Teaching Assistant grades half the homework for HS English...Anyone heard of this?

[Anonymous]

So my DS who's in AP English told me that his teacher doesn't have time to grade all of the students' homework assignments, so the other half are graded by a teaching assistant. Apparently the "assistant" isn't a certified teacher. DS says that assignments coming back from the assistant are graded but contain almost no comments. These are compositions, not multiple choice or short answer type things. And this is AP English. I was surprised to hear about this and don't feel it's right, although I imagine it can be very time consuming for one teacher to grade all of the homework for so many kids.

Anyone else encountered this? We are new to MCPS so I don't know if this is a common practice here. It wasn't in DS's last school.

[Anonymous]

I think this happens on some assignments. I know it happened to my DC in 9th grade for a longish assignment. I think it's part of the larger class size thing and is so the teachers can still assign writing assignments. DC is in AP english now and the teacher has done the grading so far but they've only had a few short assignments and in class essays so far. There are 32 kids in DCs AP english class and the teacher has at least 2 or maybe 3 AP classes plus other english classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this happens on some assignments. I know it happened to my DC in 9th grade for a longish assignment. I think it's part of the larger class size thing and is so the teachers can still assign writing assignments. DC is in AP english now and the teacher has done the grading so far but they've only had a few short assignments and in class essays so far. There are 32 kids in DCs AP english class and the teacher has at least 2 or maybe 3 AP classes plus other english classes.

Thanks. Your DC's AP class sounds similar to my DS's. I guess I'm a little disappointed about this, but I can see why it happens. As long as the longer, more important assignments are graded by the teacher I think it will be fine. We are coming from a much smaller private school, and sometimes I just experience culture shock with the way things are. Anyway, thanks again.

[Anonymous]

The composition assistants with whom I've worked have all had college degrees; one even earned her PhD. So that position usually attracts educated women.

When I taught AP literature, I would split essays with them. They would make their comments in pencil so that I could erase what I thought wasn't necessary. Usually, however, they were on the mark. So as I typed up my comments, I included theirs.

I had two classes, each with over 30 students. So while I tried my best to get through their writing prompts as quickly as possible, it did help to have an extra set of eyes - even if it took longer.

I found that if teachers have respect for these assistants (telling students that there are TWO adults in the room capable of guiding them), they do their best to become familiar with the teacher's instructional practices.