Grading Woes
The end of the first quarter of school is drawing near. Wow! 1/4 over already. I still really like my students. Anyhow, today we got a memo giving us the breakdown for grades (3o% classwork, 40% tests, 5% homework, 25% nine-weeks exam). I'm annoyed.
We are required to do grade-level multiple choice testing in each subject every week, and the final exam is, of course, multiple choice. I just feel like multiple choice is not developmentally appropriate for 6-year-olds. They don't understand how to evaluate answer choices to find the best one -- they see an answer, they pick it. I've spent some time teaching them how to do it, but honestly, I'd much rather spend my time teaching the material and giving my students performance assessments or at least open-response tests (like 2+2=__ instead of 2+2= a) 3 b) 4 c)2). But now, according to district policy, 65% of their final grade is based on these "MCT format" tests.
First graders don't even take the state tests. (I'll save my thoughts on those unhelpful things for another time.)
Our principal also told us that we have to have proof of every grade we have given if we fail a student in anything. Now, I understand the logic behind this, but don't you think it would have been better to tell us that at the beginning of the year? I have sent almost everything home, because I think it is much more valuable for me to show the parents what their child is doing in class than to cover my @ss with a paper trail. Also, if I can get the parents to sign off that they knew their child was failing, there is no need to prove the paper trail -- the parents have seen it, and if you give me the child for 10 minutes, I'll show you that he or she doesn't know what I say he or she doesn't know. Why would I lie about these things?
My last principal told us that we were the teachers, the bosses of our classrooms, and if we felt that a student was not mastering the objectives, we had the full and complete power to fail them, or to adjust their grades up or down as their performance merited. We would, of course, have to be reasonable, but as long as we could show -- somehow -- why they deserved the grade they got, all was good. This new principal has told us he has no qualms about changing our grades.
So now I don't get to decide what is important in my classroom (I would weight classwork higher and the end-of-quarter test lower), how to test my students (more performance assessments, especially in reading, where multiple choice tests tell me about phonics skills and listening comprehension but nothing about reading comprehension, fluency, or decoding), and I can't give the parents full access to their students infomation without a classroom visit.
We are required to do grade-level multiple choice testing in each subject every week, and the final exam is, of course, multiple choice. I just feel like multiple choice is not developmentally appropriate for 6-year-olds. They don't understand how to evaluate answer choices to find the best one -- they see an answer, they pick it. I've spent some time teaching them how to do it, but honestly, I'd much rather spend my time teaching the material and giving my students performance assessments or at least open-response tests (like 2+2=__ instead of 2+2= a) 3 b) 4 c)2). But now, according to district policy, 65% of their final grade is based on these "MCT format" tests.
First graders don't even take the state tests. (I'll save my thoughts on those unhelpful things for another time.)
Our principal also told us that we have to have proof of every grade we have given if we fail a student in anything. Now, I understand the logic behind this, but don't you think it would have been better to tell us that at the beginning of the year? I have sent almost everything home, because I think it is much more valuable for me to show the parents what their child is doing in class than to cover my @ss with a paper trail. Also, if I can get the parents to sign off that they knew their child was failing, there is no need to prove the paper trail -- the parents have seen it, and if you give me the child for 10 minutes, I'll show you that he or she doesn't know what I say he or she doesn't know. Why would I lie about these things?
My last principal told us that we were the teachers, the bosses of our classrooms, and if we felt that a student was not mastering the objectives, we had the full and complete power to fail them, or to adjust their grades up or down as their performance merited. We would, of course, have to be reasonable, but as long as we could show -- somehow -- why they deserved the grade they got, all was good. This new principal has told us he has no qualms about changing our grades.
So now I don't get to decide what is important in my classroom (I would weight classwork higher and the end-of-quarter test lower), how to test my students (more performance assessments, especially in reading, where multiple choice tests tell me about phonics skills and listening comprehension but nothing about reading comprehension, fluency, or decoding), and I can't give the parents full access to their students infomation without a classroom visit.
posted by Jessica at 12:25 AM
1 Comments:
It doesn't seem like many, if any, of your kids are failing. How about continue to send home papers but make copies of the failing ones before you send them home. Then everyone has what they need (and another use for your wonderful aide).
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