<p>What do you all think about this? Lowering the student’s class grades on the report card to bring them into line with the state exam predictives.</p>
<p>[Grade</a> tampering of a different kind at Staten Island school | SILive.com](<a href=“http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/grade_tampering_of_a_different.html]Grade”>Grade tampering of a different kind at Staten Island school - silive.com)</p>
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<p>Kinda takes relying on standardized tests to a whole new level, doesn’t it?..insanity</p>
<p>Interesting. This may start happening, linking grades to state tests. It reminds me of IB grading where teachers predict the final outcome of their students, and they better be pretty darn close to those final marks.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think it matters in the scheme of things whatever that is. What are grades anyway? Now with no child left behind, everyone wants an A. We retest and retest and retest. So what are grades anyway? I am all for As for everyone if we can figure a way to pull that off. Let me know.</p>
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I disagree. Particularly in the gateway years, the report card grades decide placement in the next grade, admission to high school, and academic honors.<br>
I can see the argument for linking the grades to actual testing, but not predictives. The whole point of a predictive is to show the areas of weakness in time for the student and family to make corrections.</p>
<p>I think this is outrageous. Grades are meant to reflect achievement, actual performance over time. The girl earned the 3’s.</p>
<p>If her test results show she isn’t ready to advance to the next year, or will need extra help in the next year I suppose it is possible to leave her grades as meeting grade level and then hold her back or put her in a special program to catch her up. But it would seem disingenuous. </p>
<p>Her test scores show she is behind. To ignore that in fourth grade would be a recipe for disaster.</p>
<p>Fast forward 8 years, and she has all Bs, and can’t pass the high school exit exam. How is that a good thing?</p>
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The thing is that it’s only a predictive, not the actual exam. That’s what I take exception to. She still had several months before the actual exam was administered.</p>
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<p>I think the administration is running across the problem that despite predictive exams showing the students are behind, there is nothing in the report card that warns the parents their kid is falling behind, and they need to buckle down or at the end of the year they will be held back. The tests are a part of the curriculum, and the teacher was ignoring them.</p>
<p>What would be the uproar if all these kids who have done badly on the predictives, but got report cards with 3s and no indication they are behind, and then are blindsided in May or June? These are midyear elementary grades. They still have an opportunity to get back on track.</p>
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They wouldn’t be blindsided because we are provided with detailed information about the predictives, including targeted advice for each child’s weakness.</p>
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<p>Where does classwork come into play?</p>
<p>Impossible to rate in this manner, children who may excel later on. What … I won’t say it.</p>
<p>Kid does well in class, but does badly on standardized tests. Mom should be in a meeting with the teacher, the school psychologist, the principal, and the lead Resource teacher for that school. Maybe the kid just needs help learning how to take those standardized tests, but maybe the kid has an unidentified LD. I see BIG RED FLAGS here.</p>
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Maybe. Or maybe, as in my son’s class, the predictives aren’t taken seriously and are sandwiched in between other things in little pieces here and there.</p>
<p>I was told by the PLAN ACT (I think that’s what it’s called) that I would get a 23 on the ACT. I got a 33 on the only time I took it (no prep, no guides, no classes, nothing). </p>
<p>I agree with zoose that predictive tests are not taken seriously. We’re so inundated with standardized testing from a very young age that it just gets tiresome. When we’re told that these tests really don’t matter then guess what? We’re not going to put that much energy into them. Every year from 1st-8th grade we took IOWAs and some other Michigan tests (MEAPs?) and then something else. The IOWAs took two weeks (not consistently… we took a few tests every day) and the MEAPs took another few days. Then in high school we had ACTs, SATs, MMEs, PSATs, APs. I don’t want to even think about how many standardized tests I’ve taken in my life time. </p>
<p>I firmly believe that most of the time, a teacher is best prepared to decide whether or not a child is ready for the next level- not an administrator and not a test. It really could just be that the child had a head cold on test week- should that over ride the year’s worth of experience that the teacher has had with that child? IMO, no.</p>
<p>Why should a 9-year-old HAVE a report card?</p>
<p>(For the record, neither of my kids did, and t doesn’t seem to have prevented them from getting into the graduate school of their choice, and their pick of jobs in their field.)</p>
<p>I’m really glad my last one is a junior in high school and will finish with this madness soon.</p>
<p>My biggest regret is not homeschooling, and with the nuttiness that continues to abound in education, at this point, I can’t imagine I will not offer to homeschool my grandchildren should my children decide to have kids.</p>
<p>sheesh.</p>