You might think I'm being a bit flippant with that last comment, but I wonder. I had two students turn in their finals today with nothing written on them; one didn't even put his name on his. And it's not like they couldn't pass the class no matter what, because if you score a 70% on the final then you're guaranteed at least a D- in the course.
Today's final had no tricks or surprises on it. All the topics on the final have been posted on my web site all school year. The problems are of the same type students previously saw on tests, quizzes, and homework, and I allow students a note sheet since I'm not fond of requiring students to memorize formulas just for the sake of memorizing.
So far I've had one student score slightly over 100% on the final (I always have a few bonus points on tests so students can demonstrate above-and-beyond knowledge), but too many others scored less than 50%. To emphasize, they scored less than 50% on a test for which
- all the tested topics had been identified and published
- all the problems were of the type previously seen on tests and quizzes
- students were allowed a note sheet
7 comments:
Australian Education faces the same conundrum; what to do with "disengaged" students. These are students to whom everything the school and teacher can provide has been provided, yet they do not produce a matching effort.
To an extent, the school system is failing these students. They have learnt that failure has no *meaningful* cost; they progress as do students who have worked, they face no *immediate*, *relevant* & *impactful* consequence for their failure, so they form the impression (not without justification) that there is no need to change.
Until, of course, it is too late. Suddenly, they are out of school, with no relevant skills, and no access to higher education. This problem exists at least partly because school leadership does not want to face the hard truth that failure is a necessary part of education, and the refusal to report failure does not mean that failure has not happened.
I was told that at the last minute, a few seniors failed necessary classes and would not graduate. They asked, "Isn't there anything we can do?" Because, as you point out, rules and standards were always just something to work around, and for what might be the very first time, they were being held to account. A sad time to learn an important life lesson.
Last Friday was my school's 8th Grade culmination. In 8th grade, you cannot have more than 2 Fails combined on the final report cards (fall and spring) and no more than 2 Us on the spring semester report card. I had a student who had 5 Us; admins asked me to change his U and I said, "No. I gave him a U on the 15 week report card. We have had 2 tests since then and he failed them both very badly. He also did not do the major homework assignment that he had 2 weeks to do. I gave a few easy assignments just so he could raise his fail to a D. Ask someone else."
Parent appealed and admins allowed him to participate in the ceremony. I wondered why the parent didn't contact me after she saw his U on the 15 week report card or follow up on the phone calls I made earlier in the semester or check the online system to wonder why his grade was so low.
What did the student learn? He can still do badly in many of his classes and still walk on stage. He also learned that if parent complains enough that the school bend to the parents will.
That is the same situation we face in Australia; even if Teachers do their job, and fully document the reasons a student has not met the criteria to pass (i.e. they fail assessment tasks, receive feedback on what they did wrong, additional tuition and opportunities to demonstrate competence and still do not meet the requirements), they will be "promoted" to the next year along with their year-level cohort, if the parents reject the School's "advice" and complain to the State department of education.
Despite the obvious results of this policy, there is utter bemusement amongst the educational leadership as to why there is such disparity between the highest and lowest levels of achievement within a cohort of students having the same number of years in school.
Nonetheless, they have a solution: Teachers must differentiate their instruction to cover a broader range of year levels. Thus we have a situation where the typical Year 10 classes has students from year 2-3 standard through to year 11 standard.
Cyberchalky,
Impossible! No educated person would create a system so ridiculous! :-)
My Favorite Final Exam Entry ...
Student is sitting, maybe doodling down the side of the front page, obviously unsure of how to do anything, for the full 2 hours. Blank pages throughout.
Right under the name is a note: "I need more time."
I hate those last week emails with "how can we help Junior graduate?" when Junior hasn't been doing squat for 17 weeks. This year I actually had to give a zero on a final. The student simply didn't do the final project. He spent the class time organizing prom groups and discussing his future as an e-gamer (we now have a stadium here....) I hated doing it, but the kid really Did Not Care. My observation is current students have less exposure to ideas outside their own narrow views, that social media has created a bland norm in their wider knowledge. As a result when asked to write comparison criticism, few were able to bring him historical or social or literary context. It's truly disturbing. I'm so glad not to deal with it anymore.
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