School System Scrapping Grades

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[jbstrick]

School System Scrapping Grades

(CNSNews.com) - The Niagara Falls School District has decided that grading students isn't the best way to measure their achievement, so it is scrapping grades altogether. The Buffalo News reports that parents of elementary and middle school students won't find "A, B, C" grades in math and English when report cards go home this month. Instead, they'll see a list of specific skills required to master those subjects, along with indications on whether their children are meeting those skills. The new way of evaluating students - called benchmarking -- has been in the works for seven years, the newspaper said. The point is to take the focus off grades, offering students an "individualized" learning plan instead. The new system "will clearly show where the strengths are, as well as the areas that need improvement," according to Kathleen Maher, an elementary school principal quoted by The Buffalo News. But some teachers worry that taking away grades will remove students' incentive to succeed. They also say it fails to indicate where a student stands in relation to the rest of his or her class.

[ArGee]

"The problem is, we've been locked into a system that was created years and years ago and doesn't work today," said Granto. "The definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results."

Actually, I think it's insane to blame changing times for your own personal failure. If there isn't a compelling reason why a grading system that has worked for decades can't work today, then you need to look at something other than the grading system. You have to look at the person in the mirror.

Of course, improving yourself means accepting that you may be at fault which would ruin your standing in the VOA (Victims Of America).

Now you all know why we homeschool.

Shalom.

[ArGee]

Wait until these kids apply for college and the universities send back notices that they have no reference points for which they can objectively evaluate the students GPA for entrance qualifications.

That was one of my parents' concerns about our home schooling decision. How will the kids get into colleges. It turns out that High School GPAs are worth less than the paper they're printed on. There is no set standard for what a U.S. High School should teach (and I agree there should not be) nor how they teach it. Colleges may look at the student's class standing, but they are much more interested in standardized test scores and extracurricular activities.

Oh, and based on superior performance, they actively recruit home schooled children.

Shalom.

[Dimensio]

I see what you were trying to say. The problem is not, of course, the grading structure, it is the parents who cant bear the idea that little Johnny or Jill is failing because Mom and Dad dont have the desire to make the time to assist their spawn in learning.

Well that's part of it -- parents insisting that childrearing is everyone's responsibility but their own -- and then there's the issue of lazy tenured teachers who do nothing and cannot be removed and school administrators who encourage grade-bumping to avoid looking bad in a certain district.

[Jim Noble]

Grades and testing cannot and will not survive the null hypothesis of the system, which is intensely held by strong majorities everywhere.

The null hypothesis of American Public education is that if the teachers do their job and work hard, with a good curriculum and sufficient funds, that all or nearly all children in the system will achieve the proficiency of a typical high school graduate in 1950.

This is a false, dangerous, and destructive hypothesis, and the consistent failure of schools to deliver the equivalent of golden eggs is destroying them, and us.

[Jim Noble]

>>And just as important, you can't reject the losers.<<

There are millions of your "losers", sir, and if all the schools have to offer them is sophisticated branding with a big "L" on their metaphorical foreheads, we are heading for big trouble.

[capt. norm]

Home-schooling is more than just an option.

Before we took our son out of public schooling, we did a lot of home-schooling in addition to what he was learning (trying to learn) in the public school.

We were very much into his books and lessons and always made sure he was getting it in each case. It was during this time that it became clear that public schools were a huge waste of time.

The clincher was all the political indoctrination he was getting at school. One Example: Every member of his class was required to write a letter protesting offshore drilling.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back.

[Jim Noble]

>>Well that's part of it -- parents insisting that childrearing is everyone's responsibility but their own -- and then there's the issue of lazy tenured teachers who do nothing and cannot be removed and school administrators who encourage grade-bumping to avoid looking bad in a certain district.<<

You can't run a school system where excellence requires an IQ of 115 in a place where the median IQ is 90, and there are hundreds of kids in the eighties.

It's cruel, it's unfair, it doesn't meet their needs, and it doesn't channel them to where they can succeed.

[Jim Noble]

>>This totally removes teacher accountability.<<

If we made you "accountable" for a college prep curriculum at a school with an average IQ of 85, what would you do?

[Fintan]

Typical liberals. If your plan is rejected the first time around, put a new coat of paint on the same old dilapidated structure and call it "a new plan."

Yeah. I believe it's called "socialism". It also goes a long way towards explaining why it's a dismal failure.

Always has been, always will be.

[dixiemelody]

I get so frustrated at the eduation system and the constant need to fix things that aren't broken. I'm an Algebra teacher and I see all these fads come and go, and the things that stand the test of time always lead back to the basics. People from my mother's generation (in her 70's) will always be smarter than today's generation. Sure, we have the technology, but my students could not multiply or divide two-digit numbers in their head for anything. My mother can. At the last workshop I attended, they were telling English teachers not to count off for spelling because it might hurt the kids' self-esteem. Oh please.

[Sabertooth]

The Buffalo News reports that parents of elementary and middle school students won't find "A, B, C" grades in math and English when report cards go home this month.

Teachers scrapping letter grades is like a burglar wiping his fingerprints.

[mbb bill]

Long as they know how to get welfare and produce kids, what more do they need to know??

[capt. norm]

If we made you "accountable" for a college prep curriculum at a school with an average IQ of 85, what would you do?

Gee, they only did it for a hundred years or so before the liberal unions decided to give teachers "tenure" and make them unaccountable. This failure of public shools is realtively new. There were NO such problems in the 40's or 50's when I went to public school. They are a creation of the unions. When bad teachers are rewarded the same as good ones there are some lazy teachers who take full advantage of that fact and they just slide on with the system that supports their incompetence.

Look at all the teachers who repeatedly failed a very simple test.

The teachers unions are very beneficial to the lazy ones who just want to show up, do the absolute minimum and get a paycheck.

[NittanyLion]

When bad teachers are rewarded the same as good ones there are some lazy teachers who take full advantage of that fact and they just slide on with the system that supports their incompetence.

Or, just as bad, some good teachers who either leave the system or sink to the level of lowest common denominator.

[AmishDude]

. . . it is the parents who cant bear the idea that little Johnny or Jill is failing because Mom and Dad dont have the desire to make the time to assist their spawn in learning.

Yeparoony. That's what it's really all about. That, and Ed.D.'s with a lot of time on their hands to come up with stuff like this. I wish the educational establishment would get with the program -- people with doctorates are to be ignored.

[Dimensio]

>>>Well that's part of it -- parents insisting that childrearing is everyone's responsibility but their own -- and then there's the issue of lazy tenured teachers who do nothing and cannot be removed and school administrators who encourage grade-bumping to avoid looking bad in a certain district.<<

You can't run a school system where excellence requires an IQ of 115 in a place where the median IQ is 90, and there are hundreds of kids in the eighties.

I'm not referring to that kind of situation -- I'm well aware that most people aren't as intelligent as I. ;). I'm specifically referring to teachers who don't care about their jobs regardless of the expected performance level of the students. I'm also referring to administrators who insist upon dumbing down the standards so that the standards for "top achievement" can be met by students whose IQs are in the 80s and 90s.
Another thing I forgot to mention is standardized testing. I'm not opposed to standardized tests on principle, but -- at least where I live -- the school boards are using standardized tests as a barometer for educator competence. To avoid losing jobs/funding the schools work to insure that students perform well on the tests. As a result the students learn everything that they need to know about passing a specific standardized test and very little about real-world problems.

It's cruel, it's unfair, it doesn't meet their needs, and it doesn't channel them to where they can succeed.

I agree -- it is unfair to expect advanced education level work from a student with an IQ of 90. It's also unfair to lower the bar to accomidate all of the IQ 90 students to the point where the IQ 115 kids are bored out of their skulls and don't learn anything new or anything at a proper pace for their abilities.