Reflections on 06-07- part 1 – The Grades
Good stuff first:
- I had more As than Fs
- My percentages were just about 90% pass 10% fail
- This year rocked really hard for me. I had more fun teaching this year than I’ve had, well, ever
The other stuff:
- My grade distribution curve is funky
- I have far too many Ds
- We started out with just about 130 seniors and ended with just over 90
I am not a big fan of the bell curve. But I think I can get the arc of my curve to move more to the left. The single largest group was in the D section. I’m going to spend more time thinking about this, but my gut’s telling me it’s about a silly thing that I do:
You see, I push real hard for Ds. For most of the second semester I harp on my students to get to the D- point. Once they do that I know, and they know, that they are going to have the credit they need for graduation in Government. For sure.
When my students get to passing I do something so painfully stupid that it took a bell curve for me notice. I stop pushing and they stop progressing.
They’re passing. They’re happy. I’m happy. I can then spend a few extra moments with the students that aren’t yet to passing. But the fact is, that isn’t good enough. Anymore.
There was a time when I was happy to get students to a D. For many students it was the first passing grade they’d seen in a long time. This is the attitude I came to during my first semester in online learning when 10% of my students were passing and 90% weren’t. It was partially a defense mechanism for myself and partially to tell students that “Hey, a D isn’t a bad grade. It’ll still get you credit. You can still get a Diploma with it”. I actually used that joke. A lot. Aren’t you glad you weren’t in my classroom? As I was saying: This attitude served as a personally defense mechanism and to express to non-successful students that there was nothing wrong with the lowly D. It’s still a passing grade.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the D. For many students it’s a fight to get there and it’s something to be proud of. I have a sneaking suspicion though, that if I push my students just a little more I can get the bulk of them out of that D zone and get my bell curve to look a little more normal.
Next year, instead of pushing students to get into the D area I’m going to push them to get into the A area. How’s that “for a little more”? I plan on doing this by starting each student with an A and then telling them what they need to do to keep it. Then, if the student misses that mark for any reason opportunities to achieve this grade will be highly advertised.
Yeah, we’re not even one day out of this school year and I’m already working on how to get next year to rock even harder. What the hell’s wrong with me?
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Larry responds:
Posted: June 8th, 2007 at 5:07 pm →
What’s wrong with you is you are becoming a real teacher. Don’t let up.
eve responds:
Posted: June 9th, 2007 at 12:05 am →
‘Live with great expectations and great things happen’ (A.Fettig) I think our lives as teachers are shaped not only by our experience, but by our expectations too. Your blogs fantastic!
Jack responds:
Posted: June 10th, 2007 at 11:53 am →
Interesting approach! When you have made it senior status that credit becomes so important that the student works a bit harder to be in that safe Zone. We need to transfer that motivation to the under classmen!
-Jack
mrmoses responds:
Posted: June 10th, 2007 at 8:10 pm →
Thanks, Eva. I like that quote, a lot. I’m going to keep pushing for great things.
Jack – You’re right. We need to start pushing this as teachers to our underclassmen. Letting students know exactly what they need to do, to get the grade they want, upfront is something I worked with when I was working with them. It had mixed success.
Staying on focused on student success, as a product, is something that we really need to do.
Belinda S. responds:
Posted: July 9th, 2007 at 7:19 pm →
In the process of changing things up a bit, and trying to get others on board with this – I offered a suggestion to a couple of my colleagues about how to help that lowest group get up a little higher on the bell curve, and the response was, “Whatever helps you sleep at night.” But what did happen by the end of the year is that yes, I still had too many “D” grades when it was all said and done, but I also had a lot less “F’s” and more A anf B grades than ever before. So really, those kids that were sitting at the comfortable C level progressed too – so overall, if the majority of them progressed “upwards” – I am happy with that. I still maintain that we have to do more as a whole to meet them where they’re at: My Space, Facebook, podcasts, etc. Creating buy-in is a tremendous step in the right direction