Re: Where Have All the Boys Gone?

[Glenn Knapp <kahuna@VCN.COM>]

Michael,

I'm a high school teacher, one who employs several of the grading
mechanisms which you discussed, so I thought I'd throw in my observations
about why a lot of the high school physics teachers do what they do.


> (2) I think some practices by some high school teachers exacerbate this
> problem.  These practices consist of (2a) often assigning more "busy work"
> than is necessary.  (2b) Allowing students to do "extra-credit-work" to
> compensate for poor exam performance.
>
> Teachers often have such high pressure for giving good grades that they tend
> to assign a fair amount of easy work, or a fair amount of extra credit work,
> so the student can "earn" an A in the course even though the in-class exams
> are only passed at the B or C level.  In general, this motivates any student
> willing to play the "busy-work" game... and I think this is more often
> females than males.

I  give out homework assignments just about every class day -- we're on a
block schedule and meet every other day.  Actually grades were meted out in
this way:  tests are worth 100 points, quizzes are worth 50 points, labs
are worth 25 points, and homework is worth 10 points.  I give out homework
assignments just about every day and require all students to do them.  I
don't grade the things, I just require that the student makes an honest
effort to answer the questions and solve the problems.  Generally I look at
each one, front and back, and if it looks fairly reasonable, they get the
points.  I deduct points for blank questions or problems that were not
reasonably attempted.  The labs are gone over with a fine tooth comb and
critically graded.  This rewards the students who follow directions or are
willing to do the busywork.  Students who do not do the homework often end
up failing the course or getting a really horrible grade.  Most students
learn very quickly to do the work, but, typically, I'll have one or two in
each section who doesn't.  This is all gone over at the beginning of the
course and I invite any student who thinks that homework is abusive to find
some other science class to take.  The ability to work hard and produce
work that meets the standards set by your boss is a skill that just about
everybody has to master in order to meet with success in life -- this is
the attitude that I try to convey to my students.  "I'm the guy that gives
you a grade, so you better learn how to do work that will please me."

> My son (David) never did "optional work" because he got A grades on the
> exams, and didn't see any point in wasting his time with the busy work.
> Occasionally he misjudged and received an A- or B+ because he thought he was
> going to do better on an exam than he did.  Because he did not have a
> surplus of "extra credit" his grade-card grades reflect his exam scores,
> which I maintain would reflect his actual knowledge base.  His overall HS
> GPA for four years was 3.75 because he goofed-off considerably as a freshman
> and only had about a 3.3 that year.  His junior and senior years his GPA was
> 3.95 (for just those years).
I'm sorry about the problems your son encountered.  There are students like
him who can ignore all the homework and labs, waltz in, and get an A on the
test (wish I was one of them).  Often they view homework as a total wasted
effort.  "Why should I have to use up all my valuable free time doing a
bunch of stupid problems when I can get an A+ on the test?"  A good
argument, I suppose -- I've heard it many times.

I've tried different sorts of things.  One year I made the homework
optional -- this was a terrible disaster.  A few students did no homework
and got A's on the test and did wonderfully -- like your son.  Half the
students did the homework and did well on the tests.  And a great many of
them did no homework and, having never really practiced solving problems,
failed the tests in droves.  They thought they were getting a good deal at
the beginning, but ended up begging me to include homework in their grades.

This seems to work well.  Most of the students thrive on doing the
homework.  It builds up good work habits and teaches them to manage their
time -- as well as learn a bit of physics and mastering the art of problem
solving.  The bright students who could get by without doing homework learn
a bit of discipline.

I teach college physics and chemistry for our local community college and I
do not include homework (although I give them problems to do in the old
book) in their grades - the grades are a mixture of the lab work and test
scores.  This works for the maturity level of college students -- if they
do badly on a test because they never practiced any problems, well, too
bad.  But it doesn't seem to work well in high school.

Glenn
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