Comments on: Making The Grade(s)

By: Graham Wegner

Graham Wegner — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:21:37 +0000

@charlie I don’t have any definitive texts to point towards but maybe a browse at the MCEETYA website might unearth some information of interest.
@Darren and @Alexa – thank you for your comments. They stand as heartfelt responses to my pondering of the goals behind our Australian grading system. I don’t have anything profound to add at this point in time.

By: alexa harrington

alexa harrington — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:48:10 +0000

How student work/success is measured and recorded is such a quandary. On the one hand, the students (and the parents of the students) feel like they really need a quantitative measure of the students’ success. On the other hand, isn’t education better when it’s the learning that’s the focus, not the grades?

Standard grading procedures are certainly easier and less time-consuming than writing up lengthy reports, but I think something important is lost when everything is based on numbers and not on the individual student. However, educators work incredibly hard for the money, and it seems selfish of students and parents to ask for individualized reports at the end of every term.

The solution, of course, is to have better funding for schools. This would mean better pay for teachers AND would enable the hiring of more teachers. The result would be an improved student-to-teacher ratio and well-paid teachers, which would mean a better education for the students as well as teachers with the time and funding to write incredibly individualized grade reports.

Also, I think every school should be equipped with a real fire-breathing dragon and a chocolate river and a gumdrop tree. Then everything would be perfect.

Perhaps we’ll all just have to learn to muddle through the best we can and hope for the best.

By: Charlie A. Roy

Charlie A. Roy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:36:01 +0000

I’ve heard great things about the Aussie educational system. Any resources or books that point out the key differences or essential components that set the Aussie system apart?

By: Darren Draper

Darren Draper — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:02:29 +0000

The only thing worse than compulsory schooling is compulsory grading, although I’m sure that some (likely not all) of your students and their parents appreciated the customized feedback you were able to provide them.

Now, No Child Left Behind has been an interesting beast.

While I affirm that NCLB has had one of the worst affects on teachers’ attitudes than anything else in recent memory (other than our District electing to eliminate our retirement package – yes, life has been joyful all around), there have been good things resulting from it. If nothing else, teachers have been far more conscientious of the curriculum they include in their teaching as well as how effective their instruction was in enabling understanding. In the past – and in any number of untested subjects – teachers are still under no obligation to teach to their full potential. Consequently, some classes offer little more than a chance for students to view and review the latest in Disney offerings, with neither little punishment for poor teaching nor adequate incentive for teacher improvement.

The realist in me feels to exclaim, however, that there must be a better way to improve classroom instruction than by forcing our teachers to teach to the test! The day that happens in Australia and elsewhere will be a sad day, indeed.