Please Save Our Students from the Grading Conundrum!!!

Have you ever been accused of "the grade you gave me?" I was confronted with this issue when I first started teaching in an urban high school. I was appalled! Simply because I have always based students' grades on the quality of work submitted by the criteria given in the associated rubric. Their final grade was then calculated using the weightings given in the grading policy. I learnt early that I had to be transparent with respect to students' grades. Thus, I have been able to escape the scathing remarks similar to the one above.

Last Thursday and Friday were our Parent Teachers' conference. On Friday morning I was approached by several students regarding the grades they received on their report cards. They were angry! I remained silent as they expressed their frustrations. On the inside I was getting extremely aggravated. I struggled to stay both positive and neutral because they were talking about my colleagues.

I was deeply disturbed because these students were mostly top performers who took pride in their academic accomplishments. One student had a program change at the beginning of the semester because of failing one class. Though this solved one problem it created a situation where two classes were failed this marking period. When probed, the student disclosed inability to focus in one class due to distractions and the other because of a failure to turn in ONE assignment! Other issues included grades that do not reflect work being done, students' led to believe that they were passing, and alleged unequal treatment.

I encouraged the students to respectfully approach their teachers to have a discussion about how they can improve their performance in the future. I suggested they ask for as well as take tangible evidences such as work being done to focus the discussion. Hopefully, this will help to alleviate the grading conundrum. 

Additionally, though there is a grading policy and the existence of an online website that both students and parents can access grades and other information, these are grossly underutilized. How can we save our students from the grading conundrum? Will grade conferencing help? Having systems in place is simply not enough! These systems need to be monitored and evaluated periodically for effectiveness. 

It is imperative that this be addressed. I was scared for a moment on Friday when some students dejectedly revealed that they did not have reasons to continue their studies, they will just drop out. It seemed as if they had lost hope and given up. Is this what we want?

Have a Fabulous Week!

Petreno