APS BTS Night - Shocked
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
They're still taking the same number of classes. |
Anonymous
Cite one APS elementary school wherein students have only one teacher for all classes. There isn't one. All of our elementary schools have different specials teachers for music, PE, art, and at least by a certain grade, science. |
Anonymous
But the pacing of homework is different. They aren't usually working on the same subject 5 nights/week. |
Anonymous
I don't see what difference it makes which class you're doing the homework for. It's still the same amount of time overall. (We're talking theory here, assuming 60 minutes of homework for each course is being assigned each week). You can spread out which assignments you're working on however you want, including over the weekend. If nothing happens to be due in any of your classes until Monday, you can do it all over the weekend if you choose. It's still the same amount of work, isn't it? |
Anonymous
Not true for us. Only rotating teachers we have are for specials. |
Anonymous
OMG, let it go. Maybe the teachers change for subject, or maybe the room changes, but the CLASS never changes. Its a blob of kids, usually under a PRIMARY elementary teacher that teaches most subjects. And largely almost all homework will go to that PRIMARY teacher. The art teacher and music teacher aren't assigning homework in any elementary school. Once you get to high school, you have 7 different courses or so, with different teachers, rooms, and classes, and any one can assign homework on a variable schedule (art may have a weekly project, but math has nightly computation, etc). And there is no one teacher aware of any one students full assignment load, and likely very few classmates with exactly the same schedule as well. So it requires a lot more independence and coordination among that cohort of teachers. Graded homework is important for showing that lessons and skills are taking root -- classwork done immediately after instruction is like monkey repetition -- its fresh and they can almost mimic what they just saw. Doing it in a home setting, hours later, on their own tests how much persists and reinforces mental pathways, which will be closer to how it will be tested (days to weeks later, not immediately after instruction). |
Anonymous
|
Just wait until high school when the real grading for equity starts. This was in latest APE newsletter.
From The Teacher's Lounge: New Grading Policy "Defies Common Sense," Says 20-Year Veteran APS Teacher (Editor's Note: From time to time we will offer a perspective written by an APS parent or teacher on a topic of concern or interest for APS. What follows has been only lightly edited for clarity.) As an APS teacher for almost 20 years, I am well-versed with the policy pendulum swings that occur on a cyclical basis. Different education fads come and go and the Central Office touts its new initiative for a year before abandoning it in favor of another one the next. These initiatives may be well-intended, though burdensome for classroom teachers, but, overall, they don’t radically alter the very core of one’s pedagogy. The new grading PIPs unleashed this summer are a different matter altogether. In the name of equitable grading practices, APS has crafted a policy that defies common sense, completely undermines the ability of teachers to hold their students accountable, and devalues any grades that students earn during the year. For some context, APS has shown an interest in applying more equitable grading practices over the past few years, though these decisions were made at the school level by administration and lead teachers in order to best suit the needs of their student populations. Many equitable grading practices are good ideas. Limiting the weight that homework can count towards the overall grade benefits students who may not have support at home or have to work or take care of siblings after school. Using a minimum grade of 50% for work that has been submitted instead of a zero can help a less motivated student not give up if a few assignments are done poorly. But instead of assessing the impact of these pilot programs and whether the desired outcomes (which were never really clear in the first place) were achieved, APS immediately swung the pendulum all the way to the extreme and has decreed that ALL students have the right to retake ANY summative assessment throughout the year. (A summative assessment includes things like unit tests, end-of-unit essays, or major projects) For non-educators, this may not sound like a big deal. And at the elementary level, where high-stakes summative assessments aren’t a regular occurrence and grades are not a part of transcripts that get submitted to colleges, this policy may not cause many changes. However, in secondary schools, especially high school, this policy, coupled with the APS policy that “Student grades reflect student achievement and not student behavior,” yields some unintended consequences that are hugely problematic. Last year, if students skipped class on the day of a test or when a project was due, they got a zero. Now, they are entitled to complete it any time before the end of the unit with no penalty. Last year, if students cheated on a summative assessment, they got a zero. Now, they are given the opportunity to complete the assessment “without assistance.” This new PIP erases important tools teachers use to hold their students accountable for their learning, and essentially incentivizes cheating, which sends the wrong message to our students and also creates an undue burden on teachers, who have to first create and then re-grade additional work. The policy also ignores the reality of upper-level AP and IB classes at the high school level, where many teachers are predicting that the students who will take advantage of these opportunities are NOT the students these policies were created to help. Students who earn a B on a test are clearly demonstrating above-average skills and content knowledge and do not need remediation and a retake, yet they are now entitled to it under this new policy. Students in these classes already earn a quality point on their GPA, but now they can ask to redo any test, essay, or project. This PIP just further devalues the grades that students are earning, and will not accurately reflect what students can do. These classes end with demanding, externally assessed exams that can potentially earn them college credit. Students build up their content knowledge and skills over the year working towards that goal, and this PIP ignores that reality. Are you an APS teacher or parent interested in writing an op-ed? Email us your thoughts! |
Anonymous
My understanding is that the SBG policy does not apply to AP/IB/DE courses. These are college level and IB courses controlled by the College Board and IB. |
Anonymous
This is just infuriating |
Anonymous
Says whom? It very clearly is especially if the goal is the accumulation of knowledge. Your kid isn't magically going to know what the ionosphere is let alone that the "atmosphere" is layered. Will a first grader be asked to do hard science on the subject? No. Will they be exposed to concepts of environmental processes though? Yeah, of course and they will be able to better understand that exposure if it is not the first time they are hearing the words "photosynthesis", "atmosphere", and "recycling". |
Anonymous
Are they in AP classes or general ed? Night and day experience. |
Anonymous
Not AP, but intensified classes. Also, the syllabi I had to sign does not match with the APE letter above, at least not entirely. For example, they definitely state that students get a 0 if they cheat. And I’m pretty sure no minimum grade of 50%. |
Anonymous
| If blacks cannot meet the standard, that standard is racist and must be eliminated. |
Anonymous
oh please if you really think going to PE class in 2nd grade is comparable to a different teacher in every subject in middle school, then it seems you have not experienced middle school yet. you'll get there. |
Anonymous
Well APE is known for a lot of screaming without having all the facts. Previously some teachers allowed test retakes and some did not. That wasn't fair. Some allowed it for kids who got a C but not for kids who got a B. So a kid who got a C could retake the test and end up with a higher grade than the kid who got a B on the first take but wasn't able to retake. THAT was infuriating. Now the system is standard and fair. I'm good with that. |