Reply to Is it time to end the 50% rule in math?

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[quote=Anonymous]I think we need to get rid of the 50% rule and go to a traditional grading system. This means that all work is GRADED (not just checked for completeness).  A multitude of grades helps to keep kids average from plummeting from a bad score.  If this isn’t enough, I support extra credit opportunities where students can do extra work for extra credit. This provides both extra practice to help struggling students and inspiration for advanced students. Retests should not be given as a matter of course, but I support allowing some extra credit for completing corrections. Final exams should be reinstated. Finals provide an incentive for students to study for mastery and not just to remember something long enough to get through a test. It also allows assessment (at least at one specific moment of time) of how much course content a student is able to use.  (As an aside, one of the most effective teaching strategies I personally experienced was in my Algebra class where the teacher gave us a very short daily quiz that could be taken from any material covered in the course. It was like a daily miniature final.  I don’t necessarily think it should be instituted in every class, but it vividly illustrated the value of holding students accountable, at some point, for all material covered in a course.)

I think calculators should be forbidden for all math below high school level. Students need to develop not only the skills to solve problems without calculators, but also a sense of what type of answers should be expected. If is too easy to rely on calculators and not register that an error in keying a problem could give you an incorrect answer.  All kids should know their basic facts. Any attention that has to be diverted to strategies to determine a basic sum/difference of product/quotient means less to focus on solving a problem which may require concentration to incorporate new concepts or to use advanced reasoning to determine and carry out a correct strategy.

I think kids should have textbooks and that parents should be able to see their tests. Textbooks will help the child learn the material, will let parents help their children as necessary, and will let the parents see if the approach being taught actually makes sense. If the curriculum is flawed, parents will be able to see the weaknesses and try to get things changed instead of waiting years for the possibility of a curriculum audit to reveal that thousands of children were ill served by a bad curriculum.

I think there should be flexible ability grouping (not tracking) in elementary school. Unless you’re going to completely ignore on-level and advanced students, any time spent on their instruction takes away from time and attention that could be focused on helping struggling students. Meanwhile, those on-level and advanced students certainly aren’t reaching their potential. Flexible ability grouping would allow all students to be taught at their approximate level, maximizing the effectiveness of instruction. Here’s an article describing the effective use of flexible ability grouping in MCPS. We allow older students to take basic, honors, AP/IB levels of classes, and to switch back and forth (If a student does well in Algebra, they might try Honors Geometry, or if a student struggles with Honors Geometry, they might want to take the basic level of Algebra 2 the next year, or even drop down to the basic level of Geometry). We allow some leeway for students to start advanced math (beginning with Algebra) based on their readiness.  We recognize with older students that at any given time, students will have different levels of interest and ability. We need to acknowledge that pre-algebra, they’re not identical clones that should be treated the same, but individuals who would benefit from having a full class taught at their level to help them progress to the next level.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301167.html?sid=ST2007110301386

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