APS Most Likely Moving to Standards-Based Grading/Grading for Equity Next School Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Equity to me means me a good education for all. High standards for all. This ain’t it. They need to abandon this, and start thinking about how to lower the damn class sizes.

adopting policies like this will lower class sizes, as many folks will say, we're out of here.

[Anonymous]

So on the 50% thing, it also protects students from a bad teacher or an off week. I'm pretty good in math-- I ended up getting a PhD in an applied math field from a top 10 university. But my fourth grade teacher was awful. He didn't teach well at all and ended up leaving the field. I earned a 0% on one test-- I tried every problem, showed all my work, and actually had studied for the test. I literally got it all wrong. I joked I earned that zero My parents hired me a tutor and I got 95%+ on everything else, but that meant I still failed that quarter. I couldn't recover.

Had I been able to retake the test or been assessed on what I learned by the end of the semester, my grade would've been an A. I wouldn't remember that test 25 years later. But man, it really killed my confidence knowing that there was no way to recover from that bad grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So on the 50% thing, it also protects students from a bad teacher or an off week. I'm pretty good in math-- I ended up getting a PhD in an applied math field from a top 10 university. But my fourth grade teacher was awful. He didn't teach well at all and ended up leaving the field. I earned a 0% on one test-- I tried every problem, showed all my work, and actually had studied for the test. I literally got it all wrong. I joked I earned that zero My parents hired me a tutor and I got 95%+ on everything else, but that meant I still failed that quarter. I couldn't recover.

Had I been able to retake the test or been assessed on what I learned by the end of the semester, my grade would've been an A. I wouldn't remember that test 25 years later. But man, it really killed my confidence knowing that there was no way to recover from that bad grade.

Retakes are another thing. But how about a project you work your ass off on and the guy next to you that did nothing gets a 50? No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So on the 50% thing, it also protects students from a bad teacher or an off week. I'm pretty good in math-- I ended up getting a PhD in an applied math field from a top 10 university. But my fourth grade teacher was awful. He didn't teach well at all and ended up leaving the field. I earned a 0% on one test-- I tried every problem, showed all my work, and actually had studied for the test. I literally got it all wrong. I joked I earned that zero My parents hired me a tutor and I got 95%+ on everything else, but that meant I still failed that quarter. I couldn't recover.

Had I been able to retake the test or been assessed on what I learned by the end of the semester, my grade would've been an A. I wouldn't remember that test 25 years later. But man, it really killed my confidence knowing that there was no way to recover from that bad grade.

Retakes are another thing. But how about a project you work your ass off on and the guy next to you that did nothing gets a 50? No thanks.

Please don't leave out the grading on "group projects." One kid does nothing and gets the very good grade earned by the others on his team. I HATE group projects. They should be done in classroom where teacher can observe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I think this is fine for elementary school.

I agree. And elementary school is where Arlington has tested it the most thoroughly. I can see how it might be a good approach there, although I am not sure it really fixes the problems it claims to fix, nor that it is the best approach in any case.

It seems iffy in middle school and flat-out stupid in high school.

And in any case, why is APS trying this when we're still adjusting to the changes from the pandemic? Give teachers -- all teachers -- a year to discuss why this might be helpful. See if some of the things it's proposing (like doing away with shopping your way to extra credit) are actually happening and if something needs to change there.

But the last time APS tried to implement a big program without notice -- 1:1 -- it didn't go well.

All of this. Teachers who weren’t trained in structured literacy are still trying to implement that without an actual curriculum, textbooks, materials from central office, or sufficient training. How about we let them learn how to teach kids to read good (lol) FIRST, before yet another new BS initiative is thrown at them they year after a farking pandemic?!?

[Anonymous]

Soooo glad we left. Wow.

[Anonymous]

We are in private too. So happy l switched

[Anonymous]

Watching this system unravel is disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Keep adding central office staff and this us what you get. More initiatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep adding central office staff and this us what you get. More initiatives.

Yes. They really need to slow their roll with all of this stuff. People are going to leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep adding central office staff and this us what you get. More initiatives.

I've worked for APS for close to seven years now and if I've learned One thing they HATE hiring people to work on site at schools. They will do the absolute bare minimum to staff those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep adding central office staff and this us what you get. More initiatives.

I've worked for APS for close to seven years now and if I've learned One thing they HATE hiring people to work on site at schools. They will do the absolute bare minimum to staff those schools.

Another huge issue I see with this bloat is that a lot of good teachers who’d rather be in the classroom leave to make more money. There should be something in place to retain good teachers. Maybe some opportunities to do this extra central office kind of stuff and get paid for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Equity to me means me a good education for all. High standards for all. This ain’t it. They need to abandon this, and start thinking about how to lower the damn class sizes.

adopting policies like this will lower class sizes, as many folks will say, we're out of here.

It won't, though, because they'll just reduce the number of teachers, keeping the class sizes huge. Ask me how I know.

[Anonymous]

Which SB member? Priddy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Equity to me means me a good education for all. High standards for all. This ain’t it. They need to abandon this, and start thinking about how to lower the damn class sizes.

adopting policies like this will lower class sizes, as many folks will say, we're out of here.

It won't, though, because they'll just reduce the number of teachers, keeping the class sizes huge. Ask me how I know.

People go to private, and that defunds the public schools. They’ve got to do more with less, and thus, huge class sizes. I thought everyone knew that.