1. There is not enough time to teach a single skill until all students have mastered it.

2. This lack of mastery is a result of a curriculum that requires them to move ahead too quickly.

I personally think it is not the fault of the curriculum that prevents mastery, but the schedule and setup of the public school system that does not allow enough focus on academics.

I grew up homeschooled, a fact that is often surprising to people, and recently had a conversation with my mom about how we were graded. Easy answer – we weren’t. There was no need to provide grades because we simply worked on a skill until it was mastered. There was not room for B’s and C’s because the expectation was that we would LEARN the material, not that we would become somewhat familiar with the material.

If someone were to suggest eliminating the grading scale, parents and teachers alike would probably spin into a tizzy, trying to figure out how to know whether their children (or students) were learning anything in school. If only teachers had the time during the day to teach students to the point of mastery, then grades would not be necessary because parents would know that their children were LEARNING.

Lets take a moment now to look at how much time teachers generally spend teaching per day (this does not take into account testing, pretesting, etc. This is based on one schedule at a public elementary school – other schools will obviously have different schedules with different total teaching/down times).

Students arrived: 9:00AM

Math: 9:30-10:15

Specials- 10:15-11:15

Lunch and recess: 11:30-12:30

Water/bathroom break/quiet reading at desks – 12:30-1:00

Language Arts (reading and writing combined) – 1:00-2:00

Social studies – 2:00-2:45

Pack up/clean up/read aloud – 2:45-3:15

Dismissal: 3:15

Total time teaching in classroom: 2.5 hours

Total time at school: 6 hours and 15 minutes.

Then you throw in field trips, assemblies, discipline problems that interrupt instructional time, etc. and that amount of instructional time reduces even more.

So let me ask you – is it the curriculum that is the “cause” of the lack of teacher’s ability to teach a skill until student’s have mastered it?

Related posts:

1. Change in Grading Scale for P.G. County
2. Prince George’s County Schools Implement Controversial New Grading Scale
3. The Problem with the Public School System

All assignments given during the first two quarters of the 2009-2010 school year must be scored according to that grading scale. As of the beginning of the third quarter, though, teachers are allowed to give students a 0 on assignments that were not attempted. So if a student does not turn in an assignment or turns in a blank assignment with no attempt, the teacher is able to give the child a zero for that assignment or test.

The concern with this new scale is the gray area of what constitutes “attempt”. If a student puts his or her name on the paper and turns it in does that count? If a student puts nonsense answers does that count?

On the other hand, a child who does poorly on one or two big assignments still has the ability to pull his or her grade back up. What do you think? Should the minimum score a student receives be a 50%?

Related posts:

1. Prince George’s County Schools Implement Controversial New Grading Scale
2. Students Acting up in Class
3. Teachers Using Twitter

While it is a time consuming task to write individual comments on report cards, it is important to not resort to cliche comments that mean little to parents. Here are a few guidelines to keep in mind:

1. Whenever you use a negative comment on a report card, include a tip or suggestion for improving the skill.
2. Always pair a negative comment with a positive comment
3. Specific comments are more valuable than generalities

Read more information on report card time.

Related posts:

1. Report Card Comments: How to Tactfully Define a Problem
2. How to Suggest a Method of Improvement
3. Examples of General Report Card Comments to Avoid