Friday, August 15, 2008
Dallas ISD teachers dissatisfied with new rules for grading
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DALLAS — Dallas ISD teachers are dissatisfied with new rules regarding grading that do not penalize students who have poor habits.
If a student flunks a test, skips homework, or turns in work late, the new rules force the teachers to accept it without penalizing the student. And if the student does a bad job on homework, it's not counted against his or her grade. Instead of giving the students a zero, the teachers have to call the parents.
Posted by T.G.
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Comments
snoryder8019 Anonymous
No give them a Zero! They wont need a phone call because parents who give a damn will see those grades and beat better grades into thier *ss.
10 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
OMG! Then don't bother with grades at all.
A grade is a metric. The horrible fact that legislatures refuse to stomach is that exactly one half (50%) of all students are below average.
Smart kids that work make better grades. The converse is not true.
I feel a John Wiley Price education joke comin' on....
fight -- the -- easy --- kill ---- ppush sseennnnnnnnnnnnnd NOW
10 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
Grades are racist, you guys.
10 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Clay213 Anonymous
Is this real?
10 months, 3 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
Looks like it Clay.
Personally, I think we need a generation of lawn service professionals and hat room attendants. The glut of lawyers and doctors has just lead to immigration loopholes the size a NAFTA truck can drive through.
And I'll concede to Pavel that grades inherently discriminate in the same way that lions and other predators victimize the edge of the herd.
I've been worried about my kids' future, but I can rest assured that their competition for good solid jobs will only be from oveseas. The local valedictorian will be washing their cars. Cool!
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Clay213 Anonymous
And this school system gets a billion dollars plus for what?
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
momzilla Anonymous
This is the kind of garbage that induced my family to take our children out of public school. It's a struggle every day to teach a work ethic to our children, and when we are undermined by the school district and it results in a lazy, rebellious young graduate who can't hold a job because they have been trained to be lazy and sloppy, where is the district?
Being smart is a really good thing. But it's useless when they don't know how to work. Good grief, who has a job that consists only of doing what they want to do when they want to do it?
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Clay213 Anonymous
momzilla Anonymous
This is the kind of garbage that induced my family to take our children out of public school.
That and all those damn minorities right?
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
momzilla Anonymous
I'm laughing at you, Clay. If you met my family, you'd know why.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
momzilla Anonymous
Oh, by the way, I find it rather racist of you to presume that only caucasions care whether their children receive a proper education. Shame you on.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
ch0 Anonymous
I have a job that consists only of doing what I want to do when I want to do it.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Tracy Yost Verified
This is very sad.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Kevin Kunreuther Verified
OH my gosh, we're just gonna' keep lowering the standards for education in this country, lower and lower and lower and lower and coddling and coddling and coddling.
Welcome to the United Stupidity of America, folks.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
chasd00 Anonymous
My fiance's a DISD teacher and she's pretty disgusted. In fact, this year may be her last in DISD. The grading policy is ridiculous but believe me it's just the tip of a huge iceberg.
I say fine the parents of failing students. For every semester your student is not making a passing grade you get cited $200.00. Believe the teacher is unfair? Then plead not-guilty and take it up with the judge.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Tracy Yost Verified
Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good,politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
xdavidwattsx Anonymous
Actually Charles Sykes wrote that in a book. Didn't have anything to do with Bill Gates. There are a few more on the list. One of them even has to do with smoking.
http://www.snopes.com/language/docume...
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Tracy Yost Verified
(knew I should have checked the source, someone emailed it to me and I thought it apropos for this thread...)
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
xdavidwattsx Anonymous
That one was from almost 10 years ago. Crazy that stuff still circulates.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
It's truly spectacular that someone thought this was a good enough idea to actually implement.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rick Yost Verified
DC- I agree. Obviously whoever makes the rules at DISD is an under-achiever as well.
I appreciate my old age most when I think of what the rest of you young folks will have to deal with in the future. Good luck.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
Don't worry, you won't be left out. There'll be plenty of DISD grads operating nursing home catheters in no time.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
DC, what have you got against Yost that makes you want to see him take his own life?
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Catheter will be sooner than later when Yosty opens up a smoke-easy downtown.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rick Yost Verified
What is this obsession with me being catheterized?
And I have a smoke-easy downtown, until the city yanks it from me. Ouch, did I say that? Damn, now you've got me doing it.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
What can we say bud? You have a face that just says "catheterize me."
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rick Yost Verified
Gee, thanks Jason. You're doing great things for my self-image. Not to mention now I'll wonder what people are really thinking when they meet me.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
Well, there's catheterization first, then this:
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Scott Doyle Verified
Pretty sure you'd rather have Jason's representation of your self-image than DC's.
I watched all 8+ minutes btw. I've been on these here internets for awhile, but that vid creeped me out more than most.
vid + DC's avatar = scared. :(
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
Scott outdoes me by an easy 4 minutes.
Yes, DC has shuffled quietly into my "waybackmachine trawl for positive ID" folder.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
DC Anonymous
It's a leek.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Mike Orren Staff
Tim Rogers debunks a lot of misinformation on this story here:
http://frontburner.dmagazine.com/2008...
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
John McClelland Verified
How about they get a 0 and then the parents are called? I know they do that at a school in Plano that my coworker's kid attends. It works very well when you get punished at school for not doing your work, and then punished by your parents on top of it.
It does not make sense to me to have a system in place where you can't fail in class, along side a system of making sure kids can pass a test. How does that work exactly? If they fail in class it is ok, so long as they pass TAKS?
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Tracy Yost Verified
Thanks for the clarification Mike - although it still looks as tho schools have dumbed-down a lot since I was a kid.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Jason Rice Verified
DC - celery vs. leek was the least of our worries.
Rogers' coverage does help, but it also clarifies that these worst case scenarios circulating are somewhat possible. It's a well intended misstep that the jump in accountability happens at 6th grade when parents have about one year of influence to have any affect - if they're lucky. It really does risk relegating elementary school to daycare.
On the up side, yes it will scare families to Plano schools... families that share a general horror at planned mediocrity. We'll take 'em!
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Dallas Spohn Verified
How can you expect a child to do his best if there is no need to push him? How is his work ethic going to be when he is an adult?
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
vinnyv Anonymous
When ISDs do crazy sh*t like this, I have to stop and wonder why.
Then I remember just some of the reasons good veteran teachers like my wife leave this profession every semester.
--Pressure to pass students for statistical reasons --Increased pressure to pass athletes --Overwhelming pressure to pass good athletes (no where is the teacher more alone than on this issue)
--Lawsuits from irate parents setting standards lower for ISDs
--Local administrators' CONSTANT appeasement of vocal parents ("oh, it's ok - we'll give him a 'C' this time...")
--Weak local administrators not capable of disciplining unruly kids
--Taxpayers expecting teachers to raise peoples' kids --Parents expecting teachers to raise their kids --Kids wanting SOMEONE to help raise them (Ma'am, I'm pregnant. What do I do?)
--Policies set by out of touch politicians not willing to help the ISD reach ANY goals
--Making standardized tests priority over LEARNING
--Local administration micro-managing teachers especially with outdated and/or ineffective methods
--Central administration managing by numbers rather than taking an interest in improving the ISD
--Central administration doing everything it can to NOT support the teachers on the front line - let's fence them in with policies than actually HELP them (God forbid!)
--Cowardly teacher's unions not willing to support the teachers / learning / common sense
--...and soooo many other wonderful tales.
My wife's passion was teaching; she was pretty good at it and she still has fond memories. Teaching "her kids" was never the hard part of her job, she left because it was ruined by the adults!!
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Kevin Kunreuther Verified
If I may add commentary from the late George Carlin:
relevant starts at 0:20 mark and moves on at 1:30 mark.
Also if you want to see results of all this dumbing down, please see Mike Judge's Idiocracy.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Rick Yost Verified
So, help me here.
I've been discussing this topic with friends- friends younger than myself. They tell me that public high school is more difficult now than in my day. (I graduated in '74) And how would they know? Yes, I graduated ages ago I know, but I came away able to read, write, and count my money.
Is it really so much harder today to learn the basics? Am I that far out of touch?
I actually spoke to the mother of a high school student who said that the standards her child had to meet were too high.
Enlighten me.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
Pavel Lishin Verified
Rick, I graduated high school six years ago (jesus christ!), and I don't remember it getting any harder. The TAAS was a joke, and then I heard they dumbed it down and turned it into TAKS. I think the hardest part is probably not passing out with a pencil up your nose.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
vinnyv Anonymous
I came of age in the early 90's - a time when our classrooms were having its typewriters replaced with computers (I literally only got to use the typewriter for two weeks). Now, I'll play devil's advocate here and grant that kids may have to learn more about technology and computers and such than we did, but the main courses that they suck at most in this country are subjects that haven't changed much since 'ol man Yost (sorry, couldn't help it) was in school: Reading, Writing, Basic Math, and Science fundamentals.
But I'll be damned if these kids don't kick ass with things like "Grand Theft Auto", "Guitar Hero", MySpace, over-elaborate Texting/IM acronyms, etc. If the Japanese ever find themselves in need of a large mass of witless & self-absorbed video game testers, then this next generation may actually have hope of finding gainful employment.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
David Gouldin Staff
Hey now ... lots of gaming addicts become developers too. :)
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
klue Anonymous
It might BE harder these days. The time we used to get to learn basic concepts and principles and to be taught how to think for ourselves, is all gone now. Replaced by memorizing multiple choice answers for a state mandated test that quizzes you on how much BS trivia you can memorize in a year rather than whether or not your brain actually works. Robot kids who are good at memorizing still do ok, but don't necesarily end up any better for it. The rest fail. If you think things are easier, ask why it is that so many more students are failing to graduate than I would have ever imagined when I was in school. Sure maybe the questions themselves are easier now. But I imagine it was a lot easier for me to answer even the tough ones, because someone had taught me how to "figure out" things I didn't understand, rather than just expecting me to know it all by memory. If you think kids have no work ethic, look at what it is you're asking them to do. Sure, maybe a few are just lazy. But when the MAJORITY of students (over 50%) are neglecting assignments and refusing to studying certain topics, maybe it's because they know, deep down, that it's all a bunch of crap... that they aren't being taught what they REALLY need to know to live in the world as it exists right now. Kids are smarter than you think, maybe they can smell that times are changing and are just waiting for the rest of us to figure it out.
10 months, 2 weeks ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )
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