Irish Internet Radio and TV from Dublin, Ireland.
New Virginian state educational guidelines regarding grading.
On Sept 9th, the Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Education has implemented a new grading guideline where students can only receive the lowest grade of 50% instead of a zero for unacceptable work. Example: He or she brings in their homework halfway done and receive half credit for it. Many Virginians are up in arms over this new guideline and feel that it would discourage instead of encourage student's to preform their full potential. However, the school administrations believe that this practice would promote higher attendance quotas for state/federal subsidiaries. What are your viewpoints to this new educational rule:
Below is an excerpt on one of the local newspaper columnists:
ESSAY: The 50% solution
By T. Patrick Cleary
Published: Virginia Gazette
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:21 AM EDT
JAMES CITY -- Regarding the Sept. 9 Gazette article, “Should a zero be graded as 50%?” I’m glad that WJC Schools are focusing on failure.
More specifically, what constitutes a failing grade in middle school. If I’ve got it right, the latest thinking is to “upgrade” the minimum mark for completed assignments from zero to 50%. I believe it’s a move in the right direction.
I’m no stranger to failure. When I read about the idea that any attempt would earn a student at least 50%, I began recalculating my middle school grades in my head. I don’t know what the outcome would have been. It didn’t take long before the math made my head hurt. Still, I’ll always wonder what might have been.
If you’re not convinced that a move away from zero is positive, consider that the essential mission of schools is to prepare our kids for life in the real world. Woody Allen famously said that “80% of life is just showing up.” Applying Woody’s wisdom would make the minimum grade 80%, at least if I’ve done the math right. Like I said, I’m no stranger to failure.
Whether the minimum is 50% or 80%, higher grades mean our kids are smarter. And if our kids are smarter, that means the money we spend educating them in WJC Schools is providing a higher return on investment... if you follow the logic. Move over Madoff!
Any stroke of genius can strike out in implementation. Changing the definition of failure in WJC middle schools is no exception. To succeed, the same minimum grade should be applied to every aspect of WJC Schools operations.
For example, bus drivers should get at least 50% credit just for finding their way to school. If the drivers remember to collect kids along the route — even just a few of them — they’d earn additional credit.
From what I can tell, the biggest challenge will be changing the definition of failure as it applies to sports. Would opposing teams both get 50% for showing up? Would a missed basketball shot earn a minimum of one point or even one-and-a-half points if attempted from outside the 3-point line?
To be sure, elevating failure to a new level at WJC Schools is anything but a no-brainer. I’ll leave it to smarter folks to work out the details, because failure is not an option.
T. Patrick Cleary is a local freelance writer. He wasn’t educated in WJC Schools, but he admits he’d be a lot smarter if he had been, at least on paper.
Below is an excerpt on one of the local newspaper columnists:
ESSAY: The 50% solution
By T. Patrick Cleary
Published: Virginia Gazette
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 2:21 AM EDT
JAMES CITY -- Regarding the Sept. 9 Gazette article, “Should a zero be graded as 50%?” I’m glad that WJC Schools are focusing on failure.
More specifically, what constitutes a failing grade in middle school. If I’ve got it right, the latest thinking is to “upgrade” the minimum mark for completed assignments from zero to 50%. I believe it’s a move in the right direction.
I’m no stranger to failure. When I read about the idea that any attempt would earn a student at least 50%, I began recalculating my middle school grades in my head. I don’t know what the outcome would have been. It didn’t take long before the math made my head hurt. Still, I’ll always wonder what might have been.
If you’re not convinced that a move away from zero is positive, consider that the essential mission of schools is to prepare our kids for life in the real world. Woody Allen famously said that “80% of life is just showing up.” Applying Woody’s wisdom would make the minimum grade 80%, at least if I’ve done the math right. Like I said, I’m no stranger to failure.
Whether the minimum is 50% or 80%, higher grades mean our kids are smarter. And if our kids are smarter, that means the money we spend educating them in WJC Schools is providing a higher return on investment... if you follow the logic. Move over Madoff!
Any stroke of genius can strike out in implementation. Changing the definition of failure in WJC middle schools is no exception. To succeed, the same minimum grade should be applied to every aspect of WJC Schools operations.
For example, bus drivers should get at least 50% credit just for finding their way to school. If the drivers remember to collect kids along the route — even just a few of them — they’d earn additional credit.
From what I can tell, the biggest challenge will be changing the definition of failure as it applies to sports. Would opposing teams both get 50% for showing up? Would a missed basketball shot earn a minimum of one point or even one-and-a-half points if attempted from outside the 3-point line?
To be sure, elevating failure to a new level at WJC Schools is anything but a no-brainer. I’ll leave it to smarter folks to work out the details, because failure is not an option.
T. Patrick Cleary is a local freelance writer. He wasn’t educated in WJC Schools, but he admits he’d be a lot smarter if he had been, at least on paper.
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Felicia on -
I think the USA has been so consumed with "teaching to the test" that it has failed its students by not helping them to be excited about the learning process as a whole. In many cases, students who are not strong academically wash out by their high school years because they can't compete with the grading systems. In fairness, a lot of these drop-out students have unbelievable backgrounds full of stress, poverty, abuse, danger, and so forth, but they start out showing up until such time as they are legally able to not show up anymore.In some cases, drop out are in the job market legally, and some also participate in illegal gains. It is not the grades that are the problem, but the education system et. al.
Teachers migrate toward the high achievers, because they know they can and will do the work, but what about the millions of children who have some type of disability, who simply need more time to finish a test or do the homework. The country is saturated in accomodation--IEP' etc. but teachers are overwrought trying to make these accomodations on a realisltic individual scale against the backdrop of overflowing classrooms, often lacking in adequate supplies.
If lowering the grade from the national average allows failing students to meet the minimum criteria of effort, which is all some students can do in truth, it could allow them to build up confidence, and eventually reach the maximum level of output. However, it is unrealistic to think that this could happen without a fixed plan of action to go along with lowering or changing the grade requirements overall. As a student and educator, I see it all the time how overwrought and strung out university students are becoming because the amount of work they are handed is simply not condusive to good learning. There are so many assignments, reading of hundreds of pages, written work, and extra projects + extra, extra projects that are required for each class--there is so much work that readings get ignored, discussions meant to foster community learning suffer or don't exist, and students are constantly trying to "catch up." At the high school level, assignments are given on weekends, which gives students no chance to break away and learn through socialization or extra curricular activities. What is happening is that people are not learning or learning poorly in many cases, and then many are just not working anymore at all.
If lowering the grades as it reflects the amount of work done, allows schools to get more money for programs,it might be a bit unethical. It also might give a "failing test school" a chance to differentiate its teaching and help its failing students learn to like learning again--if you like it, you will work harder at it. The expectation that students will continue to build on the amount of work they do should exist in said situation, but I don't think ti will mean students are learning any less. We spend so much time taking away free time to fill it with essentially rote memorization to pass a test, that most people forget what they learned just months later. For students who work their ass off and can't do any better then fair ot midland grade work, the lowered scale might make them on par with people whoo naturally acquire A's without trying and make a better learning experience for them. It might not work, but it is worth a shot to see where it leads. The class work remains constant--lectures-assignments etc. so why not credit something that the kids do vs. penalizing everything they fail to do?
Features
Margeson On The Music November 09
Posted by Bill Margeson on November 16, 2009 at 11:00pm — 2 Comments
An Irishman's Philosophy
Posted by COLLEEN MUELKER on October 7, 2009 at 12:52am — 14 Comments
Margeson on the music October 09
Posted by Bill Margeson on October 15, 2009 at 7:00am
© 2009 Created by Daithi Locha
