One of the complaints lodged against me this year is that I don't inflate grades enough. Seriously. The parent actually said that if I don't artificially inflate grades like everyone else does, I'm doing a disservice to my students. That parent's words, not mine. It doesn't matter that, over time, I'm sure the standards of my courses have eroded somewhat; no, I have to do that and ensure that the most common grade given in a class is a B.
Seriously, that's what the parent said. Several times. To me and to school and district administrators.
There's a lot that's wrong with education in California, but somehow I doubt I'm the problem:
No issue is more pressing in California than education. In late October, the state released scores for the first post-Covid-shutdown state standardized test, conducted earlier last year. The results were horrendous. Less than half of all students who took the Smarter Balanced test—47.1 percent—met the state standard in English language arts, down 4 percentage points from 2018–19. One-third of students met the standard in math, down 6.5 percentage points. Only 16 percent of black students and 9.7 percent of English learners met standards in math.
Not only did test scores plummet; the state’s chronic absenteeism rate has also skyrocketed. The no-show rate leapt from 14.3 percent in 2020–21 to 30 percent in 2021–22. (California defines chronic absenteeism as students missing 10 percent of the days they were enrolled for any reason.) But amazingly, during the 2021–22 school year, data showed that the state’s four-year high school graduation rate climbed to 87 percent, up from 83.6 percent in 2020–21.
How is this possible?
No, I don't think test scores are plummeting because I refuse to lower standards at an even faster rate than those around me.
According to World Population Review, California now leads the country in illiteracy. In fact, 23.1 percent of Californians over age 15 cannot read this sentence. While some of this poor showing is due to a huge influx of migrants from California’s porous southern border, much of the blame falls on the state’s failing public schools.
California seems in no rush to correct these educational shortcomings.
No, too many in California have far more important issues to address:
What if I offered you a retroactive 10% pay raise covering this year, a $5,000 signing bonus, and a 22% pay raise starting next year?
Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
It’s not enough for the Oakland Education Association, the teachers union in Oakland, California, however. In addition to extremely generous financial concessions, the OEA is also demanding “common good” goals be included in the union contract, including measures on climate change, shared governance with the school board, and reparations for black students.
Yeah, pretty sure my attempts to teach, and to hold students accountable to learn, are not the big problems in California education.
(Full disclosure: I serve with Larry Sand, the author of the first linked article, on the board of directors of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.)
7 comments:
The most shocked I ever was, was when a student's parents demanded the he take the exams two weeks early so they could go on a cruise before summer rates kicked in. Yes, it was phrased like that. Nevermind that it would require writing totally separate tests, plus stay several hours after school to proctor the test. This kid was not what I would call a scholar. He was often absent, and floated barely above failure all year long. Eventually, the parents made such a stink that the administrator said he could come back in June to take his exam. This was my last year. There was no way I was coming back to give this kid a test. I still don't know if he took it or not. He did need the credit to graduate.
I have to do that and ensure that the most common grade given in a class is a B.
I've never had a parent say that because even they don't want to tell a teacher to lower the standards. That seems like a new development.
When a parent would tell me that "everyone says that your class is too hard", I'd ask what they think the class average should be. They would usually say something like 75%, and I'd tell them that the average is currently 79%. At that point, the parent runs out of steam.
Not only did test scores plummet; the state’s chronic absenteeism rate has also skyrocketed.
Wouldn't it be refreshing if education officials just told the truth?
"Look, we've got as many students as there are people in Finland. A third of them weren't born in America. We don't know where they are from, but it sure as hell wasn't Finland. Helping poor, uneducated students who can't speak English soaks up all the resources, so we don't do much for poor, uneducated students who were born here. It's gotten so bleak, they don't even bother showing up. Which, frankly, is a blessing because hopeless and disruptive students gum up the works for everyone else. Why would we hold back students that we don't even want hanging around? Why expect teachers to exceed expectations when every other governmental agency is screwing the pooch? "
Anonymous, when you have something to say about what I've written, perhaps I'll post it. Until then, no.
Ellen K: It amazes me how much school specific students miss, and how much school students overall miss. I've already been hit with requests to give final exams early because students won't be here for finals. I will *not* stay after school to give students finals, they will take them during the school day.
Randomizer: no one will speak such truths. Doing so would shatter the leftist narrative.
Back in the days of the old STAR test, our district (22,000) used Edusoft for data analysis and we made an interesting discovery...over 80% of students who repeated Alg. 1 tested lower the second time around. For those who repeated the course a THIRD time, they scored even lower than the previous two years. Yet, somehow, they were able to pass the class and graduate.
This data was interesting, yet not surprising. These students were completely burned on Algebra, Algebra support class, Lang. Arts, Lang. Arts support class, that I don't blame them for being absent. They would have been better served with a simple math literacy or financial literacy class.
True. But the suits in the state capital set graduation standards, and the suits in the district office set higher graduation standards. Seems to me that that's part of the problem, as is the fact that too many kids don't learn elementary math.
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