<p>Ah, yes. Our school is becoming more diverse and our failure rate is growing. So, instead of allowing it to grow and make the kids adjust and do homework, etc., the administration has been talking about “alternate assessments.” Apparently because so many kids refuse to read outside of class, or do any work outside of class (and many do nothing in class, either), in an attempt to get around this, we are supposed to start getting creative and find other ways of assessing the kids. (Class discussions were pretty sad when veyr few read the book, so we have had to play tapes of the novels, etc., in class, and not assign ourside reading in regulars classes. Honors are better and the AP kids generally do their work.) Each department has been able to determine their grade distributions. Math had 90% exams, 10% homework district-wide, and Spanish had 50% exams-50% daily, oral, and homework. Next year, the whole district is going 60% exams and 40% daily and homework. Homework cannot equal more than 10% of their grade. What they don’t realize is that we expect the failure rate to increase, rather than decrease. Those kids who didn’t do well on tests in foreign language but did their work ususally passed. Now, with the tests weighted more, those borderline kids will fail. It will hurt our department. Math will be helped, but those kids might not pass the graduation exams, if the grading is easier. They have to take finals first semester, but can exempt out second.</p>
<p>My school basically gave discretion to the teachers about how to run their classes. All needed to have a final exam period scheduled, but it the teacher didn’t really feel an exam was necessary (like for computer programming class, where a final project may be more appropriate) they can just tell the kids not to come in. They also got to decide what percentage the exams were worth. Oh yeah, and AP classes wouldn’t have finals, they were just never even considered when grading the class. My math teacher also created curved for all the teachers since no one else knew how to do it right.</p>
<p>I really liked this system. It taught me how to study for final exams properly, while not forcing the teachers to make ridiculous tests or grade their classes inappropriately.</p>
<p>In my school, there’s a mix of “performance-based” assessments in the form of a final project / exhibition at a “Celebration of Learning” event, and regular midterms / finals. Teachers have some discretion as to how their finals work, and there are some automatic-A exceptions, like playing sports for one season (automatic A in phys ed, due to new state laws) or having a top score in a course like American History Enriched. The final assessment grade plus the midterm grade is factored in as a fifth quarter, but the grades are also listed separately on transcripts. In addition, teachers / departments work independently in determining whether their test will be cumulative or only cover material from the second semester.</p>
<p>Texas is returning to state mandated finals (standardized) as a replacement for the much hated TAKS.</p>
<p>bandit–are they are returning to the EOCs or End of Course Exams, for specific exit level classes? A few years ago they were Biology, US History, Geometry, and English, and taken in the year that the student completed that course. My son had to take a “practice” EOC in Geometry and Biology this year but they weren’t counted as grades. I’m not sure if I agree that exit level should be ninth grade (when many take Bio and Geo), but then again if you pass it then it should mean three years without state testing/classroom given over to state testing. That alone would be worthwhile. </p>
<p>The EOCs never replaced teacher finals in our school back when they were given, just as TAKs scores are not given as grades currently. Our school does let students exempt out of exams if they have not gone over the absences limit and they have passed their state testing. I think this is doing a disservice to the kids. Colleges certainly don’t exempt you from exams because you came to class. </p>
<p>In fact, the way many seniors at our school are encouraged to organize their four year plan does not prepare them for college. By senior year, many just need Government/Econ and English to graduate, and so they will take those two classes (not necessarily AP version) and fill in with study halls and such. Now add in the exam exemptions and you have a student who will not be prepared for four college classes per term plus a hefty mid-term test/paper and final test/paper. I think the schedule should be reversed, with an increase in AP/Honors classes each year so that the senior year has the most rigorous scheduling that models what would be expected in college.</p>
<p>We have EOC’s for specific classes. My S will be taking the US History EOC on Monday. </p>
<p>In our system, the EOC is the final (counts 25% toward year end grade). I’m a little worried about this one as S’s history teacher is straight out of college and has done a poor job of teaching the course, mostly following the outlines of each chapter. Covered entire wars in 2 class periods. S, an avid History channel watcher has corrected the teacher several times or added more in-depth info to a subject that our young football coach knew nothing about!</p>
<p>Young teacher/football coach also told them there would be little to no homework becaue he never liked it as a student and didn’t really want to have to grade it! </p>
<p>I think this is the last EOC S will have to take and can only hope all those hours of the History channel will serve him well.</p>
<p>Hey Zebes, I just wanted to weigh in on the value of the AP projects that until recently I viewed in the same light as you—grade buffers to ease in to test-only grades. I have not always appreciated the alternative assessment argument. That is until recently when I learned first-hand the value of these projects when used to demonstrate applied knowledge. </p>
<p>Our public school has mid terms, finals, and a smaller project first semester followed by a second semester capstone project for every AP class, in addition to sitting for the standardized exam. The final exams are given the week before the actual AP test to get them ready for the AP. After the AP exams, our students have an entire month of school from mid May to Mid June and they would have little to do in class if it were not for these final projects. </p>
<p>So our teachers bring these projects along throughout semester and they’re due and graded at the end of each semester. The students come up with the focus and scope of the project based on the requirements, and the teacher approves or modifies. At our school with the high caliber students in these APs, the quality and depth of the projects have been phenomenal. 50 page analytical, cited research papers, fully functioning GUI, Java Computer Programs, Applied Calculus and Physics projects, texts analyzed and presented to teach a specific theory of literary criticism are some that come to mind. These are not the over-involved parent, crafty kind of projects that people lament. </p>
<p>The surprising result is that students had tangible class work to demonstrate on their activity resumes to use as talking points in college interviews. Even more surprising, the college career center had my freshman son list those capstone projects as a part of his career resume for summer internships in addition to his more typical HS work experience. My son was hired for his internship based on the work of one of these AP projects. He had many other qualifications to support his application, but one of these projects became the major talking point in his interview. My son said his AP teacher, a Harvey Mudd grad, always told them to hang onto their projects for this very reason. Needless to say, I value these projects quite differently now. And I do agree that finals are a necessary part of HS.</p>
<p>When I was in high school, the policy was no finals if you had an A in the class. I had all A’s. Consequently, I never took a final exam. When I got to college, I was at a HUGE disadvantage!!! I had no clue how to keep my notes/old tests, prepare for a final, etc. I had an unnecessarily tough freshman year. BAD IDEA!</p>
<p>BTW, my old high school makes everyone take finals now.</p>
<p>3k’s … oh, I agree there are projects that are extremely valuable towards mastery of a discipline or learning to integrate a purely abstract academic concept into a real-world application, etc. My son … in his AP Literature class had to team teach a week’s worth of lessons on Death of a Salesman. This was a very intrictate and well-mentored project by the teacher, and his experience with doing this and several other wonderful projects in this class is one of the reasons he’s minoring in English Literature in college. However, before the AP World History exam in May my D was watching movie Hotel Rwanda and answering a bunch of questions on it, only because the AP teacher had to give a project … as per the school policy of every other nine weeks each discipline must have a project instead of a 9 week exam. Even the teacher noted it was busy work, yet made the thing several pages long. Two years ago in her sophomore Algebra I honors class, she had to create a cereal box, complete with drawings and slogans which went with the topic they were studying at the time. Ninety percent of the project was busy work/ 10 percent was actually applied math. However, the grade was based on creativity of slogans … etc. So, when you’re taking six subjects … and in two nine weeks, 4 of those subjects require these ridiculous projects all at the same time at the end of the nine weeks … time consuming, bubble-head stuff … it’s crazy. I just wish the teachers were given the option of choosing either a project appropriate for the class and material or an exam. Do not force projects into classes just because it’s “their turn.” Next year she’ll have 4 AP classes at once. If they’re required to follow the school rule, she’ll be studying in May for 4 AP exams and doing projects in these classes as well. And they’re due before the exams. Aaargh …</p>
<p>Zebes</p>
<p>Thank you Zebes, I hear you on the busy work note. This was more of an FYI aside. It never occurred to my son to include a description of his capstone projects as a resume item. He thought his college career counselor’s advice to include them was particularly clever. </p>
<p>Now, I would advise students facing a project to really think about how they can create something meaningful for themselves.</p>