Kristi Kahl/00-01/Diary Entry 15

Entry # 15:
Making the Grade

The boy approached me at lunchtime, as many students do. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" he asked hesitantly. I knew this eighth grader well, as he is somewhat of a leader on campus, and because of his very large size. As he towered over me he explained, "I need for someone to help me understand why I'm getting an F."

I asked if he'd talked to his teacher, and he said he had, and produced an Easy Grade Pro printout of his grades. I took a look at it and this is what I saw:

Classwork #1 -- Missing (0 points out of 10)
Classwork #2 -- A- (9 points out of 10)
Classwork #3 -- A- (18 points out of 20)
Classwork #4 -- Missing (0 points out of 10)

Test #1 -- F (3 points out of 24)
Test #1 -- C (14 points out of 19)

Notebook #1 -- C- (14 points out of 20)
Notebook #2 -- B (11 points out of 13)

Total Class Percentage: 54.76% = F

As I looked over the printout, I knew that there was no mistake. After all, computers don't make grading errors. But what I saw clearly disturbed me.

I didn't really have a good answer for the student, but I said, "Those two missing assignments caused your grade to drop significantly. Are you planning to make them up?" He explained that he had fallen behind in a couple of classes due to some issues at home, but did plan to make up the work as soon as he could. "Well, that should do it," I replied.

He didn't seem satisfied. "But Dr. Kahl, I don't understand how just two assignments can turn my grade into an F when I know other kids who didn't do anything, and they are getting the same grade as me." I don't remember what I said, but I do remember silently agreeing with him.

Two F's means no promotion

Shortly thereafter, I received the grade reports for the third quarter grading period. I was horrified to see that 67 eighth grade students were receiving two or more grades of F. What makes this so problematic is that in my school district, if a student receives two or more F's on the final report card, he/she cannot be promoted to high school. (Instead, they spend an extra year in a preparatory program.)

What on earth was I going to do if we failed 67 kids on their final report card? More importantly, why were the grades so low?

I took a look at the data from each teacher, paying close attention to our eighth grade teachers' rate of failing students. In addition, I looked at the number of D's since those grades are in danger of becoming F's by semester's end. This is what the range looked like:

Four Core Content Areas:
F's = 4%-29%
D/F = 12%-58%

PE/Electives:
F's = 0%-20%
D/F = 4%-32%

Looking at grades among the content-area teachers, one teacher failed 4% of her students, while another failed 29%. The failure rate was much lower for our PE and Elective classes. When D's and F's were looked at together, the rates jumped all the way up to 58% for one teacher. I noticed, too, that at least one teacher had not issued a single grade of A or B in three of her six classes.

Some tough questions

I decided that there was just too much important data here to leave it alone, so I attended the next eighth grade meeting with a simple activity in hand. I gave the teachers a copy of a student's assignment grades (disguised so no one would recognize the content area and feel picked on), and asked them to apply whatever grading criteria they used to assign the student an overall grade for their class.

These were the results:

12 assigned the student a C
3 assigned the student a D
1 assigned the student an F (our community worker, who is not a teacher)

Ironically, the teacher who had given this very same student an F, during the exercise assigned him a C.

Next, I asked the group to write individual responses to the following questions:

Is this an example of a fair grading practice according to our policy? Why or why not?

What range constitutes a reasonable failure rate for middle school students?

How does a teacher's rate of failing students reflect on his or her ability to teach?

These questions were extremely tough and pointed, and were meant to be. As we discussed our grading policy, we reflected that we had agreed that students should be issued a minimum of two grades per week. The sample student had only been issued seven grades for a nine-week period.

The conversation then turned to how this student actually received an F, when just about everyone believed he should have received a C. When I asked if an A plus an F equals a C, everyone agreed. What baffles me is that their grading policies do not reflect this belief.

We had a lot of good discussion around the issue of giving a student a "0" on a missing assignment, and how that zero takes one other grade of A and turns it into an F. (10 points of A averaged with zero points equals 5 points, or an F) Of course, there was no agreement as to how to deal with missing assignments. One teacher reported that she used a 5 point scale (A= 5, etc.) and that when you averaged a 5 and a zero, you still end up with 2.5, which equals a C. However, everyone else uses some sort of point system ranging from 10 to 100 points for an assignment.

What's acceptable?

As to what constitutes an "acceptable" rate of failure, this is what they reported:

- 4 replied that less than 5% is acceptable
- 7 replied that 5-10% is acceptable
- 2 replied that 10-20% is acceptable
- 0 replied that over 20% is acceptable

I asked them, once they returned to their classrooms, to take a look at their own rate of failure and compare it to what they reported to be acceptable. I collected their anonymous responses and sent them on their way. In regard to the question about how a teacher's rate of failure reflects on his or her teaching ability, their answers ranged from these two extremes:

If a teacher is failing an abundant number of students, this implies they are not meeting the students' needs Also, the type of assessments should reflect achievement in content, not responsibility.

In real life, often a single class can be overpopulated with the worst students in a school. These students have a chronic problem re: work habits, performance In some cases, then, F students do not reflect a teacher's ability to teach.

Although I made them angry, I think the meeting was productive. We have to stop and take a look at what we are doing and ask ourselves the tough questions. This is especially true when a grade of F can mean a student does not make it to high school the next year. While I was encouraged by their beliefs about acceptable rates of failure, I was discouraged that they didn't seem to recognize their own actions as being incongruent with their beliefs.

For me, the bigger question is how to get teachers to realize that many grades of F are a sign of low expectations, not the opposite. I guess we will have to continue to work hard these last nine weeks of school.

I hope that at least one teacher will take a look at what he or she is doing and make a change in the frequency or kind of assessments they are using. Better yet, maybe someone will even change the way they teach so that more students succeed.

Entry # 15: Making the Grade

Entry # 15:
Making the Grade