Unreasonable teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what do you think their professors will be like in college? Will you complain when they’re too harsh?

Doesn’t the same apply to the kid who gets to breeze thru the same class? And you don’t think college kids complain about their professors…they tend to be much more helpful to students than high school teachers these days. Office hours and all.

I bet high school teachers would love to have office hours because they aren’t responsible for babysitting students. They have time to grade and meet with kids who give a crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So what do you think their professors will be like in college? Will you complain when they’re too harsh?

Doesn’t the same apply to the kid who gets to breeze thru the same class? And you don’t think college kids complain about their professors…they tend to be much more helpful to students than high school teachers these days. Office hours and all.

That’s comical, comparing a college professor’s availability to a high school teacher.

That professor may teach 4-5 hours a week. The high school teacher? Try 30-35 hours.

The professor has built-in office hours during the work day. The high school teacher? They have to do it after school, on their own time.

The professor has graduate assistants to help out. The high school teacher? On their own.

The professor cannot talk to parents by law. The high school teacher? Inundated with parent emails on top of student emails.

I can go on… and on…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does one deal with teachers who are completely unreasonable in grading across the board. I’m talking about a scenerio where nobody in the class is getting an A because the teacher wants to be tough. Seems unfair to students who actually do know the material very well and are putting in the work for a teacher to just subjectively decide to universally give out bad grades. Is there any recourse when an entire class is suffering?

I would review what your kid got wrong or why they were marked down. . That would be a better use of everyone's time than blaming teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

If that’s your process then why not be transparent to parents and more importantly, the students about it? It just causes unnecessary anxiety and stress. I think sometimes students just need to understand that they’ll be ok if they keep putting in the work.

To be clear, my DC doesn’t find the material particularly difficult and does know it well. If it were a multiple choice test for example, they’d have 100%. It’s just they don’t understand the subjective grading that dings them for really small things. Meanwhile their peers are breezing thru the same class with other teachers and a fraction of the work.

This teacher seems transparent, probably not the one OP is referring to.

OP here. I appreciate this teacher’s perspective, we just haven’t received that level of transparency and coupled with other AP teachers not being so harsh on the grading, it is easily misunderstood by students. Thus the mad rush by students requesting to switch out or drop down. This was not even brought up at BTSN so why would any of us know what’s standard AP grading practice and not? Is it truly a style of grading that’s recommended by the AP Board or a preference of the teacher? Why then aren’t all the teachers following protocol? I appreciate the openness of the teachers on here but am left wondering if that’s truly the case for my DS’s class.

I think many teachers are in their own echo chamber and do not realize the impact of their style has on their students. When an equivalent class with another teacher does not do this, it begs the question why would a harsh teacher choose to do this. I think transparency from the start would go a long way in calming students stress levels and foster better relations between parents and teachers to help kids. Just be honest and transparent in your system and let students know why you choose to be tough grader vs. the teacher of the same class that chooses a more reasonable path.

Tough grader could equal the good grader. Reasonable could equal lenient with no standards.

Not sure I follow. At the end of the day, the tough grader’s grade will be stacked up against the reasonable grader’s grade on a college app and the kid who worked harder and maybe learned more will look worse on paper. Our AP teacher needs to strike that balance otherwise they are doing a disservice to hard working kids for no reason other than they think they are being tough for the right reasons. You’re just screwing them over

Honestly, teachers do not care if they are unfairly giving your kid an advantage or disadvantage! They see wealthy Asian or white kids and they do not give one hoot which ones goes to T10, T30 or T50. If they are younger they probably went to a third tier state school and barely kept a 3.0 average. They resent the high score grinders and kids killing themselves to get into top schools.

And here’s why I don’t like these threads. OP has a question that can’t actually be answered here. Logically, OP already knows to reach out to the school.

So all this did was open up an opportunity for posters to slam teachers, as if there isn’t enough of that on this site.

And the bad teachers don’t care. They really don’t. The good teachers will take nonsense like the post above personally.

And the good teachers are the ones we should be trying to keep right now. Trust me when I say many of them are already looking for an exit from the profession. Why give more reasons?

How dramatic. Good teacher’s aren’t leaving because someone on DCUM criticizes them. If they’re truly taking an anonymous internet board personally then looking for the exit is a good idea.

Are you a teacher, or just someone who feels comfortable speaking for us?

When you are barraged with negativity ALL THE TIME, it starts to weigh on you. Want to help the good teachers? Stop criticizing all teachers for the perceived actions of one.

And I don’t think you should continue calling for our exit. Who do you think is coming to replace us? Education departments aren’t graduating many teachers these days. Career changers often don’t last.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s tough when teachers use AP multiple choice questions and base their grade on the percentage correct. In order to get a 5 you don’t need to get 90% correct.

So for example APUSH, 60-65 percent will have you most likely passing with a 3 on the actual AP Test. 70 percent is 4 territory. 80 percent will get you a 5. It is really rare to get 100% on any AP test. But if teachers give tests from released questions they have access to and use a traditional grading scales, students find getting A’s challenging.

I do this. But then I curve grades. In my AP course a 50% in may is generally a 3 on the exam, so I curve test scores so that 50% becomes a C-, 65% becomes a B-, and an 80% becomes an A-. That is a smidge tougher than college board's scoring (it's pretty close to 50 (3)/60 (4)/ 75 (5) in reality) but I figure my unit tests on a small chunk of limited standards are easier than the test in May with a year's worth of material and a much longer block of time.

The reality is that at the beginning of the year kids don't perform at a "5" level. I am grading on an AP rubric, giving timely feedback, lots of practice, lots of opportunities to clarify, but it takes a couple of units to understand the AP way of responding to FRQs. By November/December I've got them trained and I usually suggest saving retakes on FRQs until then. It's built in spiral review to study for unit 1/2/3 in December, and the content will feel easier at that point anyway.

By May, my gradebook will be 80% As and Bs, 15% Cs, and 1 or 2 Ds. Right now, with 1 test on the books, it's 30% Ds and I have a couple of Fs. Some will drop when they realize the class is hard, but most will rise to the challenge and improve.

Obviously some of my colleagues are lazy (sorry), but some of us are legitimately training your children to perform at a higher level and they just aren't there yet.

I also teach AP and I agree with most of what PP is saying, particularly in the first paragraph. However, there's another thing to take into account. FCPS has open enrollment (you can pick whichever level you want to be in), and for the last two years teachers have been told that we can't even tell a student they're not ready for a given class when the time comes to select courses. I teach a STEM AP course and I have students with low grades in the minimal prereq who somehow decided that AP was the right choice for them at this point in time.
Their performance is abysmal. This year I'm inflating grades at the bottom even more than usual so they pass in order to get admin and parents off my back. I just don't have the energy for the drama and my time is better spent teaching.