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Re: grades, pass/fail etc.



The school I worked at way back in 1980 as a school set up as an
"alternative" to the traditional schools of the area and day. We didn't
assign grades (which was very hard for me at the time), we had open
campus, and we required students to complete their courses instead of
simply staying until the end of the year (meaning every student worked
at their own pace - algebra I in 3 years or 3 months). What this meant
was students were expected to learn. Grading wasn't really necessary.
We did have a few (and it really was a very few while I was there)
students for whom the system didn't work. We asked them to go somewhere
else. I have no idea if they are still operating like that. I'd love to
go visit and find out. My guess is they're not. Too much emphasis on
grades from the colleges now.

I often wonder how much of the lack of discipline we get in schools is
due to the fact that we force students to come. In Georgia we have
raised the mandatory attendance age to 17. I think we're going the
wrong way. Give those who don't fit in or do well in school an option
to learn a trade and make a living - the rest will come because they
(or their parents) want to or see some value in it. Emphasize learning
and mastery (no, not the mastery learning fad of two decades ago. That
was a real farce). But this won't fly because it's not the American
way. Somehow we've become convinced that everybody is going to college.
And now we're in a one size fits all mode which really means no one is
served.

Just my thoughts.

On Saturday, September 28, 2002, at 10:21 AM, James Mackey wrote:

I wonder how this idea works in many large high schools with disruptive
and hard-to-manage students. Somehow I don't think that saying, "We're
a
caring interested group of teachers who are no longer going to issue
any
grades so that students can concentrate on learning instead of grades"
is going to achieve any goals except anarchy.
The instances that I have read (no direct experience here) about in
which sucessful learning environments were achieved at "failing
schools"
have occured when students were forced into compliance by strong,
consistent, discipline.
Does anyone know of any evidence of attempts to apply this pass/fail
idea under such circumstances?
James Mackey

John Clement wrote:


In other instances, too, the rotten-apple theory offers a better fit
with
educational reality than does "the more, the merrier." Consider
schools that
try to have it both ways: They work with students who act
inappropriately,
perhaps even spending time to promote conflict-resolution
strategies--but
they still haven't let go of heavy-handed policies that amount to
doing
things to students to get compliance. On the one hand: "We're a caring
community, committed to solving problems together." On the other
hand: "If
you do something that displeases us (the people with the power),
we'll make
you suffer to teach you a lesson."
====================================================

Can only comment at college level, but I work homework probelms "cold",
meaning I do not look at them before class. Students then have the
opportunity to see me tackle a problem incorrectly, backtrack and try
another approach, continually check my approach, and occasionally fail
to work the problem at the board. I hope that they learn something from
the failures demonstrated at the board as well as the fact that problem
solving is not a simple 1,2,3 process.


Some currently common practices may have the spoiled apple effect.
For
example doing problems on the board for students is similar to
teaching step
by step problem solving in math, so it will only teach students how
to do
just the particular problem and will not result in bridging to similar
problems. Conventional lectures may have such an effect also.

James Mackey


This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.