This message is a little long, and I apologize for the double-posting.
It was funny to see recently on physhare how many people were grading
finals during break. I did the same, turned them in on Monday 1/6, and
by yesterday 1/10, I had been called down to the office because of them.
Parents are calling, complaining about Johnny's score of XX on the exam
or for the semester. This led to administrative investigations of my
grades...and they learned many things!
Seems that I had too many failures on my final exam (only 25 of 120 above
70 percent). My personal opinion, having been through 5 semesters of
teaching, is that kids regularly slack off on the final exam because they
know that their grade is almost unchangeable at that point. In my case,
it is worth 16 percent of the semester average. A number of kids left the
exam mostly blank, and others seemed to need much more than the time
allotted, though I could do the test in 30 minutes. They were given 90
minutes. I was not surprised by the results and gave a modest curve so
that the top grades on the exam were As, and turned in the grades. Now I
am getting pressure that, if I do not do anything about these scores, I am
'walking a tightrope and likely to fall off.' The class average was in the
low 50s before the curve.
My most pressing question, expecially for high school teachers, is, "What
are your usual final exam statistics?" What is the pass rate, what is the
exam average, what do you do about curving, and, especially, what do you
do when administrators give veiled, mystical threats like I have received?
They believe that the low final compared to more decent 6-weeks grades is
proof that my exam was too hard or that I am a much worse teacher than I
believe I am. I feel that another curve is very unjustified, but you can
see that I may have no choice. Still, I apparently have a choice (a wrong
one) and I may take it yet. Thanks for responses to this question.
In addition, of those who passed the semester, too many had 74 84 89 or 94
for semester averages. I tried to avoid anybody having 69 or 79, so that
was not an issue. At my school the grading scheme is that A+ (95-100)
gets half a grade point more than A- (90-94), then B+ (85-89), B- (80-84),
C (75-79) D (70-74) and F (0-69). To compound matters, if a class is
honors in nature, A+=6 points, B+=5 points, C=2 points, D=1 point, F=0.
Yes, there's a major gap between B and C. I have one honors class. For
advanced classes (the only other kind of physics class at my school) A+=5,
B+=4, C=2, D=1, and F=0. Yes, there is a big gap between B and C here
too. I have four advanced classes.
Again, I am receiving great pressure to 'rethink' these grades too. I
think I might cave on these because to me it's just one percent, but to
them it's like manna from heaven. Again, the above 'walking a tightrope'
veiled threat applies here too. Failure to change grades will lead to
unspecified trouble for me. I am told I can leave the grades as they are,
but... I guess I might not be rehired after this year, my gradebook will
be scrutinized way too closely, I'll probably have many meetings with
angry parents and not-too-sympathetic administrators, my so-called
classroom independence will likely be taken away, and so on and so on. I
just received a memo telling me I must report all future test dates, turn
in a copy of the test, turn in a key, report grade statistics, turn in
plans for reteaching, turn in retake tests if they occur, etc. You can
guess what this might to do grades in the future.
I am being second-guessed on every front, parents (I have one mother from
hell riding my case who might not ever get off of it), and now
administrators. I am not at all sure how I got in this mess, but now I
really wish for a way to get out of it without losing my professional
soul. I am equally disturbed that this may be the way of the 'slippery
slope' which only leads downward. Some kids are eventually going to
figure out that grades were changed 'because' of parental pressure, and
then the myth will be born that Mr. Tipton caves to pressure easily. My
future at this school will be worse, not better, if that happens.
All hints, suggestions and advice will be happily read and considered. I
have about a week to turn in to the registrar "corrected" grades.