Common Core and What is Coming
I remember from talking to a teacher in Pittsburgh (where coincidentally, this photo was taken), that she told me her school had a "data room" where any teacher in any class could see how every single student was doing AND look up all the data on them - discipline records, F/RL, etc. This appears to be such a room. She said the door was not locked and any adult could wander in there. Would you want other parents seeing this kind of thing?
I see a pink highlight on most of the students in the red section and fewer in the green or yellow sections but I don't know what it means.
From Seattle Education blog, a great video of a 4th-grade mom in Arkansas who uses her three-minutes before her school Board, to explain her deep unhappiness with Common Core. She even gets the board to interact with her (something you would never see here).
Comments
If I saw one of these, even in a LOCKED room, I would be tempted to bring spray paint and put the word PRIVATE across it in BIG letters. In my view, no teacher other than my child's has a right to that information. My child is not the color red. And my other child who does very well at tests, but is very stressed about them (we're opting out of many due to stress) is more than green.
This sucks. Really really sucks.
signed: furious
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/politics/article/Indiana-withdrawing-from-Common-Core-standards-5344481.php
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana is the first state to withdraw from the Common Core reading and math standards that were adopted by most states around the country. (more)
-districtWatcher
States need to hit the pause button and rethink this whole thing.
Ben
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2014/01/29/ind-senate-panel-oks-plan-to-drop-common-core/5013185/
a reader
I haven't seen this on my other kids tests (1st & 3rd grade) - but I don't need to sign & return their tests either. The cover letter comes signed by both the teachers in her grade. Is anyone else seeing this weird grading system? Suddenly this year she is getting 2s in math on her report card when she's always had 3s, and her Map test scores haven't changed much (generally high 80s/low 90s - not to my mind consistent with a 2 on the report card), so I'm thinking at least part of it due to this odd new grading system.
Mom of 4
We are seeing this in middle school as well, but only with some teachers and classes. For 6-8 math, tests questions are categorized into certain standards, and the exceeding standard problems are not expected to be done (! - as opposed to having a test with some hard problems that everyone is expected to attempt). For LA/SS, we're seeing similar standards based grading. They are graded on a strict 1-4 scale, then the teacher translates the number to a percent. There is no in between grade. A 2 is a 75%, a 3 is an 85%, and a 4 is 100%. If you partially exceeded standards, well tough luck, you still get an 85%. It has been very demotivating for my child. Students are given the opportunity to improve grades, but it may mean redoing the entire assignment.
Welcome to Standards Based Grading.
There also seems to be a district wide mandate for teachers to display the particular standard they are covering on a given day. It's posted on the board, or on the lesson. Perhaps the goal is to keep lessons focused on the standards, which seems valuable, yet it would drive me nuts as a teacher. It somehow assumes that teachers wouldn't focus on the standards otherwise.
MSparent
Those with mutual enemies make powerful allies.
Go, Indiana! (I honestly never thought I'd say that in my lifetime.)
--enough already
I'll bet that requirement is one of the many inane BS evaluation elements in the Charlotte Danielson Framework.
The observer can just pop in the classroom, look at the board, and check that box in the eval.
I also wonder what college admissions officers think about standards-based transcripts; are they simply translated into 2=C, 3=B, and 4=A? If so, why not just do that in the first place? It seems like a hoop to jump through for the sake of hoop-jumping, not for any pedagogical purpose.
What will higher ed think of Common Core? SAT scores based on Common Core versus ACT score that are less so?
I have no idea.
However, I think you could probably email Phillip Ballinger, the UW admissions director, to ask how they handle non-traditional transcripts, including standards-based transcripts. I have always found Phillip to be fairly responsive and quite helpful. Simply let him know you're in a class on assessments and you're making a research inquiry.
--- swk
District grading policy requires use of an eleven point weighted grading scale in high school.