Posted on 11/19/2002 10:21:23 AM PST by B Knotts
What the hell happened to "if you do well, you'll pass/get on the honor roll?"
This is yet another way that teachers can go out their way to make kids feel good as opposed to teaching them something. Is there any wonder that the rest of the world's educational systems are passing us like we were standing still!?
See the first post on this page for the source information.
The Oregonian
Living Smart
Bad grades, good reaction Grades: Letter grades
a thing of the past
11/15/02
SU-JIN YIM
Every parent thinks their youngster is an academic Michael Jordan, or at
least a Scottie Pippen.
That is, until they see the
report card.
Parents can feel just as
deflated by poor grades as
their child, especially as the
family deals with the
transition from elementary to
middle school and the
looming importance of high
school grades.
There's reason to worry. Bad
grades can signal anything,
from minor disorganization or
a learning problem to
too-easy schoolwork and
behavioral issues.
As report cards go out to
middle schools across the
metropolitan area this month,
parents fighting disappointment and surprise at their kids' marks aren't
alone. Middle-schoolers make up the bulk of the clients at Sylvan
Learning Center in Northeast Portland, Executive Director Catherine
Sergeant says.
"The problem won't disappear, it will only get worse," Sergeant says. "The
older they get, the deeper the hole is."
That's why it's important to consider what grade cards really mean, how to
deal with your own disappointment and how to help the student.
A poor report card doesn't mean your kid is stupid or doomed to a
dead-end job. But it may mean that your kid's self-esteem is taking a
beating, even as young as 6 years old.
"Kids really do judge themselves, at least their intellectual ability, based
upon the kinds of feedback they get in school," says author Larry Greene,
who wrote "Roadblocks to Learning: Understanding the Obstacles That
Can Sabotage Your Child's Academic Success." "These are kids who
struggle at the bottom of the academic food chain. They become
increasingly frustrated and demoralized. They begin to lower their
expectations and aspirations. In many cases, they just shut down."
One way the Portland School District has addressed the esteem issue is
by creating a new grading system at middle schools that abandons A's
and B's for grades of "always" and "often." Students in some schools,
such as Harriet Tubman and Hosford middle schools, are graded on effort,
not right answers, so even lower-performing students can make the honor
roll.
These schools also use a second scale designed to evaluate whether the
student is meeting state standards but uses "exceeds, meets, close to
meeting, not meeting" to rank students.
The different grading system has won fans and critics.
"Not all parents understand the new report cards," says Theresa Egan, a
seventh-grade teacher at Harriet Tubman. "While their child may have
been getting A's or B's all along, now it says they're not meeting" the
standards.
Still, Egan says the new system is better because it can build confidence
and minimize disparity between classes.
"An A in one classroom doesn't necessarily mean that a child will be
successful in state benchmarks or could write a paper, but they could still
have an A in their English class," Egan says.
No matter the grading system, parent involvement can mean the difference
between a confident student who performs as well as he can and a
demoralized student who may never know his full ability, teachers and
experts agree.
Parents can help by setting clear expectations, establishing a routine for
homework and communicating with the teacher about assignments.
Sometimes, it's simply a matter of making sure completed homework is
turned in.
"Usually, if you empty out a backpack, you'll find a whole semester's
worth of work just shoved in there," Egan says.
Ultimately, it may be time to seek outside help.
Parents often contact Sylvan when everything else has failed, Sergeant
says.
"They are totally frustrated," she says. "They're at the point of tears."
Tutors or learning specialists can teach a child essential tools that are
sometimes skipped over at school, such as learning how to take notes,
how to manage time, how the student best learns material, Greene says.
The goal should be to teach children that studying is important and can
affect their future.
"Kids think middle school doesn't really count," Hosford Middle School
counselor Jill Sage says. "They think, 'When I get into high school, I'll
kick it into gear.' (But) work habits aren't something you can turn on and
off." Su-jin Yim: 503-294-7611; suyim@news.oregonian.com
Right, so when these kids get into high school and start getting real grades again, what then? High schools need to grade and give a student's GPA or those kids who want to go to college are doomed. And what of the real world where these underachieved kids land when they grow up? I'm sick of the liberal mantra of "self-esteem". It does nothing more than except promote the "I, me" self-centered culture of adulthood.
No they dont. Most parents know their children have some limitations. In most cases(I said most), a child will make similar grades throughout school. It is easily seen at an early age that a child may be a solid "B" student, but not a straight "A" student.
Funny thing is, when I was in school, a big part of the reason I tried my best to get good grades was to please my parents and not dissapoint them. They were fine with "A" and "B" work but would simply say, "We know you can do better" if I made a "C".
The professional mau-mau-ers have been whining for years that only whites with good grades get into high school honors programs. Even in schools with a majority of minority students, the 20% or so of white students are in honors classes, with some high-achieving black or other minority students.
With the demise of college affirmative action programs (especially in the People's Republic of California), competition for slots in better colleges has gotten desperate, especially for those students not in high school honors classes.
Normally, high schools place freshmen in honors tracks based on their standardized test scores and letter grades obtained in junior high school. If students do NOT receive letter grades, then teachers and guidance counselors can use all kinds of subjective criteria for deciding who gets into honors classes. Highly-motivated parents may scream, but the net result is the dilution of the "honors track" and in the end, an end-run around the high school system that's used to funnel kids (apart from affirmative action) into "good" colleges.
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