1 post tagged “assigned blog”

First, I want to preface this by saying that this couldn't be an easy job.  I know most teachers find it hard enough to manage 20-30 students at a time, much less an entire district's worth of students and faculty.
So, what I would change is the all of the coddling of our students.  They keep on coasting through thinking that they understand the material or what they do is good enough when it's nowhere close.  In my district(or at least my school) the Language Arts teachers where told by the literacy coach that after every test, they have to re-teach and re-test.  And what makes this so bad is that the kids always know they are going to get a second chance. 
Now, recently the district constructed a semester exam for all math subjects.  There were 60 multiple choice questions given over a 2-day period.  When they see the results from the test, it will show that about 95% of students passed.  Most students are going to come away thinking, "Wow, I really know this stuff.  I guess I can keep on barely listening and only doing half of my homework.  I mean as long as I can pass the test, that's all that matters, right?"  Little do they know that in no way do their final exam grades reflect how they did on the test.  What I'm about to write is extremely confidential and isn't supposed to be shared outside of district personnel.  First the district took the raw scores from each student and "normed" them.  Basically they added 25 points to everyone's test score.  Then we were supposed to take this score and multiply it by .10.  We then added that number to their second term average and the resulting number is their new semester exam grade.
Ex.:  One of my students have a 67 term 2 average and originally scored an 18% on the final semester exam.  So,
18 + 25 = 43;  43 x .10 = 4.3;  4.3 + 67 = 71.3
This student will now be on the verge of passing and will like be given whatever points he needs for a 70.  He failed my class, he failed a comprehensive exam with an 18%, but yet he will be moved on up all to make the school and district appear more successful.
This is just one of many examples of the district finding ways to give out free passes.  They say that there should be more rigor and students should start thinking on a higher level nowadays.  Yet, when the students fail at accomplishing these(and other easier tasks), the higher ups just say, "Don't worry about it.  Go ahead to high school, we're sure you'll pick up on it eventually."
I believe that if you flunk, you flunk.  And you need to either go to summer school and catch up, or repeat the next year.  No excuses, no matter what level you are at.
Some people may say that this is easy for me to say.  I don't have to go back and repeat anything.  Maybe if I were to fail at something, I would ask for a little leniency and be told not to worry about it.  And I'm not gonna lie, if someone wanted to let me move on, I'd probably accept it, but I'm not gonna ask for a hand out.  Just today, I was told that I had failed a class and cannot graduate on time because of this.  If I wanted to graduate at all, I would have to repeat the course.  Did I like hearing this news?  Of course I didn't, but I didn't argue it.  I know I didn't meet the requirements, and now I have to pay the consequences.
But yeah, I believe students, or anyone for that matter, should have to earn their right to move on to the next level.  That's all for now.  Peace out...