Changing Grading May Change Failure Rates

I mentioned yesterday in my post about the system that grading can help students be more successful. Now, I’m not talking about lowering standards or making grading less stringent; I’m saying we can help kids by not dooming them with our grading practices.

Here are a few things to consider:

It’s the System

This morning as I read through online newspapers around my state, I cam across this article detailing how one school has created a small block of time to help students pass classes with a special emphasis on freshmen. While I applaud the efforts, I wonder why so much pressure is placed on the high school to “get kids through” as my administrator told me one day at my school.

In some continuous improvement classes I took, notably Deming’s influential work, I had one stat pounded into me: the system is at fault 96% of time, people 4% of the time. Granted people create the system, but changing the system could be an answer.

Curriculum Work

At last, I will be able to prepare for my classes today!

The last three weeks have been nothing but department and building issues; “putting out fires” is what I tell people I’ve been doing. We have one English position to fill, which will be filled with a substitute until the five day hiring window closes. I think all of the new teachers are feeling pretty good about the start of the year, and I’m feeling pretty good, too.

Long Day & Another Joke

Today we had an entire day of meetings and then I was pulled into another because my department is short two teachers with five days before the kids arrive. We lost one teacher because of an involuntary transfer, and we still do not have a journalism teacher (no qualified applicants). It’s getting desperate.

We may have a solution, but at this point nothing is a great one. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. I hope it brings me two teachers.

First Meeting & A Joke

My department had our first meeting of the year, and all seemed to go well. We finished everything on the agenda early, so we had over an hour of individual time to prepare our rooms and work on curriculum stuff.

I’m pretty tired, so here’s a joke for ya:

A six-year-old was learning to read using phonics, and he pointed at a picture in a book about the zoo and said, “It’s a frickin’ elephant!” The teacher took a deep breath of surprise and said, “What did you call it?” The boy excitedly squealed “it says it’s a frickin’ elephant. Says so right here!” The teacher looked, and sure enough, there it was: African elephant.