NYT: Teachers can’t hold kids accountable.
NYT: Teachers can’t hold kids accountable.
This New York Times editorial about teaching covers real problems that are collapsing public education, but nothing here is new. These problems were evident the entire time I’ve been teaching, but Covid allowed the wreckers and degenerates to go all in. They are opposed by parent groups, but it’s a tough slog.
Keep in mind that the war is never over. We can’t just stay that public education has failed, because on Monday, 50 million kids are going somewhere.
In the modern era, every public institution has deteriorated and lost credibility. Let’s define the modern era as starting in 1960, when I was born. Is there a public institution doing a better job for the American people? Everything is broken. Schools are a condensed version of the local community. Take the problems in the community, jam them together in undeveloped minds, and that is the student body of a school.
Failure is a bad word — and the kids know it. It takes way more work to hold a student accountable than to simply pass him/her. Even if a kid does nothing all year, we are encouraged to find a way to pass him/her.
Two decades ago, when I taught at Normandy with the excellent principal, Carol Moehring, I came into school one day to see a disappointing message on the message board in front of Normandy.
Third quarter, 80% of our students have at least a B average!
Carol was a wonderful principal. I followed her to North Royalton when the administration at Normandy went sour. When she taught, she was a special ed teacher and didn’t get why that message was not encouraging.
My entire career, I marveled that schools worked at all. For the most part, the only reason there was any integrity is because most teachers maintained a high standard against every incentive.
A decade ago, ‘rigor’ was the trendy new word amongst administrators. At a staff meeting, Principal Osborne announced that “Rigor does not mean that the class is harder.”
I had lovely and intelligent colleagues at North Royalton. We all knew that ‘rigor’ literally meant that the class is harder. Nobody said anything, but every teacher on staff turned to Kelly Tesar. Kelly is an English teacher known for being smart, witty and averse to all bullshit. She is fantastic. Kelly gave a strained smile and slowly shrugged. Subtle, but it killed me.
During the Covid lock-down, NoRo administration had no idea what to do, but they were certain that they didn’t want to be blamed for anything. First quarter was completely remote. Administration had no interest in test integrity or security. Teachers were subtly encouraged to let students cheat their asses off.
After first quarter, we went to a hybrid model. Students who wanted to continue cheating, had the option to remain remote for the rest of the year. I don’t stand behind any final grade that year.
Part of the issue is grade inflation. As Chalkbeat reported last year, “Even as students have taken higher-level courses, their G.P.A.s have steadily risen — from an average of 2.68 in 1990 to 2.94 in 2000, 3.0 in 2009 and 3.11 in 2019.” At the same time, test scores on national exams have dropped or remained unchanged, which suggests that students aren’t actually better prepared in math, English or science than they were 20 years ago.
Like many self-inflicted modern problems, this one is easy to address. Grades are computerized and online. Administrators have access to all student scores on individual assignments in real time. An easy fix would be for administrators to establish a target class average. The smart approach would be establish the target in conjunction with department chairs. If a particular teacher tended to drift too far from the average, the issue could be addressed by the department chair or discussed in the annual teacher evaluation. Within a couple of years, actual scholastic achievement would improve.
Most teachers have a target class average, but we establish the target without guidance. Weaker teachers raise the class average to encourage enrollment in the course. I kept a class average of about 80%. If scores were drifting down for all students in a particular year, assessments could be eased up. If it was a short-term dip, more homework assignments could be accepted or more credit given for labs.
The policies many school districts are adopting that make it nearly impossible for low-performing students to fail — they have a grading floor under them, they know it, and that allows them to game the system.
This is the nobody-gets-a-zero policy. When a school mandates that a 50% is the lowest score for an assignment or assessment, they are rejecting integrity. It’s a lie. It’s dishonest, and it’s school policy.
Some weak-minded teachers buy into the philosophy. Their rationale is along the lines of this response from one teacher.
I see the good in it because you want a kid to be able to dig themself out of a hole, but then again, you didn’t do an assignment. You didn’t do a whole assignment. And should you be getting a 50 for that?
There is no justification for that line of thinking. It keeps students from learning that what they do matters, that slacking off puts you in a hole and that life works better if you keep your shit together.
Tests could be retaken and assignments perfected.
Test retakes were new to me when I arrived at North Royalton. The first chapter test in Physics was usually a sobering event. I tried to help and inform them as much as possible, but some students really didn’t believe me until it happened. When a student asked me, it went like this:
Student: Do you do test retakes?
Me: I don’t know what that is.
Student: We take the test again.
Me: I don’t understand. We will have a test for chapter 3, is that what you mean?
Student: No, we retake the chapter 2 test.
Me: You already took that test. You’ve seen all the questions and I’ve gone over how to solve them.
Student: No, it’s a different test for chapter 2.
Me: Where does it come from?
Student: You make up another chapter 2 test with different questions.
Me: Who grades it?
Student: You do.
Me: I already did all that. You’re the one who screwed up, why should I get punished?
Student: Never mind.
Me: Okay, good talk.
Later on, in an articulation meeting with middle school teachers, Trudy explained about test retakes. My colleagues and I in the Science Department were baffled. Trudy added, “I’m not saying it’s a good idea or that I agree with it, but that’s what it is.
Available data shows that greasing the skids is not improving student performance. It isn’t hard to see the contradictions.
Take the District of Columbia, where the chronic absentee rate jumped 18 percentage points to 48 percent from the 2018-19 to the 2021-22 school year. Over that same period, the high school graduation rate in the district rose to 74.9 percent, from 68.2 percent.
While the absentee rate went from 18% to 48%, the graduation rate went for 68.2% up to 74.9%.
Will any of the soft-boiled eggheads in educational policy care to explain this? We should investigate how high the absentee rate must be to get an 80% graduation rate.
Some parents and students may not value education, but they are smart enough to pick up the trend. Be as pathetic as possible and the school will have to lower the standards. Post-graduation, the defective young adults will demand entry to college, loan forgiveness and a good job. The hot potato gets passed along until someone calls bullshit. At that point, the person may be unsalvageable.
Alternatively, schools could maintain their integrity and evaluate students honestly. We used to know how to do this.
It appears that the North Royalton school board and administration are embracing the elimination of standards and removing accountability from parents and students. I don’t know who or what is behind this trend. North Royalton is a better-off suburb with responsible parents. As with most of these corrosive policies, the wreckers and degenerates are active and motivated, while the vast majority of responsible parents trust the school to continue to provide a top-notch educational experience for their children.
By the time the responsible people notice and mobilize, significant and possibly irreversible damage is done. At North Royalton, since Carol Moehring left as principal, the administration has done little to keep enthusiastic and engaging staff members at a school. When a rock star like Erin Pontikos had concerns, administration suggested she might want to work elsewhere. Our loss was Rocky Rivers gain. Lisa Arvay, the most passionate teacher ever, was challenged at every opportunity. She loved North Royalton as a student and a teacher, but retired on the first day it was feasible. The recent retirement of Kahle Miller was completely unnecessary. She may be the most beloved Chemistry teacher on Earth, but she retired early because she saw where the district was headed.
When North Royalton School District tries to reverse course, those people aren’t coming back. Extraordinary teachers with extensive experience and commitment to students can’t be hired fresh out of school and aren’t available anywhere else.
The Parma City School District went through a rough patch with school board president Kevin Kelley going to jail along with Russo and Dimora. At the time, the school board didn’t care that Normandy principal, Chris Jayjack, drove me and many other staff members out of Normandy. Now that my old Science Department colleague and office mate, Steve Vaughn, is school board president, Parma seems to be implementing accountability and integrity. It has taken a couple of decades to turn things around, but Parma seems to be on the right track. I wish them well.