Dallas school district grading requirements

[AGDee]

They were talking about this on the radio today and I had to find an article about it. While I can see the points of some parts of these new grading guidelines, there are other parts that just seem ridiculous (Only counting homework grades if they improve a grade???).. here's the scoop:

Teachers have derided the new rules as being too lenient on lazy students by requiring teachers to accept late work, give retests to students who fail and force teachers to drop homework grades that would drag down a student's class average.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...g.4627fe2.html

Discuss!

[texas*princess]

This is ridiculous.

It is creating even more work for the teachers, and is not instilling any sense of personal responsibility on the students.

Yes, the promotion rate and graduation rate will increase, but you are doing the kids a disservice by basically telling them "it's ok to turn in late work" or "it's OK to not study for the test since you can retake it anyway" or "your homework grades will only count if they improve your overall average".

This is NOT preparing them for the future because I can promise you if/when they get to college, their professors will not always accept late work, they will not let you retest and they WILL count your assignments regardless of what happens to your grade.

These kids are in for a rude awakening when they leave DISD.

I don't know what the district or schools are rated, but this sounds like a poor attempt to make their schools look better with increased promotion/graduation rates.

For those interested, here are the new policies:

•Homework grades should be given only when the grades will "raise a student's average, not lower it."

•Teachers must accept overdue assignments, and their principal will decide whether students are to be penalized for missing deadlines.

•Students who flunk tests can retake the exam and keep the higher grade.

•Teachers cannot give a zero on an assignment unless they call parents and make "efforts to assist students in completing the work."

•High school teachers who fail more than 20 percent of their students will need to develop a professional improvement plan and will be monitored by their principals. For middle school the rate is 15 percent; for elementary it's 10 percent.

And I realize that teachers have the jobs to teach, but I feel like it's almost unfair to put the teacher in that position: One one hand, they can be true to their students capabilities and fail who they need to, and on the other you can let some kids roll by so that they don't have to deal with the "professional improvement plan" that the last guideline outlines.

I have several family/friends in education, and depending on what area you are in, some kids just don't give a flying squirrel. Why should the teachers be penalized b/c the students are brats?

ETA: Regarding retaking tests, this will likely cause more work for teachers because they will have to come up with more versions of the test. Example, Mary took a test on Monday and failed it, so she can retake the test. Unless the test is graded immediately, between the time it takes the teacher to get the grades out, Mary can talk to Josh, who got a 98 on the test, and get the right answers just in time for her retake test.

[knight_shadow]

I heard about this on the news. I'm glad I'm not a product of DISD. I wonder how things will turn out when these kids go to college.

[AGDee]

t*p: that was the general consensus on the radio show I was listening to. I personally know that my very bright son, if he knew that homework grades couldn't hurt him, would never do his homework right. His math teacher last year gave 100% on homework if they had all the things in their heading correct (name, hour, date, and assignment) and if all the problems were done whether any of the answers on their math were correct or not! As I was looking over a homework assignment he was working on, I discovered he was doing the same thing wrong every single time. I wanted him to go back and re-do them all and he says to me "As long as I know how to do it now, I don't have to go back and fix those, it won't matter for my grade" and I made him go back and do them anyway. However, that's precisely the kind of attitude I see these grading rules creating, even in the smart (but lazy) kids.

And, as the DJ yesterday pointed out, what happens when these kids get to a job where they have a project due and they don't get it done on time? Do they think they won't get penalized then? Just another example of how our society wants to coddle kids, make them succeed, even when they don't earn it.

And, do principals really have so little to do that they can spend all day determining which students' late assignments are ok and which will get penalized?

I sure hope this doesn't become a trend!

[Taualumna]

I guess they're differentiating between "homework" and "take-home assignments" then? In some classes I took, regular homework was pass/fail. Basically, if you did it, you were checked off. Then, there were assignments, which were bigger projects that took a week or more to complete.

[ASTalumna06]

This is ridiculous.

"But Dr. Hinojosa asked teachers and parents to consider that in the long run the rules will help more students succeed."

Help more students succeed at what? Being lazy and stupid and getting by on it?

Hell, I'll be honest, if I was in school and I didn't have to do homework, I wouldn't do it. I'm sure very few students would. And if I could skip studying to go out with my friends because I'd be able to make up the test later, I would. But from 1st grade through senior year in high school, kids have to have rules and appropriate guidelines to follow, and they have to be held accountable when they make a mistake. Just like in college and the real world... except by then, no one really cares if you decide to be lazy and F*** up because of it.

And what happens when they go to college? Or even when they go to get part-time jobs during the summer? "Oh, it's ok Johnny, you clearly can't add because you never had to study, and your cash register drawer is off by $200, but we'll let it slide this time." ... Um.. no.

In some schools, they won't even let the teachers use red pen anymore to correct papers, because apparently it's "mean". And in some cases, they can't mark the wrong answers wrong, and instead, they have to mark all the correct answers correct. Apparently telling a kid that "definatly" is spelled wrong, or that 2+2 doesn't equal 5 will be a major blow to them psychologically.

[33girl]

It's stuff like this that makes me want to go back to school, get my education degree, and be the bitchiest teacher the world has ever seen.

Re the red pen - there were eras before when its use was discouraged because red = communist.

I think the teachers are all going to snap and be calling up the parents and saying "your kid's a flipping idiot. Bite me."

[texas*princess]

I agree that even the smart (but maybe sometimes lazy) kids could start slacking and they will never reach their full potential.

Such a shame.

God help those kids if they ever have to transfer out before the end of high school... they will be in for a scary surprise the first time they crap out on a test thinking they can just retake it later.

If I were a teacher in that district, I'd want out ASAP.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Maybe the parents will get mad when the kids ask to take the SAT (and other costly tests) for the 5th time.

If I was a teacher there, my U-Haul would have been ready to go THAT DAY.

[AGDee]

I'll go a step further and say that if my kids' school did this, I'd school of choice them out of there in a heartbeat. I was already ticked off at that math teacher for not *really* grading their math homework. It made no sense to me that a kid could do every problem wrong but have the right heading on the paper and get 100% but another kid could do every problem right and forget to put the hour on the paper and get an 80%. The only way I found out that he was grading that way was because I was concerned that my son was getting 100% on every homework but scoring in the mid-80's on quizzes and tests so I thought he wasn't retaining the information even though he did the homework correctly. I asked the teacher about it at parent teacher conferences and that's when the teacher told me that the homework grades had nothing to do with whether the problems were done correctly! I was thinking I might need to get him a tutor or something. Then it turned out, he wasn't necessarily doing his homework right. I think of grades as feedback on performance. If a kid is getting 100% on everything, then the natural conclusion is that they are performing well. Once I knew the truth, I started looking over his homework and checking it myself so if he was making errors, I could show him what he was doing wrong. Guess what? He started doing better on tests too!

ETA: Hmmm, is that helicoptering? LOL

[Thetagirl218]

This school district need serious help...... for several reasons not just the issues the article brought up...

1. They need teachers badly

2. They need teachers so bad that they had billboards up all around Florida.

3. No teacher in their right mind would want to teach in a district that has those policies. There is no way in h@# that you could get me to use those rules in my classroom!

Me and my teacher alter ego is now going to analyze these policies.

•Homework grades should be given only when the grades will "raise a student's average, not lower it."

Is homework going to change names to "fluff assignments"? Or are students going to be expected to never do homework? Because part of homework and assignments is that you might not do well at first! So then you do more activities and assignments to improve and maybe just maybe....learn something!!!!

Teachers must accept overdue assignments, and their principal will decide whether students are to be penalized for missing deadlines.

Seriously....How big are their high schools? Because in a normal size high school (2,500-3,000 students). The principal will never have a chance to follow up on this...or the assistant principals....They are just too over stretched as it is with discipline issues.

What about accountability? If they have a project to do at work and don't turn it in, what happens? Well lets just say someone remembers that you didn't turn it in!

•Students who flunk tests can retake the exam and keep the higher grade.

•Teachers cannot give a zero on an assignment unless they call parents and make "efforts to assist students in completing the work."

If a student fails....guess what???? They FAIL!!!!

I am sorry if that sounds callous to some, but failure is important step in learning! This mean said, I am encouraging my students to fail, but if they don't follow the directions of an assignment or don't even turn it in....I am going to fail them! Hopefully they can recover their grade with other work, but failure is part of life!

On the other bullet....
1. No district should tell their teachers that they can or can't give a common sense grade.
2. Who is supposed to "make an effort"...The parents? The Teachers? The Parents most likely don't care and the Teacher has tried everything in the book to help.

•High school teachers who fail more than 20 percent of their students will need to develop a professional improvement plan and will be monitored by their principals. For middle school the rate is 15 percent; for elementary it's 10 percent.

Here is my take on this.....20% of your class should not fail.....but when you have 150 + students...you may have 30 students that don't get Cs! It happens!!!!
Now that being said.....I can understand the improvement plan....most districts have all their teachers do PIP regardless of their fail/pass status.

My last thing.....Did the people who run this district ever actually teach school?

[aephi alum]

That's insane. Junior's gonna be in for a nasty shock when s/he gets to college and can't just retake a failed test, or when s/he gets a job and can't hack it.

Teachers cannot give a zero on an assignment unless they call parents and make "efforts to assist students in completing the work."

Okay, I'll give every student one point out of a hundred for writing his/her name. That way, nobody gets a zero. Of course, the other 99 points will be considerably harder to earn.

[LightBulb]

Originally Posted by AGDee

It made no sense to me that a kid could do every problem wrong but have the right heading on the paper and get 100% but another kid could do every problem right and forget to put the hour on the paper and get an 80%.

Yeah, that's crap. Likewise for English papers - a student might get points off for for not following MLA style... but she should lose more for having poor content.

[LightBulb]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

In some schools, they won't even let the teachers use red pen anymore to correct papers, because apparently it's "mean".

See, I don't have a problem with this. I think it's supposed to be that red ink is so deeply associated with failure because people have used it for so long. Other colors may not be linked to the same connotations, even if they're all over the page. I think the hope is that students see it and say, "Oh, I missed this question, dang," rather than, "Oh, I have failed at school. I'll never understand this."

I know teachers who correct in green or purple. As long as you correct in something, we're good. Just don't correct in blue because so many people use blue pens.

[LightBulb]

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