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.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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.
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.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
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.
