(Vol. 4, No. 1 - Spring 2000)
Working Through the "Shock" of Standards
Rogers Middle School enjoys an active PTA and a generous
supply of parent volunteers who raise funds, tutor in classrooms, and even
run a "sweet shop" for students. But support for student achievement
is the school's Þrst parent-involvement priority.
By John Norton
Paul Jenkins teaches seventh and eighth grade history at Rogers
Middle School and serves as chair of the history department. Principal
Linda Moore has hosted several parent "coffees" during the year
where she and selected teachers talk to parents about what goes on in a
standards-based classroom.
When Jenkins spoke to a group of about 30 people last fall, he shared some
assignments and student writing samples (see p. B4) to demonstrate how standards
add more rigor to the learning process.
In these interview excerpts, Jenkins talks about the value of school-parent
communication around standards:
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At the parents' coffee I attended, the parents were all very interested
in what we were doing, and they were all very concerned, because when you
start grading by standard, especially in a content-area course, you're demanding
more and grades can suffer.
Many of the students here at Rogers write very well, and it's very difficult
to explain to a parent that "yes, this is written well; yes, they don't
have any typographical errors; yes, there are very few spelling errors or
run-on sentences, but it's still a D. And it's a D because the content in
the paper isn't what we're looking for."
With the first paper that I gave this year in 8th grade U.S. History, I
had at least five or six calls from parents who were upset, and rightfully
so, because it was the first low grade that their student had ever received.
They were very concerned because they felt I was being unfair.
But what we've found is that if we take the time to sit down with parents
and show them their student's paper, show them the scoring guide and the
criteria by which we were judging the paper, their attitude usually changes.
We will say, "We're looking for x, y, and z, and your student only
has x. If they add y and z, or expand on y and z, their grade will improve."
And as soon as the parents could see that, their reaction would change to:
"Okay, that's what needs to be done."
The first paper of the year is usually the big shock. I allow them to revise
the first paper, and by the second paper most students have learned that,
in the case of history, you need to illustrate your reasoning and conclusions
with specific historical examples.
My first assignment was on exploration (p. B4) and the students were to
write "why did people explore?" When they listed why people explored,
they needed to go into a description about a specific explorer, and more
than one explorer, using them to illustrate the larger point. Many students
gave a good description of why people explore in general, but didn't give
the specific historical examples, which is part of the standard.
By using standards in the grading process, you are able to look past the
good writing and concentrate on what they know. Three or four years ago,
I would look at a paper, and if it was neat and double-spaced and had no
spelling errors and was pretty well thought-out, I would probably give them
a pretty good grade, even though the paper was full of generalities and
did not reveal much deeper understanding.
The "A" paper I showed to parents at the coffee (p. B5) really
illustrates the kind of student work that meets a high standard. That's
one of the real values of standards; it creates a common focus for the teacher,
the student, and the parent; we can all see where we're trying to go.
When parents see that we have a clear goal and that we are telling their
students what we expect of them upfront, then they can take that knowledge
back home and they can help us get the students to work toward the higher
standards and better prepare them for high school and college.
Another good thing about standards - you can give students more than one
opportunity to meet the standard. And when parents understand that, they
relax a little bit.
[Editor's note: The teacher assignments and student work
mentioned in this article can be viewed in the Adobe Acrobat version of
Changing Schools in Long Beach (Vol. 4, No. 1, Spring 2000).
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