Teaching Tip #41

Teacherscribe’s Teaching Tip #41

Here is a blog post with a title that I just couldn’t resist clicking on:  9 Elephants in the (Class)Room That Should “Unsettle” Us by one of my favorite people in education, Will Richardson.

Elephant #5 – We know that grades, not learning, are the outcomes that students and parents are most interested in.

Yet, why are parents so caught up in the holy “A” grade average?  I’ve long ago stopped including on grade printouts that I share with parents at conferences the individual scores and grades for each assignment.

It never ceases to amaze me how a parent of a student who has a 96% in my class will gloss over all of the A’s on their grade printout and focus on the one – the one – assignment that is a 0.

Why?

They care more about that 0 than the 96%.  Do they think their kids don’t ever forget an assignment and miss a due date?  Do they think their kids always try their hardest?

I’d like to have the student sit down and look at their parent’s job evaluation.  They could dismiss the “Does great work” and focus on the one infraction the parent was docked for!

And while they focus on the one 0, they – at the same time – will want me to hold their child accountable and want them to learn, yet the obsess over the one 0!