What Are We Grading?

Any teacher that was forced to sit through an educational history or methods course can tell you that the birth of public schooling is rooted in the industrial revolution and a need for a labor force that had basic skills and could follow routines. While curriculum and pedagogy have branched out a lot since then, we haven't strayed far from our roots. We still ring bells and have routines that could easily be compared to the factory system. There has been a modern push to change some of that and it has gained some traction in the concept of grading for mastery. In Greene County, we see it in lower grades with our standards-based grading system and in upper grades, we introduced rubrics. If you were here in the RBT training years, you might recall the Met or Not Met grades that we were encouraged to give. These new grading systems try to focus more on what kids know and can do, but they are also sometimes difficult for parents to understand because we received grades on a numerical scale and that's what we know. 

Since the first progress reports went home this year, I've thought a lot about grading. It's hard not to right now. We worked hard to get students to submit assignments and the phrase, "Just turn in something" was often heard. We gave students authentic grades and after the first report card, we knew we had to do something and developed remedial assignments. That made a big difference, but not big enough to keep me from worrying about it. 

The two children that sleep in my home have done well this year. They have all As and have learned to communicate with their teachers on their own. I'm proud of them for adjusting, but it hit me this week that those grades don't truly belong to them. Those are household grades. My children live in a home with two parents with advanced college degrees. They have access to reliable, high-speed internet and any other tool they need to be successful. Their parents manage people and programs or a living and know the education system well. My children don't have a reason to not do well right now. The problem is that we are the exception and not the norm. 

When students spend seven or more hours at school every day, we are some of the largest contributors to their thoughts and expectations. While we still struggle with getting some students to comply, we can get the majority. It's probably not a fluke that in a normal year, the failure rate hangs close to the unemployment rate and that's pretty low. This year things are different and failures don't reflect curriculum that students can't do, they most likely reflect work they haven't attempted or submitted. Mix that with an adapted curriculum and we are moving much closer to grading compliance than we are learning. 

So what's the answer? I have no clue. And I don't really think anyone else does either. But I believe that necessity is the mother of invention and we are in a time of great need. The education world is holding on to hope that everything goes back to the way that it was, but I believe that teachers are perfectly positioned to create change right now. So how do you know what your kids can do? How do you know that they have learned and grown? You are all in the driver's seat to help make some of those decisions and I'm so curious to see what comes out.