by Brian
I just finished grading final tests and recording semester grades for my math students. I've been teaching for 25 years now, and I have a confession to make: not every kid who got a D from me could really pass the final in Algebra or Geometry. But what they lacked in ability they made up in effort. They did every assignment; they corrected every test. They came in before and after school for extra help. They may not have understood the subject very well, but I guarantee it went through their brain. My rationale is this: they're not going to take that D and get into the University of Washington, but they're going to take the credit that goes with it and continue to try to graduate from high school. I never meant that D to be a guarantee that my students had mastered the curriculum. It meant that their performance was below average, but that they had made a bona fide effort.
But I guess the State Board of Education caught on to me.
They are in effect saying: we know you are passing students in your math classes who are not really very good at math. You are soft hearted and soft headed, and to keep you from doing irreparable harm to your students we are going to make them pass an end-of-course exam to prove that they can do the math. That way if they pass the test they will be assured of getting a meaningful diploma.
I would agree with their concerns if they just wanted to be assured that the students who got an A or a B from me were in fact competent in Algebra or Geometry. There is a verifiable problem of grade inflation in states with high stakes graduation exams. Arkansas, for example, issued a report this month showing that 58 high schools in that state had more than 20% of the students who made an A or a B in their math class not passing the end of course exam. That's not good.
But I want the responsibility for grading my students, and granting them credit towards graduation. I accept the idea of using end of course exams to verify that our schools are doing their job. But I want the right to say that if an individual student passes my class, they have earned a credit toward graduation. I know them, I know their situation, and if I grant them credit, that should be good enough for the state.
Great blog Brian! I agree, effort should count for something. How does this match up with O’Connor’s grading practices?
Mrs. Chili’s point is really important… we need morticians! We need all those professions which are poo-poo’d as “skilled labor” from the ivory towers of academia. Really, how many people in society even change their own oil anymore? Snake their own drains? (True I bet this number will go up in the present economy, but still).
I always tell my students that I care more about “do” than “try.” They come to school with no homework and say “I tried,” but have no evidence of it. I tell them “I don’t want you to try, I want you to do.” DO is the evidence to prove that TRY has happened.
I have a hard time with this question. A friend of mine tells me to think of it like this – effort is nice, but it doesn’t prove mastery of the concepts. “Say you’re here,” he says, “and your foxhole is a thousand yards that way. You’ve either got this skill to get there, or you’re dead; your effort doesn’t count.”
Even aside the idea that a good portion of reaching the imagined foxhole is pure luck, what my friend doesn’t take into account is the fact that it’s unreasonable to expect ALL our kids to succeed in EVERYTHING. I’ve got a couple of kids who are going to be mechanics and laborers (and one who wants to be a mortician; I kid you not). They are not going to go on to college. They don’t have an investment in having the kinds of skills they’d need to continue an academic pursuit. How do we measure THEIR success in our classes?
Brian’s “D” student who works hard can get a job as a postal employee, policeman, fireman or enlisted marine IF he has a high school diploma. If he is required to pass Algebra II to get that diploma, it probably won’t happen. I think my community wants our high school to provide an appropriate education to all of our students and not just for the ones continuing on to the University of Washington. I look forward to Mark’s post on tiered diplomas which seems like it would solve the issue.
Thoughtful comments, Brian. It really comes down to an issue of truly defining what you are grading for.
This is interesting because I’ve been in another discussion amongst English teachers online about what should constitute a grade. Growth? Skills (even if they walked in the door with the skills)? Teacher preference?
I think this might be another case for tiered diplomas…one that might be a prerequisite for four-year university, another that would be prerequisite for two-year college or trade schools (where more specialized training can occur…which can mean more math if necessary)…and a third that is more akin to a GED…but that’s another blog post altogether.