Grading changes in local high school..a minor rant

[Relic]

The article posted below is a little bit of a long read, but this is part of what I'm seeing as being very very wrong in my local school system these days. I'm guessing that this is the case elsewhere as well.

Now, the article kind of beats around the bush and no one seems to be implying it, but I know two Trenton CHS teachers and they're both claiming that the school is blatantly trying to look better to the outside world by changing it's grading policy. IE - if more kids pass regardless of actual performance, then it makes the school look better on the surface. Allegedly, it was pushed through behind the teacher's backs because it's known that they would absolutely oppose this. It's an inner city and sometimes rough school, but both teachers I know adamantly maintain that there are a portion of kids there who against all the BS, are working their butts off to succeed. This is not at all fair to those kids who WANT to be there and want to be challenged.
I was also a bit shocked some time ago when my oldest son told me about the grading policy in his HS - what would be a failing grade for me when I was there in the 80's, is now a D or even C for his generation. That's a bunch of crap. His honors classes are pretty much on par with what my regular class was grading-wise.

http://www.nj.com/news/times/regiona...660.xml&coll=5

Teachers angered over grade policy
Wednesday, February 24, 2010

TRENTON -- Teachers at Trenton Central High School are outraged over a new grading system that they charge was introduced without their knowledge and that could give passing grades to failing students.

The district administration, however, says the teachers are jumping the gun -- that while school staff should have been consulted, the new system is still being fine-tuned and no report cards have been issued yet.

At least 30 TCHS teachers turned out at Monday's school board meeting to complain they'd been blindsided by the recent switch from numeric to alphabetic grades.

One teacher complained of "the unilateral and secretive nature of the decision." Another brought a chart showing that a student who received F grades in two marking periods and then a D on a final exam could end up wrongly receiving a passing grade under the new system.

"I have standards in my class. I try to get my students to excel," said Theresa Wright, a history teacher at TCHS West. "The new grading system will cause students to lose respect for teachers, to lose respect for the academic standards of the Trenton public schools."

The teachers union, the Trenton Education Association, also criticized the district for e-mailing teachers grade reports this week, saying that sending the information that way posed a potential threat to students' privacy.

Superintendent Rodney Lofton said the administration had erred in not being "collaborative" with teachers in implementing the new system. That resulted in part from the weather-related postponement of a meeting of the district's grading policy committee, and a mix-up that resulted in no administration official attending another meeting that took place Monday.

The change is occurring as the district works to make grading consistent from kindergarten to 12th grade by instituting letter grades at all levels, assistant superintendent Carolyn Gibson said.

The new system has not officially been put in place at the high school, but the administration had numeric grades that were given for this term's first marking period converted to letter grades. That was done so that the grades will be consistent with those that will be issued later in the year, after the system is implemented, Gibson said.

The grades the teachers recorded recently were e-mailed to them in letter-grade format for their information, but those grades have not been released to students and parents, and the administration has not yet figured out how it will calculate F grades and deal with other problems caused by the conversion, she said.

"We're going to have a meeting to handle how the grades are going to go out," Gibson said.

School board members Missy Balmir, Alex Brown and Marcellus Smith criticized the way the grade change has been rolled out, saying the administration needs to be more transparent and collaborative in its decisions, and should not make major changes without board approval.

"We're missing something fundamental here," Smith said to applause at the meeting Monday. "The administration was not authorized to alter the grading system."

After the discussion, Lofton said district policy actually does not require the board to approve the grading system change. He provided a copy of the board's student evaluation policy, which says the administration, "in consultation with the teaching staff, shall develop a marking system to be used uniformly in the same grade level throughout the schools."

The document Lofton provided does not mention the board's role in setting grading policy.

[baalroo]

Things have been sliding this direction for a long time.

I guess the easiest way to make sure No Child [is] Left Behind is to just make sure that none of the children go anywhere to begin with.

By the time I was finishing highschool (10 years ago) my own grades had slipped from being a straight A student to barely passing... not because I was stupid (scored a 32 on the ACTs and 99th percentile on the ASVAB for example), but because I was utterly sick and tired of repeating the exact same curriculum for the last 7 years in a row.

I kid you not, my senior year in Highschool we spent an entire quarter of the year in my English class on how to recognize nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Seriously. I then made the mistake of trying to go to a community college to "knock out the easy classes" and realized that freshman year at a JuCo is basically the exact same curriculum as my freshman year in highschool. That was pretty much the point that I lost all faith what-so-ever in the public school system.

oh, that, and when my friend's wife who is a highschool teacher and has her MASTERS degree asked us why each foot on a ruler is broken up into 12 and what those 12 numbers represent.

[playinpearls]

and this is why the department of education should have been closed long ago...

[superfunk47]

I sincerely believe that kids are better off being raised to be curious, imaginative little information sponges (which is what they are by default) than being forced through the pressure cooker/meat grinder that is the public school system.

Give 'em the internet. School is obsolete.

[MonetBass]

This is making an excellent case for keeping my kid in private school all the way through his senior year in H.S.

[Smurf-o-Deth]

Be all that you can be...as long as that's not being more than me!

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by MonetBass

This is making an excellent case for keeping my kid in private school all the way through his senior year in H.S.

I think its making for a great reason to homeschool my kids if I ever have them. They'd be superstudents.

[DudeistMonk]

Originally Posted by baalroo

Things have been sliding this direction for a long time.

I guess the easiest way to make sure No Child [is] Left Behind is to just make sure that none of the children go anywhere to begin with.

By the time I was finishing highschool (10 years ago) my own grades had slipped from being a straight A student to barely passing... not because I was stupid (scored a 32 on the ACTs and 99th percentile on the ASVAB for example), but because I was utterly sick and tired of repeating the exact same curriculum for the last 7 years in a row.

I kid you not, my senior year in Highschool we spent an entire quarter of the year in my English class on how to recognize nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Seriously. I then made the mistake of trying to go to a community college to "knock out the easy classes" and realized that freshman year at a JuCo is basically the exact same curriculum as my freshman year in highschool. That was pretty much the point that I lost all faith what-so-ever in the public school system.

oh, that, and when my friend's wife who is a highschool teacher and has her MASTERS degree asked us why each foot on a ruler is broken up into 12 and what those 12 numbers represent.

ROFL about the ruler.

As far as repeated curriculum goes, I studied the pilgrims for 2 months every freaking year from the 2nd grade on...We never, ever in any history class I've ever taken gotten past WWII.

I remember spending more time doing practice tests and prepping for exams that rate the school than studying the actual curriculum...and the Catholic school my parents later forced me into wasn't much better...no technology budget at all (it was like stepping into a time warp) Useless religion courses every year, 30 minutes a day spent watching the "news" which was produced for HS students and aired as a way to feed a captive audience 15 minutes of targeted ads every morning (I'm sure the school was collecting), and of course the going to church, the sub par underpaid reject teachers and the penguins.

[TrooperFarva]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

I think its making for a great reason to homeschool my kids if I ever have them. They'd be superstudents.

I remember seeing a documentary about a brother and sister who were home schooled. The boy started college at 14, and the girl at 16, I think it was. Academically, they were fairly advanced, but socially, they were inept, bordering on retarded. They had simply never learned any form of social interaction. I felt bad for them. Even with their technical competence, if they continued on the path they were on, they would be entirely unemployable. They didn't have the slightest idea how to function in a group of people.

[Simo98]

My highschool did the same thing, trying to make its grades look better.

The state i now live in has been the laughing stock of the country since forever, the 'stupid state', where all the yokels live.

So the current head of state seems to think that she can get rid of this reputation (lol?). While i was in highschool last year, if it looked like you were going to fail, they would cancel your enrollment and tell you to get a job. They tried to tell everyone how this was for their own good, but the only reason was that this way it would improve the states total graduates scores on a whole.

Like the OP said, todays grades are already screwed, todays Bs are yesteryears Cs, and it is almost impossible to excel.

For me it was excellent, I'm natrually lazy, and have always liked to do as little as possible. I managed to graduate on straight Bs with little or no effort, and breeze into the university course that I wanted to.

Something else to point out, on the QCS test, which is basically the same as what you would call the SATs? (if i got that right) its actually almost the same paper. Anyway, i was able to finish each paper in half the alloted time (1 hour each when you were supposed to take two) and still get an A overall, they didn't tell you your exact mark, but we were lead to believe that an A on the QCS was unheard of, yet me and a friend of mine got them with little effort.

Now im no child genius, id probably say im above average, and could do a lot better if i tried, but i shouldn't be able to get an A on this test with no effort, we were told we would need to spend months preparing for it because it was so difficult, and you need to manage your time because most people run out of time before the test finishes.

[sloasdaylight]

Public Schooling for ya! Yet another reason for private school vouchers.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by TrooperFarva

I remember seeing a documentary about a brother and sister who were home schooled. The boy started college at 14, and the girl at 16, I think it was. Academically, they were fairly advanced, but socially, they were inept, bordering on retarded. They had simply never learned any form of social interaction. I felt bad for them. Even with their technical competence, if they continued on the path they were on, they would be entirely unemployable. They didn't have the slightest idea how to function in a group of people.

If a homeschooled brother and sister were that socially inept, then there's more in the mix than just the homeschooling. Maybe Aspberger's syndrome or something of the sort.
There are still clubs and sports and friends in the neighborhood and so on for learning proper socialization.

[DudeistMonk]

Originally Posted by TrooperFarva

I remember seeing a documentary about a brother and sister who were home schooled. The boy started college at 14, and the girl at 16, I think it was. Academically, they were fairly advanced, but socially, they were inept, bordering on retarded. They had simply never learned any form of social interaction. I felt bad for them. Even with their technical competence, if they continued on the path they were on, they would be entirely unemployable. They didn't have the slightest idea how to function in a group of people.

This is true of the home schooled kids I observed... They where smart as hell, but just socially stunted...imagine if they only friend you had was your brother/sister and you spent all day with your mom?

I mean these kids where practically wearing kids-r-us clothes in high school. Imagine first day your getting ripped to shreds by the cruel little public school ******s because your smart, dressed like a gay sailor, have no clue how anything works, and you've never heard half the things these other kids are calling you, have no clue that half the things you say are sexual innuendo cause mom sure as hell didn't point that out to you...etc.

Homeschooling = years of therapy.

[Relic]

Wow, where are you guys getting this from?? I know several people home schooled and none of them were/are the stunted social misfits that you're describing. Were they maybe home schooled for a reason?

[DudeistMonk]

Originally Posted by Relic

Wow, where are you guys getting this from?? I know several people home schooled and none of them were/are the stunted social misfits that you're describing. Were they maybe home schooled for a reason?

I mean I guess it really depends on the parents and the atmosphere.

Home schooling would work if the kid had friends and their parents where straight up with them. I can tell you though that if my mother would home school me, knowing how my mom is, I would have been an even bigger social wreak then I already was in HS.

Think about what a sheltering mother can turn a kid into without peers to balance the situation.

[baba]

The school system in my area is the polar opposite. My kids are in a "Blue Ribbon" school. I'm amazed at the homework my 1st grader brings home. From what I can tell, the socioeconomics of the area dictate the quality of the school system. To state the obvious, this isn't the way public schooling should work.

[Relic]

Originally Posted by DudeistMonk

I mean I guess it really depends on the parents and the atmosphere.

Home schooling would work if the kid had friends and their parents where straight up with them. I can tell you though that if my mother would home school me, knowing how my mom is, I would have been an even bigger social wreak then I already was in HS.

Think about what a sheltering mother can turn a kid into without peers to balance the situation.

Yeah that's what I'm saying.. if I kid is home schooled, that does not preclude he/she from playing sports, having neighborhood friends, going to birthday parties etc. Plus what a lot of home school parents also do, is they organize social events for their students, "class" trips and whatnot.

What I'm thinking though given what you and Trooper are saying, is that there may also be home schooled kids who have anti-social parents, or any sort of emotional or mental issues that actually lead to them being home schooled specifically for that reason.

[DudeistMonk]

Originally Posted by Relic

Yeah that's what I'm saying.. if I kid is home schooled, that does not preclude he/she from playing sports, having neighborhood friends, going to birthday parties etc. Plus what a lot of home school parents also do, is they organize social events for their students, "class" trips and whatnot.

What I'm thinking though given what you and Trooper are saying, is that there may also be home schooled kids who have anti-social parents, or any sort of emotional or mental issues that actually lead to them being home schooled specifically for that reason.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/104018

Your right it doesn't, there are a lot of variables. Are the parents are willing to drive their kids around everywhere so they can get their social interaction? Are the kids in the neighborhood going to outcast them because they are home schooled, especially as they get older and school gets clicy? When are they going to enter the public system? How overprotective are the parents? How far ahead academically are they? Are the parents hip?

[TrooperFarva]

Originally Posted by Relic

Yeah that's what I'm saying.. if I kid is home schooled, that does not preclude he/she from playing sports, having neighborhood friends, going to birthday parties etc. Plus what a lot of home school parents also do, is they organize social events for their students, "class" trips and whatnot.

What I'm thinking though given what you and Trooper are saying, is that there may also be home schooled kids who have anti-social parents, or any sort of emotional or mental issues that actually lead to them being home schooled specifically for that reason.

In the case that I saw, the parents, moreso the mother, weren't happy with the structure of public schooling, so she taught the kids herself. Part of the reason they went to college as early as they did was because they were kept out of other activities, and were even schooled during the summer.

Social retardation wouldn't occur with every home schooler, but in general, I think it creates more problems than it solves.

[MatticusMania]

Originally Posted by TrooperFarva

I remember seeing a documentary about a brother and sister who were home schooled. The boy started college at 14, and the girl at 16, I think it was. Academically, they were fairly advanced, but socially, they were inept, bordering on retarded. They had simply never learned any form of social interaction. I felt bad for them. Even with their technical competence, if they continued on the path they were on, they would be entirely unemployable. They didn't have the slightest idea how to function in a group of people.

Yes, I understand that this is often a problem with homeschooled children. It unfortunate that their parents did not understand that school also educates children on how to interact socially with others. I plan on pre-empting that by also putting my kids into social activities outside of a school enviroment. Pre-school is a good start, but from then on I'd rather control the curriculum my children study. However, that doesnt mean that they can't also be put into other 'after-school' like activities, such as sports teams, music classes, and other such social activities.