Jwill's Log

I once read a tweet that said:

Should a “D” even exist in school? One school district says you either make an A, B, C or an F. What do you think about that idea?

If D were to be removed, failing would constitute anything below a 70 as opposed to anything below a 60. Off the bat, that prevents students from aiming for a D- and finding it acceptable. If passing is considered “acceptable”, and you get a passing grade that is labeled as “poor”, is poor considered acceptable?

The other end of this are the students who do put in a lot of effort and end up with D grades – these students would end up failing instead of just squeaking by. Making such a change would mean we would need to support those kids even more to make sure they can at least hit 70, then work even harder to get them above that.

We should already be aiming for students to get at least C grades – all students can do better than “poor”.

Source: Washington Post
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Michele Kerr talks about criteria that should be met if teachers are assessed by student test scores. I agree with her completely. One of my favorite parts is what she says about her first point, only including students in teacher evaluations that are present at least 90% of the time:

Without the missing students, the tests won’t yield a complete picture of learning. But the tests’ purpose is to yield a picture of teaching, which isn’t the same thing as learning. Teachers can’t teach children who aren’t there.

And further, her reasoning for positing that students who cannot score at a “basic” proficient level should be “prohibited from moving forward to the next class in the progression:”

Students who can’t prove they know algebra can’t take geometry. If they can’t read at a ninth-grade level, they can’t take sophomore English — or, for that matter, sophomore-level history or science, which presumes sophomore-level reading ability. Not only is it nearly impossible for these students to learn the new material, but they also slow everyone else as the teacher struggles to find a middle ground.

That point alone could solve the issues of high school students who can’t read at a high school level. If they can’t read that well, why are they in high school? Who failed to do their job by promoting them? They will just fall through the cracks more and more until someone actually sits them down and gives them intensive reading programs until they get it. Because they can be taught, no matter what it takes.

There’s so much more good stuff in this article and I could quote every word she says. It’s a really good read.

Source: boston.com
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A former Harvard University senior is facing 20 criminal charges for allegedly creating a fraudulent life history that led to his admission to Harvard, and for using forged academic materials from Harvard when he applied for the prestigious Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships.

Just shameful. I hope he has to pay all that money back to the schools and organizations that awarded it to him, because he truly did “steal” it. Even worse, he took the spot of someone who probably legitimately could have gone to the school.

Thanks to my girlfriend for this one – it’s a really good video on how to change word problems to actually encourage real problem solving rather than just blindly looking for the formula.

Source: boston.com
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The major question this article asks:

Could anti-bullying programs be more successful if they dropped their primary focus on bullies and victims and instead took aim directly at the sidekicks and other key members of the bully’s posse? After all, if a supportive audience is what fuels the bully, wouldn’t the sidekicks be the most logical place to try to choke off that oxygen supply?

Definitely give it a quick skim; it’s a long one.