Algonquin Middle School

Education's Dirty Little Secret

When students enter the halls of an educational institution they expect to treated fairly by all the staff of a building. While I truly believe that all the staff members I've worked with in my eighteen years of education intended on being fair, we were not. Yes, I included myself in the "we".

I will try and make my case with grading. Grading would seem fair. A student who earns a 75% gets a C, what's the issue.

Although many teachers use the same grading scale, grading is still very subjective in the district. Some teachers have generous use of extra credit. Some teachers accept late work. Other teachers accept late work after deducting points. Some teachers issue zeros for any late work.

Given a poor test in two classrooms, student A might receive a 35% and have a F recorded in the grade book, student B with a different teacher might receive a 40% and have 40/100 entered into the grade book. While it is apparent student B outperformed student A the grade book will not reflect that. In fact, student A's test will be averaged with the other tests as a 55, because a letter grading system averages each letter at a preset numerical value.

Let’s look at a series of scores for the two students.

Clearly this is not fair. The problem is asking which system of grading is better. Not only that, but this is only one example. When you use the examples with late work and zeros, the differences become more profound.

This has been an issue everywhere I have taught in the past. This issue goes beyond middle schools. I'm not aware of a school in the county that has successfully addressed the grading issue as I see it.

posted by MiddleSchoolPrincipal @ 7:48 AM