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Do you care about straight A's or A's in general? Are you looking for progress? Good habits? I'm curious because several of my mom friends seem really worried about anything below an A on the report card. On the one hand, our school's curriculum is a little weak, IMO, but the grading scale is high - the 93-85-78-70 model. I'm wondering how you determine if your child is doing well.
I am not an educator, nor do I have kids, but I just thought of something: many teachers on here say to blame the parents, or at least take some of the responsibility off the teachers, for the lack of academic success in the school children. So, who is to blame when you are the parent and the teacher?
I am not an educator, nor do I have kids, but I just thought of something: many teachers on here say to blame the parents, or at least take some of the responsibility off the teachers, for the lack of academic success in the school children. So, who is to blame when you are the parent and the teacher?
Parents and teachers each have their own role in educating students. The student also shares responsibility for his own education. There is no one person to blame when a child is struggling. I can give you my own examples of cases where:
1. there really is nobody to blame, the child finds the subject difficult
Child #2 is in 8th grade taking Algebra I. He has been struggling with Algebra all semester. He does his work. He is being tutored by his older brother and by myself. He is struggling to get a C+ but I am satisfied with his progress in this class AT THIS POINT as he had an F and has improved his grade to a C+.
AND
2. the same child has a B+ in Civics but I am furious at him.
The same child has a B+ in Civics. I am not satisfied with the B+ because he has not handed everything in and he has high As on all of his tests. I am angry with him about "forgetting" assignments. He still manages an ok grade because he gets really good grades on the tests but he should have an A in that class. In this case it is HIS FAULT that he does not have an A, not mine, not his teacher's. No teacher is going to call a parent about a kid who has a B+ in a class.
The grade itself does not tell you everything you need to know about a child's progress. You have to know WHY he has the grade he has.
I homeschool my own children, but I'm not concerned with letter (or number) grades... my biggest concern is that they master the work that they have done. A 90% on a math test, for example, is an A... but depending on what they got wrong, it may be that they did not understand a full ten percent of the work. (Simple arithmetic/careless mistakes are one issue; not understanding how to come up with an answer for a particular type of problem is a separate issue.) I would then go back and work with the child on whatever the problem was, rather than filing it away and saying "great, he got an A!" I would do the same if they were in school... find out the reason for the grade, and go from there.
I care more about conduct, attitude about learning, and understanding of the content then I do the actual grade. An "A" for one teacher could be a "C" to another for the same class. Some of the classes that I got the most out of were ones where I worked my butt off for a "B" - more so than the ones where I easily got an "A".
Parents and teachers each have their own role in educating students. The student also shares responsibility for his own education. There is no one person to blame when a child is struggling. I can give you my own examples of cases where:
1. there really is nobody to blame, the child finds the subject difficult
Child #2 is in 8th grade taking Algebra I. He has been struggling with Algebra all semester. He does his work. He is being tutored by his older brother and by myself. He is struggling to get a C+ but I am satisfied with his progress in this class AT THIS POINT as he had an F and has improved his grade to a C+.
AND
2. the same child has a B+ in Civics but I am furious at him.
The same child has a B+ in Civics. I am not satisfied with the B+ because he has not handed everything in and he has high As on all of his tests. I am angry with him about "forgetting" assignments. He still manages an ok grade because he gets really good grades on the tests but he should have an A in that class. In this case it is HIS FAULT that he does not have an A, not mine, not his teacher's. No teacher is going to call a parent about a kid who has a B+ in a class.
The grade itself does not tell you everything you need to know about a child's progress. You have to know WHY he has the grade he has.
I wish more parents thought like that (several of my good friends are teachers and tell horror stories of pushy parents). Of course, when you are a smart kid coasting on B's, it will drive you crazy that you are doing better than most with little work but your parents still want more. In then end, I'm glad my parents pushed for my best, but I wonder if they would have recognized the difference if I had truly struggled.
This isn't a one answer fits all, as demonstrated by the previous examples. Letter grades should always be used as one factor in determining a students success, not the only one. Conduct grades and work habits are things that are begun long before school begins and each of my 4 have walked into school with the understanding that momentary bits of problems was fine, but ongoing problems were not and never would be acceptable. I've never had an issue. Two are grown and now teachers themselves. the next is in 6th and the last is in 1st. So, two down two to go. haha
Regarding grades......
My oldest was an average student, so her success was based on perceived growth and progress, not necessarily letter grades. That important information came from mainly conferences and discussions with her as the weeks went on.
My second was advanced and her letter grades basically told me whether or not she was handing in work and making an effort on tests. If she would have ever fallen below a B (which I think she only got a couple her entire school career) I would have known instantly there was a major problem that needed to be addressed. I knew she was progressing and learning by the classes she began to take starting in middle school that were more challenging. Had she chosen to take regular classes, I might have had a problem.
My third is advanced and gifted and letter grades for her take on a mixture of importance. If she were to get a B, I'd know she most likely hadn't done her work but it could be she simply didn't get the subject matter the way it was presented. So it would be a clue to get a little more involved. The flip side is if she gets a low A, then I know she's actually faced something new and challenging in class.
My last is also advanced and even more gifted and his letter grades only mean that he has turned in all the work. They mean absolutely nothing in regards to his growth. Our approach has to be quite different in his education with his teacher and us working closely together. While he still has the normal 1st grade work in order to acquire grades, he gets challenges to meet his individual academic needs separately.
You have to know your child well in order to know how to look at grades, conduct etc.
hmmm...my son is in the advanced class- he has some gifted qualities, but he seems to be struggling with organization and focus this year. This last month or so he's been better about turning everything in (organization) but I suspect he's still slap-dashing a lot of his work together and making foolish errors. He's getting almost all B's. I would expect more of an A/B mix from him, but I'm wondering if some of this is adjusting to middle school and I should be patient, or if he's legitimately not mastering certain concepts.
I tend to limit my conversations with the teachers to a few substantial instances- they are a mixed bag in terms of their commitment to the students, shall we say. A couple have been really responsive - the others are just glad he's not a troublemaker.
I guess I'm trying to find out if people who understand education think A's are simply the grade equivalent of mastery of the subject, or more of a metric for good studenthood. Don't know if this makes sense.
I'm a parent and a teacher, and I tell my kids the same thing I tell my students: If you can look at yourself and say you did the very best you could do, I have no complaints, and neither should you.
Do you care about straight A's or A's in general? Are you looking for progress? Good habits? I'm curious because several of my mom friends seem really worried about anything below an A on the report card. On the one hand, our school's curriculum is a little weak, IMO, but the grading scale is high - the 93-85-78-70 model. I'm wondering how you determine if your child is doing well.
I do not look at grades, but rather at comments and the portfolio of their work. If the latter are strong, then grades have a way of taking care of themselves. From a different POV, great grades can be awfully misleading, esp when kids are young.
S.
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