Making the Grade: Who Gets the "A"

I can remember the feeling I had at midterm when I saw my grade. "98%! Yes!" I thought to myself. But as my eyes wandered to the letter printed next to it I felt my elation drop sharply. "B+? Really?" I could hardly wrap my mind around it. On what planet is a 98% a B+?

This is the dilemma teachers face. How do you grade students fairly, while maintaining a high standard? How many students should get A's? How do you control grade inflation? In the above example, enough students achieved in the top two percent to bring up the curve to an unreasonable level. This is a textbook example of norm-referenced grading. Experts find that it is detrimental to the relationships between students, as well as the relationship between students and teachers. Anita Woolfolk, author of Educational Psychology, mentions that the curve arbitrarily limits the number of good grades that can be given. The normal curve has no sacred meaning in education. Is the goal not to see all students succeed? Therefore, when only a handful of students are considered "A" students, we have failed them. Norm-referenced grading is an inefficient method of grading students, which, to some extent, breeds hostility and learned helplessness in the classroom.

Another method of grading, seen as superior to norm-referenced grading, is criterion-referenced grading. If a student meets clear objectives set out by the instructor, then he or she will receive the correlating grade. In this way, students can work towards the grade they want by meeting the criteria. If in my example I had been graded according to the criterion-referenced method, I would have received my "rightful" A, since I had answered correctly the test questions.

There are more ways to grade than just the above examples. Despite this, it is important for teachers to choose the best method for the activity at hand, not a one size fits all grading pattern. For indeed there might be times when the norm-referenced grading system may be appropriate. Keep in mind the goals, which are for all students to learn and excel.

Miss Gabbert

Recess Deficiency Disorder

I was recently reading an article from the New York Times about the watering-down of recess time. It mentioned how games like tag and dodgeball are being considered too rough for children. I see this as a major shortcoming of our educational system.

With many schools cutting recess altogether, it is alarming that in these instances they are beginning that process. It has been concluded that play is children's work, that they learn and grow, make social bonds, and gain exercise. When recess is eliminated, or even watered down, the children have lost an outlet for energy, creativity and imagination.

Also, let us consider the nature of the game tag. It does not involve checking (hockey), tackling (football), or any other potentially serious bodily injury. It involves a simple touch. Now when our children's wellbeing is endangered by a game of tag, what else could we possibly save them from?

Miss Gabbert

The article can be found at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/education/14recess.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=recess&st=cse

Lost and Found

I experienced a strange cultural phenomenon this morning while at Church Youth Fest Sunday service. Usually, as have been all my observations, children and adolescents will embrace the "cool" or "pop" music if presented to them, rather than traditional music, such as hymns. Well, today I have dropped all of my stereotypes. The band Lost and Found, a quasi-Christian worship-leading band, was up on stage and singing an upbeat chorus. The kids in the audience were singing softly, not getting into the music. However, when the band left the stage and the hymn started to play, the result was magical. The kids were singing with gusto, creating harmonies and truly embracing the message.

I think this strange phenomenon translates to teaching as well. Fads in teaching may come, and kids very well might embrace the style or technique. But genuine instruction based on research and results will always prevail. Teachers who put their students' learning first will never go out of style.

Miss Gabbert

School Board Forum

Monday, October 27th 2008: Olin 102. For the second week in a row, we were presented with a panel of persons from the Decorah School System. This week it was school board members. They came from many walks of life and backgrounds.

I was first taken aback by how little power they actually had. I will give the example of the budget. It is common for everyone to think that the school board has ultimate control over where the funding goes and how it is distributed. The panel dispelled this rumor. They said that federal money comes into the district with a predetermined purpose and destination. Some funding may come in and it can only be used for hiring new teachers, or only for the music program. If there is a surplus in one area, it can not be put to use somewhere else. They find this very frustrating.

I feel this kind of dialogue between school board members and teachers is very important. It facilitates the understanding of each group, so that no one is unaware of the needs and necessary procedures of the schools and their operation. I encourage everyone to become familiar with the way their district works, and the people in charge.

Miss Gabbert

Because "My" and "I" Exist, Therefore There is Life After Death

I have a wide range of interests. When I am not growing tomatoes, loving animals and making projects out of paper mache, I enjoy pondering the world around me. Thus, when I noticed a flier for a lecture by a prominent philosophy professor from the University of California at San Diego, I jumped at the opportunity. After getting the time and date wrong I, in my zeal for philosophy conversation, finally made it to the lecture hall.

He started out by retelling the conversation he had had a few weeks prior over lunch with two professors of biology at the University. They had insisted that scientifically it was impossible for life to exist after death, while he maintained that because we have the linguistic terms for self, then it must exist. That was what he presented to us tonight. His thesis on the afterlife was derived from a lunch conversation.

To be a little more precise, he stated that because we have differing terms of self, such as my and I, therefore we have already in our vocabulary the words for something besides a strictly physical existence. He asked us to consider how we would say the phrase "my leg hurts," but in essence we are more than just a leg, the leg belongs to "us" and that s what was significant. He then asked us to look up the definition of any animal in a "good" dictionary and we would find a picture of that animal, what foods it eats, where it lives, etc. But if we were to look up the definition of "person" we would find no such descriptors, but instead a series of words describing the faculties of logic and reason. Because of the way we define ourselves, we are already assuming that we are more than just physical creatures but logical creatures and therefore possibly eternal creatures.

I personally found this "logic" (as he referred to it a multitude of times) faulty. We ourselves shape our language. Does this mean that we also shape our destinies, our afterlives? He also kept referring to the equation a+a=a, and saying that concrete logic, such as this equation, was what brought him to his thesis. But, logically, a+a does not equal "a" but "2a." The logic from which our certain afterlife was derived was crumbling beneath him.

After the fifteen minute lecture (1/4th of the allotted time) he opened the floor up for questions. But, unfortunately, the questions the philosophical community at Luther conjured up were "too complex to be answered at this time" or needed to be understood "within the context of my book." The most insulting, however, was the "you need to take a philosophy course to understand" response given to one of our esteemed professors of philosophy.

What I left the lecture with (besides a feeling of relief that I did not attend the University of California at San Diego) was a flaming indigence at the ignorance this professor assumed we lived in, and no clear philosophical argument for life after death.

High Stakes Community Schools: No wonder they are high-risk!

I was quite dissapointed with the forum on Monday night. I feel that certain points, valid, controversial points did not come up or even mentioned! I was especially disturbed by the arguements made (and not made) by the "teachers' union," and would like to touch on them now.

Firstly, the teachers' union representatives did not even touch on issues regarding teachers. They only were concerned with the students' learning, which should be the main plight of the parent. They never brought up the dismissal procedures that would be enacted if the teachers' students fail to make progress for 2 years in a row. This idea fails to take into account new teachers, who just starting, may not know the ropes as well or are settling into their curriculum. This may be seen as an "excuse for poor teaching," but I would invite Drs. Langholz and Knick to teach thid grade for a week and see what progress is made. It takes time to adapt and familiarize oneself with teaching. Also, if a teacher has low-potential students, ones with learning disabilities or emotional issues in her room two years in a row and her job is then under scrutiny for her children's scores, is that really what we want as a community? It would lead to a cycle of struggling teachers trying to do a near impossible job. We need to support these teachers, and they in turn will support the students.

Another problem that the Union failed to bring up is the pseudo-incentive $1000 for met acheivement goals. This brings into question the validity of the goal, whether it is really in the students' best interest, or just low enough for them to meet so that the teacher is cushioned with a nice sum. It encourages teaching towards the test, a form of "memorization" on the students' parts that requires little genuine learning but offers nice results on a short term test. The merit pay encourages teachers in the wrong way, in a way that is detrimental to the students' well-being.

While I am in support of legislation that ensures our students a well rounded education, I would be behind it fully if it did not do it at the expense of the teachers in our community.

The Environment as a Culture

I was reading an article in the New York Times just the other day. It was about how the government wanted to put a road through the tidal plains, a national wildlife refuge. The road would serve to connect a small outpost with a municipal airport, and to aid the transport of goods. Let's consider this for a minute. How will the wildlife being "protected" be affected by this new road? Will the benefits of a shorter transportation time outweigh the detriment done to these animals?

Firstly, one must look at the area. Elk, caribou, wolves, black and grizzly bears, amoung many other species of smaller mammals and birds are living in this area. The area is also within the migratory path that many animals follow each year. As can be discerned, migrating animals do not fare well when battling semis. The increased traffic, which leads to animal fatalities, environmental pollution from run-off and exhaust, transportation of invasive species and the trash that accumulates alongside oft-traveled roads are all factors that impact an ecosystem, whether in a large way or small. It is from these things that the animals are being protected in this refuge, yet a road would certainly introduce them. All this stems from just building a road; imagine what drilling could do?

Are these human influences on one of the America's deminishing wild areas worth the one hour saved on a commute? It is now commerce versus our ecosystems. Who will be named the victor?