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No one likes an F

November 5, 2008

By JUDY NOY

With reference to the “Local Schools Get Graded” article in your October 2008 issue, no, no one likes an F. Several schools receiving failing grades have been subject to closing or replaced with other schools, some with different staff.

In your article, Chancellor Joel Klein is mentioned as having said in a recent interview with reporters that the yearly grades are a fair and accurate reflection of how each school has performed. Apparently there are differences of opinion since the article also reports that PS 79 teachers called their school’s grade “grossly unfair.” And how can grades be deemed “fair and accurate” when the test scores of students whose first language isn’t English are included when the DOE decides what grade to give the school?

Imagine being in a class in a foreign country and being required to take an exam in a language you didn’t know. While various factors are taken into consideration when grading a school, it’s possible that the more ELL students a school has, the higher the possibility that school will receive a lower grade.

In an August 2007 article, the New York Teacher reported how it was good news that 45.6 percent of eighth graders passed their State math exams. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was quoted as being “ecstatic” over the results. But how is this good news? This translates to mean that almost 55 percent failed. Forty five percent shouldn’t be cause for celebration.

This August, the Daily News reported that “state tests released this summer showed that only 43 percent of eighth graders are proficient in reading.” Even if these percentages are higher than the previous years, it is still a dismal showing. We read about teachers being required to teach the tests (math and reading), sometimes at the expense of other subjects. And still many students are unable to pass.

Some are blaming teachers for students’ poor results. This is totally unfair. While teachers are drumming the subject matter into their students’ heads in class, studying should be the job of each individual student outside of school.

But teachers themselves can only do so much. In some cases, they have felt so pressured that they’ve been caught giving answers during exams. Others have changed failing grades to passing so the student wouldn’t be left behind. This isn’t doing the student any favors since, if they’re passed through to the next grade without sufficient knowledge of the subject matter, they may fall further behind. Passing students through who aren’t ready may be one of the reasons for the high dropout rate by the time they get to high school.

As an incentive to do better, students are being paid to do well on their exams. According to an article in the New York Teacher in August 2007, City

Hall announced the launching of a new two-year pilot program last fall for low  income families from several New York City neighborhoods, offering money to participating parents and students, giving cash to students who did well on the state standardized tests, and to their parents.

When I was a young student attending school, graduating on time and passing all tests and Regents were expected and even taken for granted. It’s shocking that some of today’s kids and their parents have been given monetary incentives and rewards. Has anyone even considered how the students who consistently do well and their parents feel who do not receive compensation?

It may be helpful to keep students together in classes who are at similar academic levels. If students are placed into homogeneous classes, not only could this make a teacher’s job easier, but the teacher can more easily focus on what to spend extra time on. The school should subsequently receive a better grade since there’s a better chance of the students improving their grades.
After all, isn’t that the ultimate goal?

Judy Noy is proofreader for the Mount Hope Monitor.  She resides in Norwood.

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