Reply to HS Teachers Aren’t Keeping up on Grading

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What's changed? 20 years ago, if a kid failed my class everyone acknowledged that was the kid's choice. My job was to present the material, the child's job was to learn it.

Today, if a kid fails my class, it's *my* fault. I have meetings with parents, counselors are asking me what work I can adjust/modify/offer to get kids to pass, admin is asking for documentation of every offered intervention/remediation/retake. I have to have formal remediation sessions with any kid scoring below X, complete with parental notifications, pre and post tests, and a certain number of documented hours working on pre-identified skills, documented in the MTSS tab on SIS.  I have to offer extra help to anyone during the remediation block AND after school.  (Old days: you'd figure it out at home, or you'd get a tutor, or you just didn't score well) If they are struggling and aren't coming to extra help, I have to communicate with home and track them down with ehallpasses and force them to come.  It is no longer my job to present/the child's job to learn. It is the child's job to sit and my job to get them to learn.

Old days: Kid fails test. Onwards. Today: Kid fails test. Teacher documents initial score, creates remediation assignment, assigns mandatory extra help session(s) until kid feels confident, documents that extra support to CYA, provides retake opportunity, regrades assessment. Any given week I have 5-10 kids after school working on various unit remediation.

Old days: Kid missed 3 classes for vacation, it was unexcused and they failed the quarter. Today: Kid tells me they are missing a week to go to disney, I have to provide a packet of all the missing work.  I have to make them video lessons or meet with them after school to make up the work.

I am required to accept late work, so I have spent this week pouring through old papers, scrolling through old electronic assignments looking for new submissions, and fielding emails from kids about "I did this assignment from December, can you please grade it now?" 20 years ago we would have said, "Too bad, deadline is passed."

I love the kids. I want them to pass. But the responsibility for passing has moved from them to me.

(The CT meetings honestly aren't that big a deal to me. It's 2 hours a week, and a good portion of it is valuable for my teams. We break down standards, discuss strategies, split up work load. We work well together. If we didn't meet formally, we'd still meet informally to make sure we were on track with each other.)[/quote]

And if you’re at my school, you have larger classes than ever—so more kids to do all of the above for— AND you have to spend half your planning period every other day “monitoring” the hallway outside bathrooms. [/quote]

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