How can I tell? Because I'm getting replies to my "your student is in danger of failing math" emails I was required to send out this week.
Sadly, I get very few responses to such emails, but those I do get are often frustrating. They boil down to, what will you do to help my kid get a higher grade? There's no mention at all of learning, just a higher grade.
No, I won't assign extra credit. I already give bonus questions on each quiz and test, and once in awhile allow a small project for students to demonstrate more advanced learning. Any other extra credit is mere hoop-jumping, and I don't hand out points like cookies just to artificially inflate a grade.
No, I won't allow your student to retake a test on which he/she did poorly. We don't do "test reconnaissance" in our department.
Yes, we can meet in person, but I won't tell you anything at such a meeting that I wouldn't tell you in an email in a few sentences.
Yes, I'm available to help your student outside of class. I'm in my classroom a half hour before school starts each morning. Other teachers offer tutoring during lunch and after school.
There's such a stark difference between how parents and students on the one hand, and teachers on the other, view grades. The former view "points" as commodities to be hoarded and maximized, like gold, to be gathered however they can be gathered. The latter view grades as a proxy for achievement towards a predefined set of standards. I don't see how these competing views can ever be reconciled.
So I'll just keep getting frustrated, and replying with as much cheerfulness and professionalism as I can muster.
3 comments:
Oh, my, this post brought back memories! In the 70's and early 80's, parents disciplined the kids for poor grades, and I never got a request for how to raise the grade. It was on the student for not studying, working in class, etc. My second career, after a few years to raise my daughter, started in 2001, and what a change! Except for one remarkable exception, administrators gave in to parents and the burden fell on teachers to get that grade raised by giving retests, extra credit, the usual hoop-jumping. NCLB and other so-called 'reform' programs, with all of the punishments on schools, certainly were a factor. Our school went through one of those--with the state 'experts 'and endless meetings, data creating and processing, waste of money. I wanted to get up just once and speak the truth: not one of the overpaid experts were successful teachers and they were full of s###. So glad I am retired! Hang in there and keep fighting the good fight, Darren.
"I don't see how these competing views can ever be reconciled."
Parents and students care about grades, but not about learning. I care about learning, but not about grades. If grades are primarily based on assessments, and my assessments are done well, then we can be on the same page.
That's how I tried to reconcile the two views.
Early in my career, students asked about test re-takes, but I didn't understand what they were talking about. It isn't a routine practice at the high school, so I never picked it up.
Extra-credit was rare, only for my convenience and never accepted in the last week of a quarter. During remote learning, I offered a point for the first person who could spot an error in my video homework explanations. They were the only editors I could afford.
I will help and tutor a student as much as they want, but I won't try or care more than they do.
When a conscientious student uncharacteristically gets hammered on a test, the student wants to review the test in detail, hoping to scrounge a few points. As we review the test, my goal is to show that the questions were fair and the grading was consistent.
The student is usually still upset, so I ask, "Are you mad at me or yourself?" The kid knows it will sound dumb to be mad at me, since I've been a peach the whole time. I don't know what the kid really thinks, but it ends the session productively.
My students usually acknowledge that my tests are fair, that they cover exactly what I said they would.
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