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School to Review Effect of ‘Effort Grades' on Honor Roll Status
Ohanian Comment: As a longtime teacher, I've always wondered how an effort grade is determined. Crystal ball, maybe? I remember David, who seemed to stare out the window a whole lot--when I wanted him to be working on an assignment. Sometimes I'd get ticked off and grumble to myself, "If he'd only try. Then I'd remind myself how difficult school was for this very bright and creative boy (who had an officially- diagnosed-at-a-Boston-hospital disability as long as my arm) and try to come up with another book that might knock his socks off. One day David found the book: He gave himself the project of reading a dinosaur riddle book. He wanted to read the whole thing. I only teased the class with a riddle a day so he knew there were lots of unrevealed riddles in that book. I have never seen such struggle as the one Brad made with that book. And yes, he still looked up from the pages and stared out the window. And I didn't deign to figure pronounce judgment that he wasn't making effort just because he didn't have his eyes on the page. I didn't then, nor would I now, presume to grade David's effort. It seems to me that is equivalant of passing judgment on someone's soul. In the words of Melville's famous scrivener, I'd rather not. These days people would accuse me of making excuses. In those days we called allowing a child time and space to figure things out--and gaze out the window--good teaching
I would say that the teachers and parents at Hartland school in Vermont are asking entirely the wrong questions about student learning.
Is it the grades that matter, or the effort? Hartland school officials and parents are asking that question after report cards came out recently and left some parents upset and a number of students reportedly in tears.
The problem? “Effort'' grades had apparently knocked some students with straight A's off the high honor roll.
“There were a lot of tears,'' said Val Raney at the school board meeting last week. Another parent, Lisa Brown, said she saw an “astronomical amount of upset kids.'’
In Hartland, middle school students -- grades six, seven and eight -- receive traditional academic letter grades, and a rating of 1 through 5 for effort. An insufficient effort mark can drop a student from high honors to honors, or off the honor roll altogether.
“We realize it's not perfect,'’ said Frank Perotti, principal of the middle school grades in Hartland, of the evaluation system. He described it as a consensus among teachers and administrators at the school.
Problems flared this time, Perotti said, because a long-term substitute teacher not fully familiar with the marking system had given lower effort grades.
At the school board meeting last week, he said “a couple'' of parents and students had spoken to him when report cards came out. Perotti said he made adjustments so students wouldn't be penalized on the honor roll. He said after the meeting that three or four students were affected.
The discussion raised the complexities of rating student performance.
If a student could get high marks with little effort, does that reflect badly on the student, or the teacher and class materials, residents wondered. “Are we going to penalize a child because he's gifted?'’ one parent asked.
School board member B.J. Ocker said it's possible for a very bright child to get high marks while being a class clown. He said in the working world, employees are rated on their effort, adding that detailed standards are helpful. “The key is to take as much of the subjectivity out as you can.'’
Administrators said Hartland teachers have a guide to rating effort, although Judy Callens, principal of the elementary grades, said some subjectivity in grading is inevitable. “I'm not sure it can be totally eliminated,'’ she said.
“The expectation of different teachers is different,'' said Ocker.
Several parents said grades alone should determine places on the honor roll. “You can't get better than an A,'’ said one woman. “You ask them for better effort. For what?’’ she asked.
At their meeting last week, school board members asked Perotti and his staff to take another look at the honors system. Several people at the meeting said they should ask the student council for opinions and ideas. “That's an excellent idea,'’ he said.
Honor roll status isn't just a private matter. In Hartland, the honor roll is printed in the school newsletter and students are recognized at an assembly.
Area middle schools vary in their use of honor rolls. Lebanon Junior High has one, and effort is one of the criteria. Richmond Middle School in Hanover, on the other hand, doesn't compile an honor roll.
Hartford Memorial Middle School has academic and effort honor rolls. Students can be listed on either one, or both, said John Bacon, school principal.
— Dan Mackie
Hartland to Review Effect of ‘Effort Grades' on Honor Roll Status
Vermont Valley News
2003-12-02
http://www.vnews.com/12022003/1438307.htm
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