rightwinghour

Sounds like they are giving up on improving the kids' grades, so they are instead using a different grading system to make the kids LOOK better. It's just another step in the dumbing down of America.

__________________
C. Stutts
http://rightwinghour.podbean.com

Bodhisattva

Great point. I have not seen nor heard of this anywhere and none of my co-workers have either.

__________________

UtahBill

Way back when my kids were in grade school in "small town", Idaho, I heard a teacher say something to the effect that parents should just sit back and let the "experts" handle their children's education. She was far too young to be calling herself an expert. Add to that point that the district super was a former jock who fought the parents on adding kindergarten, but happily went over budget on the athletic facilities. (His kids were jocks as well).
That same super hired a friend's son as the principal at my wife's school. That principal wanted to fire my wife for teaching above and beyond the state minimum standards.
The standards set for kindergarten were so low that she had it all done halfway thru the first semester, then commenced teaching them more than the other 2 kindergarten teachers, and the parents noticed.....
Next year, most of the parents wanted their kids in my wife's class, not the other 2 teachers who barely did anything but hand out juice and graham crackers.
So rather than expect more from the 2 slackers, he told my wife to slow down. She said she didn't go to college to babysit. It boiled over to a school board meeting where the members decided to offer the principal his walking papers if he didn't back off, which he did....
SOME teachers are experts, but they will usually be those well over age 40, not the ones fresh out of college.
Parents should go to the school board and make sure that the board is are aware of what their teachers and principals are doing. If the board is behind it, make them justify it. If they still go in a direction the parents are against, then some of the parents need to run in the next election.
Knowing state laws is a good idea as well. Lots of similar things have been corrected with just the threat of a lawsuit.

__________________
The Age of Reason doesn't have to be a thing of the past.
Being judgemental is the prime directive of some evangelicals.
No success can compensate for failure in the home.

talloulou

Basically the new idea is that students either "meet standard" or "don't." Don't will be listed as "incomplete" because "doesn't meet standard" it too unkind. Incomplete leaves room for hope.

Whatever. The parents are going to get together and start complaining.

After doing more research and looking into this matter I'm realizing that back when they first started changing grades to numbers vs letters a whole new philosophy and shift in education was taking place. I didn't have kids in school at the time so I missed out on the whole bit. In any event using 1-4 vs A-F was not just to livin things up. It was an educational shift. A change in priorities. It was the introduction of "standards" and standards based education.

Now with this thing my school is doing there is yet another shift in trying to reduce kids to either meets standards or incomplete. They either got to the bar or they haven't yet and everything else is irrelevant.

Thus homework is optional. School work doesn't matter. No grades. No grade averages of all daily work. What matters is the final assessment test. You either know it or you don't. It's the kiss of death for public schools. Embrace the mediocre.

No more resources will be wasted on taking kids as high as they can go. Get 'em to the bar and stamp their foreheads, "Meet Standards."

If they don't meet standards then by golly just keep teaching the assessment test until they finally are complete and do meet standards. Let 'em cheat. But don't be obvious about it. If you catch them cheating on assessment test then making them take that test again.

Course I could just be hysterical. I'll have to wait to see what the principal and school board have to say.

rivrrat

You can thank "No Child Left Behind". The [failed] policy did not mean to actually educate all children, it only meant to give the illusion of doing so by bring down the standards so low and allowing indefinite repeated attempts to the slackers. In effect, it promotes being a slacker and eventually rewards them for it.

__________________

WI Crippler

Wait a minute. Kids don't get A's and Bs anymore? When did that change? I know they can still give out A's in college because I got A's in both of my courses this summer. Although the teacher noted that he could not give out A+ 's.
I guess I think of it this way. I did very well in my oral communications class. I wanted to be the best speaker in that class. We had to basically give a speech every day, except for two written tests. Each speech was worth a total of 25 points. I got 25 points for every speech I did, and I was the only one to do so in the class. I knew the threshold I needed to reach for an A in that class, and I worked at it and achieved my goals. Had I merely needed to work along with others, to achieve some kind of community "meets standards" goal, I certainley could have met standards but would I have improved myself and my public speaking ability? Probably not. I would have been given what I needed to do, to meet some achievement minimum, and have no reason to achieve anything higher than that, because that is the only goal available.
I know somebody already mentioned about how their kid had to do a horrendous amount of homework. Thats the other end of this pendulum. I have seen an overbearance on kids having to learn the majority of their classes, through homework. I've always kind of despised homework myself, because school was so easy, I didn't need to do it. I am an audio/visual learner. If I hear it or see it demonstrated, it sticks in my head. If I have to read a book about how to do it, I'll eventually get it but it takes longer. So going to school, and listening to a teacher was all I needed. But when I got to college(the first time around), I had no homework discipline, and college is almost all homework. So i think its important for homework with young students, but it shouldn't be overdone, nor should it be cast aside as unimportant.

__________________
"What Jesus fails to appreciate is that it's the meek who are the problem."- Reg

WI Crippler

I understand what you are saying here, but I think you and I both know that it only artificially rewards them. It actually hurts them as they become young adults, more that it helps them. Of course if we can eventually get the system in place, they will not have to worry about ever needing to achieve, even as adults.

Southern Belle

You can't blame Bush for this garbage, oh no. This trash started in the mid 90s. I know because I was there. >_<

And Tal, I think I know what #8 means. It looks like they won't be able to have any difference between smart kids and not-too-bright kids.

The silenced majority

It's called outcomes based education.

It's communism.

Grab your kids & run.

__________________
If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen!”. ~ Samuel Adams

talloulou

Nope. Not in elementary. Not out west and from what I can gather not in most of the country. Grades are 1-4. No more A-F.