It's time to rise up

 It’s time to Rise up

 

We have issues in Maryland.   Since the virtual no-learning experience, kids' achievement scores in reading and math have plummeted.  Reading much worse than math.   Then there are the high stakes tests and the graduation rates, both going straight the opposite from up.  Things are bad.  

There are a couple of approaches to this problem to raise the scores.  One way is to increase individual instruction.  That means teaching kids according to the way they learn best and teaching them content that is meaningful to them.  So, scores on high stakes tests would go up and so would graduation rates.  Those increases would be the consequence of students learning more.

Another approach is to give less importance to the so-called high stakes tests.  They would no longer be high stakes in that students could fail them and still graduate.  We could also lower the score that is required for passing in the course itself.  Unfortunately, it is the second approach that school systems in Maryland are choosing to take.

Going forward scores on the end-of-course exams will be averaged in with other course grades so that a poor score on the “big” test won’t matter so much if the course grades would be good enough to cover the spread between the major test and the other course grades.  That might not be too bad except that the course grades themselves have also been inflated.  In many systems in Maryland, teachers may not give a student a grade below 60 (failing) if the student is “doing his/her best” and “really trying”.  What exactly those terms mean and who determines whether or not a child is doing her best or “really trying”?  That evaluation is up to the teacher to decide.   But teachers should know that if too many of their students are getting low course grades, the teacher must be the one who is doing something wrong.  Generally, that conclusion would make good sense to me, except that the students are very quick to catch on to the game and they know they can’t fail so why bother to try.  

Students have two basic ways to get better grades:  They can learn more or we can lower the standard for what is required.

Good optics and politics tell us to lower the standard; good education tells us to teach more and better.  It’s time we rise up!