Galileo
Footballguy
This is a statement I wholeheartedly agree with. Unfortunately, society and the educational system is not ready, willing, or able to embrace this. Imagine the Utopian society where people learn simply because they are interested in learning for the betterment of themselves and society rather than an arbitrarily determined grade. Oh well, that is another conversation., and mostly just a dream..."grades aren't a good way of judging kids"
Anyway, here is what we are doing with grades. I think I have posted this elsewhere, but I'll share here where the conversation is more focused on the topic. We were able to pretty much complete the 3rd quarter (cut short by a couple days before the shutdown). GPA's are based on semester grades. Our first semester is signed sealed and delivered. It is whatever it is. The second semester will be assigned a letter grade, however the 4th quarter will be pass/no pass. The gray area is how to blend the 3rd and 4th quarter. Essentially, the semester grades will either be the same as the 3rd quarter or as much as one letter grade higher or lower to be determined at the teacher's discretion. A student who had a high C for the 3rd quarter can be bumped up to a B if the teacher feels their work quality and effort merit such a bump. A student with a low C can be knocked down to a D, if the teacher feels the 4th quarter work quality and effort merit the drop. Most kids will likely end up with a semester grade that matches their 3rd quarter grade, but there is wiggle room. Administrators have told teachers to lesson the work load, lower the bar of expectations (I hate this part), and try to error in favor of the student when there is a question.
I am assigning work. I am providing tons of feedback. Ultimately, I am logging a record of work that is completed to a satisfactory level. Work that is unsatisfactory is returned with feedback and I ask the student to revise and resubmit. If students start to put together a string of unsatisfactory work or missing work, I contact parents and we try to push the kid in the right direction.
Our schedule is regular. 1st period, 3rd period, 5th period, and 7th are scheduled on Mondays and Wednesday for 1 1/2 hours each. 2nd, 4th, and 8th periods are scheduled for 1 1/2 hours on Tuesday and Thursday. This gives kids a pretty regular routine, but teachers are flexible with how they use that time. So, some of the learning is synchronous and at other times it may be asynchronous. I will often meet with my students for 15-30 minutes and turn them lose to complete their work. Sometimes we do not meet as a class, but I make myself available for questions and assistance to those who need it during our scheduled time. Students know to check our Google Classroom for instructions on their scheduled days (although a few seem to miraculously have "connections issues" when class time rolls around...especially the 8 am group!). Fridays do not have scheduled classes. Students are supposed to use this day to catch up and work on anything they need to that has been assigned through the week. My own son typically spends all day Friday on the Xbox. Teachers can use the Friday time for providing feedback to students, collaborating with colleagues, planning new stuff for the following week, faculty meetings, department meetings, etc...
Last edited by a moderator: