Reply to 7 Math teachers are leaving Richard Montgomerry HS

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "7 Math teachers are leaving Richard Montgomerry HS"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Any management style that causes an unneeded mass exodus is incompetent.  Probably everything that's read as IB hate is also simple incompetence.  This is damaging to the program, because no matter the quality of the current teachers, the odds are that the next 7/9 rush hires can only be worse.

Kind of sounds like this does hinge on the 50% rule, and [b]I still think any math teacher that likes to write tests that generate abysmally low test scores to scare students/families isn't doing it right, just saying[/b].[/quote]

The suggestion that *any* teacher of *any* subject "likes to write tests that generate abysmally low test scores" is patently absurd.

If you don't want a single bad test grade to tank a student's grade, this can be accomplished without the 50% rule.  You simply put an upper limit on the percent of the overall grade that is determined by each test.

Of course, these kids are going to be in for a rude awakening if they go to college.  What happens when they take a class where 70% of their grade is collectively determined by two midterms and a final, when they have no 50% rule and no reassessment policy to fall back on?[/quote]

The suggestion that a teacher deliberately designs tests hoping to give grades bellow 50% is facetious; however a math teacher that doesn't understand that a properly designed test assigns grades between 50% and 100%--the meaningful universe of grades--is showing shaky number sense.  50% is failing, 58% is failing, there are no deeper levels of failing, there's no additional information gleaned from a grade bellow 50%.  How do you (as you suggest) put an upper limit on the impact of an individual test?  You give more grading opportunities.  But given that this will be some finite number, and there's a limit on how *high* a score can be, this still gives scores bellow 50% more oomf than scores over 50%.  The median is 75%, 20% is not a meaningful grade, for the same reason that 130% (on the other side of the median) is not a meaningful grade.

The 50% rule (with the elimination of extra credit) is a way of forcing teachers to work within the bell curve of the grading system, even if they don't realize it.  It doesn't reward failing students.  It simply prevents a failing student from being doubly penalized by a teacher who's too busy looking at numbers to understand what grades mean.

As far as what happens in college. Curves, curves happen in college.[/quote]

Retakes happen in college.  Extra Credit happens in college.  Colleges are rated on retention and 4 year graduation rates these days.[/quote]

Also true.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics