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I've seen this recently with the elementary school near me. Grading is extremely opaque, and seems to be largely based on teacher intuition. Some very advanced

by bnralt 4y ago

I've seen this recently with the elementary school near me. Grading is extremely opaque, and seems to be largely based on teacher intuition. Some very advanced students have gotten grades below where they are (I've heard many teachers just won't give the highest grade until the end of the year because of the weird system). Thankfully they also have standardized test scores, which both have a much more transparent scoring method and seem a much better match for the children's competency. It's not that standardized tests are perfect, but removing them makes things extremely capricious, and often very unfair.

hedora 4y ago
I’ve noticed this too. I assume it is because the teachers don’t want parents to realize the school is failing their child until it is too late to have the teacher (or school) address the situation.
sandworm101 4y ago
It is true that many teachers react very badly to the best students, particularly where the students are very evidently smarter than the teachers. In this age of ready access to information, any student with a drive to learn can quickly be head-and-shoulders above the average highschool teacher in a given subject. Good teachers help such students. Bad ones get jealous and seek to harm them.
- bnralt 4y ago
  What you say is true, but I've seen this happening even with good teachers. I think there's a few reasons for this - first, if you have a large class and a student is already meeting all the standards, you're going to spend the time you have on the students falling behind. Teachers are going to want all the students to know what they're supposed to for that grade, rather than to have some advanced far off the grade while others fail. Even if they had the time, there seems to be very little interest in advanced students across the board, and few if any programs put in place to meet their needs. Secondly, there aren't many opportunities for students to demonstrate that they exceed the standards. Getting a class test entirely correct demonstrates that they know what is being taught, but nothing more. One thing I like about the standardized tests they're given now is that the computer will adjust and ask more advanced problems if the students get answers correct.
- jozvolskyef 4y ago
  When I applied to secondary school, I barely made the cut and was one of the lowest-scoring students to be accepted that year, only ranking around the 4th percentile of those accepted. Once I started attending, I performed exceptionally well, ranking around the 95th percentile, give or take 5. It was mainly due to the fact that a large minority of my primary school teachers had biased opinions about me and our personal differences affected my grades.
madars 4y ago
>Grading is extremely opaque, and seems to be largely based on teacher intuition. Grading in certain subjects is just laughable. Can you objectively evaluate English essays so that 97/100 is "better" than 96/100? Why not add more significant digits: 96983/100000!

by bnralt 4y ago

hedora 4y ago

I’ve noticed this too. I assume it is because the teachers don’t want parents to realize the school is failing their child until it is too late to have the teacher (or school) address the situation.

sandworm101 4y ago

It is true that many teachers react very badly to the best students, particularly where the students are very evidently smarter than the teachers. In this age of ready access to information, any student with a drive to learn can quickly be head-and-shoulders above the average highschool teacher in a given subject. Good teachers help such students. Bad ones get jealous and seek to harm them.

bnralt 4y ago
What you say is true, but I've seen this happening even with good teachers. I think there's a few reasons for this - first, if you have a large class and a student is already meeting all the standards, you're going to spend the time you have on the students falling behind. Teachers are going to want all the students to know what they're supposed to for that grade, rather than to have some advanced far off the grade while others fail. Even if they had the time, there seems to be very little interest in advanced students across the board, and few if any programs put in place to meet their needs. Secondly, there aren't many opportunities for students to demonstrate that they exceed the standards. Getting a class test entirely correct demonstrates that they know what is being taught, but nothing more. One thing I like about the standardized tests they're given now is that the computer will adjust and ask more advanced problems if the students get answers correct.
jozvolskyef 4y ago
When I applied to secondary school, I barely made the cut and was one of the lowest-scoring students to be accepted that year, only ranking around the 4th percentile of those accepted. Once I started attending, I performed exceptionally well, ranking around the 95th percentile, give or take 5. It was mainly due to the fact that a large minority of my primary school teachers had biased opinions about me and our personal differences affected my grades.

madars 4y ago

>Grading is extremely opaque, and seems to be largely based on teacher intuition. Grading in certain subjects is just laughable. Can you objectively evaluate English essays so that 97/100 is "better" than 96/100? Why not add more significant digits: 96983/100000!