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In the US it is next to impossible to hold kids back. One of my son's classes (7th grade) a 65% is still a C. If kids could be held back on some subjects easi

by gscott 18y ago

In the US it is next to impossible to hold kids back. One of my son's classes (7th grade) a 65% is still a C. If kids could be held back on some subjects easier while moving them forward in other subjects that would be great. It might not work out but they admit in the article things are so bad they don't know what else to do.

ggruschow 18y ago
I had a class where a 40% was an A. It was tough to get 40% in that class. What a good %age is can be dependent on how hard the work was. It's not trivial to make all the things being tested such that you can easily see where people need help AND you simultaneously get the traditional >90% = A. Now, I think I'd rather the teacher knew where I hadn't grasped enough. When you're doing it though, trying hard and only getting half the stuff right can be frustrating.
andreyf 18y ago
I'm a little confused what a percentage could mean, in this context. Does it mean you have a good understanding of 65% of the material you need to move on? Because that's not good, if you need an understanding of 100% of Foo to learn Bar, which incorporates Foo... this isn't to say that you shouldn't start teaching Bar in order to motivate students to go back and finish learning Foo, just that a % is a measure lacking in meaning. I think a better way to gague knowledge is the A/C/F system a lot of my professors used in advanced math courses at Rutgers. An 'A' means you have a solid understanding of the material, a 'C' means you don't really understand it, but have a good enough grasp that you can move on and back-track to finish learning it as necessary. 'F' means you don't understand it well enough to move on, and should retake the course. This requires a lot more thought on the side of the professor, but the motivation for students becomes a lot more clear: understand the material, and move on.

by gscott 18y ago

ggruschow 18y ago

I had a class where a 40% was an A. It was tough to get 40% in that class. What a good %age is can be dependent on how hard the work was. It's not trivial to make all the things being tested such that you can easily see where people need help AND you simultaneously get the traditional >90% = A. Now, I think I'd rather the teacher knew where I hadn't grasped enough. When you're doing it though, trying hard and only getting half the stuff right can be frustrating.

andreyf 18y ago

I'm a little confused what a percentage could mean, in this context. Does it mean you have a good understanding of 65% of the material you need to move on? Because that's not good, if you need an understanding of 100% of Foo to learn Bar, which incorporates Foo... this isn't to say that you shouldn't start teaching Bar in order to motivate students to go back and finish learning Foo, just that a % is a measure lacking in meaning. I think a better way to gague knowledge is the A/C/F system a lot of my professors used in advanced math courses at Rutgers. An 'A' means you have a solid understanding of the material, a 'C' means you don't really understand it, but have a good enough grasp that you can move on and back-track to finish learning it as necessary. 'F' means you don't understand it well enough to move on, and should retake the course. This requires a lot more thought on the side of the professor, but the motivation for students becomes a lot more clear: understand the material, and move on.