I am tired.
As the end of the first semester approaches, I find myself barraged with correspondence from parents and students concerned about their grades. Fewer than ten instructional days are left before finals and the sense of urgency has hit. All of a sudden grades matter (teachers call this awakening “finding Jesus in a foxhole”).
Parents are stressed. This semester I have heard of quite a few of my student’s parents who have lost jobs, who face the threat of job loss or had their homes foreclosed. This adds to their concerns that their students get the best education possible so they can somehow avoid the effects of a jobless economic recovery.
I had a parent remark that the B her student was receiving in US History was going to keep the student from getting into Harvard. (Perhaps I should have mentioned that by doing so, I would save the family thousands of dollars in tuition.)
These issues are not new to my profession, nor are they different from past teaching experiences. But what exacerbates them are the budget cuts we endure this year. Ten percent fewer adults in my school has increased my duty time, cut back on support personnel in the classroom, limited the dean support for teachers in dealing with behavior issues, and it has made finding time to communicate with parents difficult. On top of this we are preparing for more budget cuts, from $15 to $30 million next year.
With all of this going on, you can imagine the response teachers are giving to current reform measures being presented by our district. I know this firsthand because I am involved with one of the proposed reforms. Standards Based Grading (SBG) has received increased media attention over the past few weeks. The Poudre School District is rolling out its version to the community with some inevitable push back.
The New York Times just ran a story about a Minnesota school district and their SBG roll-out. SBG is about changing the culture of grading and moving towards a more accurate and efficient system. It means that we rethink the role and purpose of grade reporting. Not only is there pushback from some community members, but from teachers as well. If SBG is going to take place in our district, it is going to require time, support, and hard work on the part of all stakeholders, especially teachers. So it was no surprise when I, along with other members of our district SBG committee, presented our ideas to over 100 teachers last week. We were looking for some feedback and we got it.
In addition to the expected philosophical objections we received, we also got the message that teachers have too much on their plates already. To invest time into something that hits at the core beliefs of some teachers is too much. I hear them. But that said, I am troubled by the prospect of not moving forward with reform proposals. I get that the reality of budgets limits the amount of resources we can put towards reforms.
But this does not mean that we should not shift and change some of our priorities, including reorganizing our district personnel to better support reform movements. And it does not mean we should placate ourselves to the increasing political message that we have to cut more government spending. It is time to talk about raising revenues.
It is going to take some politicians with intestinal fortitude to buck the “cut government spending” cry and articulate why we need to raise revenues. I do not see much hope for success in raising taxes with our current state legislative makeup. But I do have some hope about changing the structure of district organizations to support reform at the school level.
The Wallace Foundation has published a series of reports entailing how some major urban districts have reorganized their personnel to better support change in schools. Since I am so tired, I am not going to get into specifics of the reports. But here are two observations in the report that caught my attention:
The district central office had placed priority on assisting school principals in becoming strong instructional leaders, while also helping the principal attend to other aspects of the management of the school.
The district reform plan granted the principal significant discretion (and some additional discretionary resources) to define and deploy staff in ways that optimally support instruction and to access resources for professional development. The principal had made use of this discretion to configure her leadership team and engage several external partners to address particular instructional improvement issues.
These ideas seem like no-brainers but when you look at how current districts are organized, it means major changes and shifts in the responsibilities of district personnel. But it does not necessitate an increase in expenses. In other words, it would not take money to make these changes. Just the will of all involved.
The end of the semester will inevitably come around. I’ll stop having daily meetings with parents who are concerned about their student’s grades. Students will stop asking me “How can I get my grade up?” (Standards based grading would certainly inhibit this question). I will be done grading 120 constructed responses and finish semester grades and we will move on to the next semester.
That is the ebb and flow of a teacher’s school life. This too shall pass. But what should not pass us by is the opportunity to reorganize how we do business at the district level; to empower principals to become instructional leaders and free them up from managerial duties.
Popularity: 5% [?]
As a parent, I am tired too.
For the record, if a middle income child can get into Harvard, it is actually more affordable because of their aid package than UC Boulder.
You covered a lot of topics in this post, but I need to comment on the tone that parents are somehow annoying because they care about their child’s grades. While teachers make their living and gain retirement by interacting with students, it’s us parents who will be emotionally and economically responsible for our children for their entire lives. That is why I not only check grades, but also review the benchmark data, the CSAP data, the PSAT data and when I see that my kid is slipping in any one of these multiple measures, I intervene.
While an A in Algebra would be great on the transcript, a high score on the PSAT enables a student to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. A high score on the ACT or SAT, coupled with good grades in school and a resume reflecting active participation in the community, leads to merit scholarships that are critical in these times when salaries are shrinking yet college costs soar.
The whole question of how Standards Based Grading (SBG) will impact how a teacher assigns a grade will not change the reality of how national standardized tests determine a child’s future. If SBG is implemented district-wide there better be incremental periods of time throughout the semester where a parent – the person who is truly responsible for the student – can determine whether or not their student is getting it and work with the teacher to devise a plan for comprehension.
Whether traditional grading or SBG is in place, I hope that students will still learn that it is in their best interest to show up on time, to be prepared, to participate actively and to produce what is expected when it is expected. All of my jobs in life have rewarded me because of engaging in these acts. Learning these practices is what I think school is for. SBG needs to be studied carefully to make sure kids aren’t taught that knowledge alone is all that matters.
My apologies if I misunderstood your tone about parents, but I have had over 14 years of experience with educators; some have been champions who welcome partnership with parents and others seem to view us as just another hateful part of their jobs.
Mark,
I’m deeply sympathetic to the idea that teachers get more and more stuff piled on them while nothing goes away. What would you most like to see eliminated, and what prevents it?
Non-teaching duties. Mostly hall/lunch duty. I always find it peculiar that the same teacher who reprimands a student in the hall for (pick one: wearing a hat, using their cell phone, inappropriate langauge, disruptive behavior, fighting, etc.) is the same teacher that has to work with that syudent next hour in thier classroom. It does not help the learning environment.
What shouldn’t go away is the assistance a teacher needs to provide for students. A testing center so students can makeup exams without disrupting a teacher’s planning time. Support in the classroom for the student with Asperger Syndrome, who needs constant oversight. Clerical assiatance to input the new ALPs into the support system software. Resources for teachers so we can work over the summer to plan, write assessments and make adjustments to lessons. This way teachers can focus on responding to the needs of students and not work that takes them away from students. This gives the teacher more time to score work, pour over formative data and so on.
Mark–
I think your post does a great job of hitting on a variety of issues facing educators today. Our building too, has seen a drop in the number of “support” personel over the past three years. I used the quotations around “support” because their job went so far beyond supporting us the classroom. They were the ones who often played meaningful roles in the lives of those in our community who needed it the most. In my ten years, I have heard countless times how it was/is the campus supervisor who keeps a kid in school, the secretary who has her ear to the ground who notifies us of families in need around the holidays, etc. So, not only is their work missed, but their presence as well.
In terms of standards based grading. I truly believe it represents the future of education. The current model of education represents a throwback to a rapidly industrializing society that needed schools to partially function as sorting mills for those who would remain in the lower working class, those who would be given access to an emerging middle class, and those few who would gain access to the professions. Interestingly, the history of the SAT is also a complex and interesting read in how those in power sought to keep their progeny in power.
Given that history, standards based represents an education that gives credence to the idea that all kids need to learn to a certain standard to be productive members society. Having used standards as a measure in my classroom (with limited success), I can honestly say that it is revolutionary. Using performance as the indicator, rather than arbitrary assignments, homework, attendance, sitting silently, name in the upper right hand corner and ultimately grades, it empowers students and teachers. It empowers teachers because it treats them like the professionals that they are. Using a standards based approach allows these professionals to diagnose learning and work constantly for improvement that is not always bound by specific assignment or in some cases even time. It empowers students by allowing them to work in collaboration with their teachers on improvement over time, mastery, or even advancement of known work.
This does not mean, however, that the transition will not be frought with issues, both real and perceived. Teachers are rightfully worried that it will be “one more thing.” I remember reading once that districts overwhelmingly used the term “launch” to describe any reform that was coming down the line. They never, though, used the term “launching pad,” which without fail is the teachers desk. Standards based, in my opionion, cannot be thought of or presented as, one more thing. It has to be presented as the thing. Our district has rightfully moved slow, but once a tipping point has been achieved it has to be full on implementation tied to everything that we do in terms of professional development. It also has to be differentiated. Some leaders in our building are miles ahead in terms of their understanding and implementation. They should be given opportunities for leadership, and the way it is presented to them needs to be different than the way it is taught and presented to the rest of us. Finally, this model will overwhelm some teachers, both new and old. How do we get them the support they need, provide opporunities for growth and change with the reality that at a certain point they will need to be counseled out of the profession.
The second part of implementation it has to be to the community, especially at the high school level. We need to be clear and transparent that in this new model we need the support of our parents and community groups. Taking it one step further, I would argue that we don’t just need the support of our parents/guardians, we expect it. Certainly, parents come at education from different places, but we need to meet parents where they are and then forge committments with how we can all get students to a high level of achievement. We also need to provide parents with real-time and real-life information. It pains me to hear the perception of how a “B” might keep a student from Harvard. My response is that the B might actually get them into Harvard, they will be able to write about the time the “failed” at something. It also represents the fact that on some level we as educators have not communicated the realities of higher education to our community.
Elite schools accept a tiny fraction of those who apply and while grades and test scores are key factors, and their admissions process is the closest thing we have to a state secret in this age of Wikileaks, we know they use a term “good enough.” Is the student good enough for our STANDARD and then how can they advance our institution (artistically, athletically, socially, monetarily, etc.) So to me, universities and parents should welcome standards as a leveling of the playing field and a standards based report card as an indication of how much a student knows and is able to do.
The thing about standards based grading though that gives me the most hope is the conversations I have had with colleagues around the state, nation, and world. They are all wrestling with the same challenges, but united in the belief that they are doing what’s best for kids.
Elisa, constructive parent involvement is key to a student’s success.
Remember that the goals of the ACT, PSAT and ACT are to rank and sort students. They are not criterion referenced assessments; they are normed. This said, there should be a direct correlation between grades and high stakes assessments. SBG does impact a student’s future, and I’d argue it does more so than a standardized rank and sort assessment.
Knowledge alone does not make a person. If there is a way to objectively assess showing up on time, actively particiapting, and being prepared, than we need to use standards to communicate these to students and parents.
SBG would give parents accurate information as to what their student knows at a given time. I’d argue much more so than the current system. SBG also gives accurate information to students so they can eventually take control of their learning experiences, weaning them from their parents.
Michael, nice post. SBG is a cultraul shift that entails the involvement from all stakeholders. As regards to leveling the playing field, I wonder if all of us truely want this.
I didn’t create this system, but this is the system we have. The assessments I mentioned are the only assessments readily available to parents. I would gladly welcome a Standards Based Grading system that readily allowed me to see where my child was struggling in order to strategically provide supports for that particular weakness.
In the end though high test scores translate into college admissions and scholarships, so I will remain concerned that SBG produces the results that get my kid sorted into an easier life.