on weekends when the alternative is perhaps drug-addicted and/or violent families.
In one generation we could break the cycle of poverty for most and make them productive citizens.
Israel did this with great success. It couldn't cost any more, in the long run, than the dysfunctional schools, prisons, and welfare systems we are operating now.
Of course, there are many who have a financial stake in keeping things just the way they are now.
Why stop with just poor kids? Seems like a lot of rich families are raising idiots who don't actually produce anything. Boarding schools for all! And let's go ahead and abolish inheritance while we are at it. You have to force meritocracy.
Are you backing off covering topics in curriculum?
I know this comment/question is more than a month old now and it applied to high school, but with regard to elementary school I have the impression that the contemporary "standard" or "common core" curriculum, while seemingly great on paper, is too ambitious to execute in practice and disjointed in any case, and some of the same stuff gets repeated over and over again through middle school and even into high school.
So maybe backing off in cover topics in curriculum could actually make common sense, with or without the displacements of this academic year?
Seems the practice of Late-Turn-In = Zero is banned in K-12?
Very Bad Practice to teach the students this.
Most serious Colleges still practice Late = Zero.
So far.
Grade inflation began in middle school, not college. It followed the kids right on up.
So did "giving" students notes instead of having them take notes.
I know this comment/question is more than a month old now and it applied to high school, but with regard to elementary school I have the impression that the contemporary "standard" or "common core" curriculum, while seemingly great on paper, is too ambitious to execute in practice and disjointed in any case, and some of the same stuff gets repeated over and over again through middle school and even into high school.
So maybe backing off in cover topics in curriculum could actually make common sense, with or without the displacements of this academic year?
Thoughts? Opinions?
Thank you.
Maybe in some subjects, but it's not going to work in math. One of my students (tutoring) is in geometry (distance learning). The teacher had to spend time teaching essential algebra concepts that were lost last spring. I think he made the right choice, but as a result, some of the geometry will need to be skipped or skimmed over. For a lot of students, it won't make that much difference, because they are near the end of their math education. They need the Algebra 1 skills more than the geometry. However, skipping math topics in younger grades can be disastrous.
Maybe in some subjects, but it's not going to work in math ... skipping math topics in younger grades can be disastrous.
I agree.
I was thinking more about history, "language arts", even science. I notice that my elementary school child and my middle school child are basically paralleling the same curriculum, e.g. the same US history and basic science repeated, and then slated to be repeated again in the early years of high school. There is no building, little or no integration, just mostly random repetition, even if in a slightly more sophisticated form.
As for "language arts", little or no grammar, but laden instead with reading comprehension of inane stories, inane stories, and more inane stories, repeated over and over again even into high school.
There are alternatives.
Some people may perceive it differently, have different expectations and different goals, but in my view skipping grammar in the younger grades can be just as disastrous as skipping math.
This sounds like a neat philosophy. It's hard to make everyone happy but this is good. I agree that tests are what student's know too.
It does, doesn't it, at first glance? Then reality and experience hit. Unsurprisingly, there is a correlation between doing your homework and doing well on tests. I teach English, but my study hall students who are failing math are usually the ones not doing their math homework.
The analogy that the ubiquitous gurus who help foist this grading system upon us is fallacious. They always liken homework to "practice," and then give some reasoning approximating this: "Think of sports. You don't grade your players based upon practice." Of course we do. Your performance in practice determines your playing time in games. Practice and effort have the most direct bearing on your ability to demonstrate your "actual" performance in games. As with academics, players who put in more time practicing will usually outpace teammates who do not. "Practice" and "effort" are huge, and, as such, marks should reflect this to a certain degree.
Only those within education do not immediately grasp the fatal flaw in this system, namely that students will stop doing homework for a very rational reason: it won't affect their grades, and grades are the currency of education. This is why I am increasingly asked, "Is this a formative or a summative?" It reinforces some of the worst habits and notions instilled in young people today. The first is the habit of avoid the heavy lifting and simply trying to jump ahead to the final prize. Instant gratification. Secondly, it reinforces the notion that adults will always help make it easier for us. Ultimately, this grading system is yet another expression of failed parenting strategies, which have become institutionalized in public education.
The best teacher I ever taught with would periodically receive email from former students, thanking her for being such a taskmaster and forcing them to be under stress and to complete their assignments, often working on two assignments for her at the same time. It prepared them for the reality of college and life.
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