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VVCU School District 365U
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Author:  Big Chicagoan [ Wed May 09, 2012 1:57 pm ]
Post subject:  VVCU School District 365U
This is Romeoville HS and Bolingbrook HS. Another school district wanting to eliminate grading.

Edit: Email content removed due to confidentiality issues.

Below is the article that the teachers were told to read and learn from.



Focus on Learning, Not Grades
In the Classroom with Brad Kuntz

Brad Kuntz



I used to hear this often from students: "I didn't do very well on the test. Is there any extra credit I can do to raise my grade?" Or: "I'm so close to a B in class, how can I earn some more points?" Less often did students inquire about improving upon a particular component of the unit's content.

The past decades of education have trained students and teachers to focus on grades rather than learning. Unfortunately, grades are generally an account of points earned through various activities that are influenced by artificial deadlines, grade inflation, extra credit, and subjectivity. It's time for us to change the student mind-set currently focused on reaching a particular percentage and instead empower them to take charge of their learning and measure their own success.


Proficiency-based education focuses on specific learning targets and the demonstration of a student's proficiency with the content. It allows students multiple opportunities to prove their understanding, and incorporates flexibility for individual learners rather than pushing all students through the content at the same pace regardless of their comprehension of the material. It creates a partnership between the teacher and student with regard to a student's progress, and it increases a student's ownership of her own learning. At that point, grades actually do indicate what a student has learned and is able to do.

Although entire schools are discussing transitioning to a similar system, it's possible for individual teachers to include the core concepts of proficiency-based learning immediately. First, condense all of the standards you teach into a manageable set of learning targets phrased in a way students can understand. Provide students with a checklist of these targets. Review the targets daily to remind students which ones were covered previously and which ones you'll be working with today. Refer to these targets each time you cover new material. Label all homework and classroom activities with a learning target so students understand the focus and can refer to the appropriate notes for a reminder of how to work with the content.

Engage students in a conversation about what it means to demonstrate proficiency. Give them opportunities to show proficiency with each target as you move through a unit. If a student does not meet a satisfactory level of performance on one target, provide another opportunity, rather than simply recording a poor quiz score in the gradebook and moving on. Before attempting the assessment again, however, the student must come in for additional support, prove he's practiced more, or complete some enrichment activity so that he's not just trying again before he's ready. When students show proficiency on each learning target throughout the unit, they can move to the final assessment of that unit.

With a proficiency-based learning system, teachers can more accurately pinpoint which concepts an individual student is struggling with. It gives order and structure to the content, like a path on a map. Students can clearly see what is expected of them, they can monitor their progress through a unit, and they can self-evaluate their comprehension as they prepare for assessments. If implemented well, a student will no longer ask for extra credit, but rather for an opportunity to demonstrate that she understands the content. She will know exactly what to do in order to reach her academic goals. For the teacher, you can finally speak with your students about their learning rather than their points!
Author:  The Original Kid Cairo [ Wed May 09, 2012 1:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Romeoville. :lol:
Author:  Curious Hair [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Quote:
The past decades of education have trained students and teachers to focus on grades rather than learning. Unfortunately, grades are generally an account of points earned through various activities that are influenced by artificial deadlines, grade inflation, extra credit, and subjectivity.

This isn't wrong. I'm just surprised we're getting any sort of unconventional pedagogy out of fuckin' Bolingbrook.
Author:  C_Howitt_Fealz [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
What an unfortunate name.
Author:  Ugueth Will Shiv You [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:02 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
When college entrance exams and applications start admitting students based on the level of their "effort", let me know.

In the meantime, I'm going to go back to jerking off this unicorn.
Author:  The Original Kid Cairo [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Ugueth Will Shiv You wrote:
In the meantime, I'm going to go back to jerking off this unicorn.

Damn right, I sig'ed this quote. Better bolieve it.
Author:  Bob Loblaw [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:17 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Can't wait for the Bolingbrook Sunshine Academy

Image
Author:  conns7901 [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:19 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Grades are ridiculously inflated in most schools for various reasons. At the same time, if a kid aces every test but doesn't hand any assignments in, should he still get an A? A lot of administrators i know believe that student should.
Author:  Chus [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:23 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Bob Loblaw wrote:
Can't wait for the Bolingbrook Sunshine Academy

Image


The Bob Loblaw law blog....I read it everyday!
Author:  Killer V [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Thats a dum idea.

Hmmm...how should we quantify each student's proficiency level...? I know, perhaps we could associate some sort of letter system!
Author:  conns7901 [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Also, i'm sure the NCAA would love to deal with this.
Author:  Curious Hair [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:31 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
conns7901 wrote:
if a kid aces every test but doesn't hand any assignments in, should he still get an A?

I was that kid, so yes.

Also, crocodile in spelling haha
Author:  Brick [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Sounds like the Superintendent was one of those guys who went through high school saying "I've got street smarts but I don't do well on tests".
Author:  Curious Hair [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Do you make it to superintendent on street smarts, though? Seems like a bureaucratic position that you only get to after having had your grades intensely scrutinized at that and previous levels.
Author:  Brick [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:47 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Curious Hair wrote:
Do you make it to superintendent on street smarts, though? Seems like a bureaucratic position that you only get to after having had your grades intensely scrutinized at that and previous levels.
I would guess that getting to superintendent is as much about being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right people. That's true with a lot of other management positions too.

I doubt he was in high school or college and they said "He's so smart he could be a superintendent one day!".
Author:  Curious Hair [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Boilermaker Rick wrote:
Curious Hair wrote:
Do you make it to superintendent on street smarts, though? Seems like a bureaucratic position that you only get to after having had your grades intensely scrutinized at that and previous levels.
I would guess that getting to superintendent is as much about being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right people. That's true with a lot of other management positions too.

I doubt he was in high school or college and they said "He's so smart he could be a superintendent one day!".

Well, no, but you need at least a master's in most districts, don't you? You have to do a fair deal of by-the-books High Achieving for that.
Author:  Darkside [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
So you're saying that a 3.3 HS GPA isn't that impressive?

Image
Author:  Big Chicagoan [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
It's amazing to me that people want to continue to pump money into education when this is the type of education their children are going to get.
Author:  Curious Hair [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Curious Hair wrote:
Boilermaker Rick wrote:
Curious Hair wrote:
Do you make it to superintendent on street smarts, though? Seems like a bureaucratic position that you only get to after having had your grades intensely scrutinized at that and previous levels.
I would guess that getting to superintendent is as much about being in the right place at the right time or knowing the right people. That's true with a lot of other management positions too.

I doubt he was in high school or college and they said "He's so smart he could be a superintendent one day!".

Well, no, but you need at least a master's in most districts, don't you? You have to do a fair deal of by-the-books High Achieving for that.

Though I mean of course it's right place/right time, too, just that they probably weren't terrible students and in fact probably profited from the very grade inflation this guy is setting out to eliminate.
Author:  Brick [ Wed May 09, 2012 2:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Curious Hair wrote:
Well, no, but you need at least a master's in most districts, don't you? You have to do a fair deal of by-the-books High Achieving for that.
Dumb people can get masters degrees too.

My class advisor in college had a doctorate and messed up my class schedule so badly I had to graduate a semester later.
Author:  conns7901 [ Wed May 09, 2012 3:04 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Lots of dumb people have a masters degree. If people were promoted to higher up positions in education because of what they accomplished and not who they know, things would be better.
Author:  Rod [ Wed May 09, 2012 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
I think that's Jim Mitchem from the DePaul Final Four team.
Author:  Killer V [ Wed May 09, 2012 6:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
I believe they're also removing the goals from their soccer field. They wouldn't want to assign a number to validate the players' proficiency.
Author:  W_Z [ Wed May 09, 2012 7:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Curious Hair wrote:
Do you make it to superintendent on street smarts, though? Seems like a bureaucratic position that you only get to after having had your grades intensely scrutinized at that and previous levels.


Superintendent Chalmers wrote:
And I'll put the "super" back in Superintendent...

it's the same exact joke. What gives, Leo?
Author:  Swingandalongonetoright [ Wed May 09, 2012 9:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
conns7901 wrote:
Grades are ridiculously inflated in most schools for various reasons. At the same time, if a kid aces every test but doesn't hand any assignments in, should he still get an A? A lot of administrators i know believe that student should.


I enjoyed utilizing this method as recently as this past semester. I appreciated being able to do so because there were other things that I needed to tend to. If the teacher writes tests focusing on the more pertinent material and a student demonstrates familiarity with that material by getting an A, that's the entire point of that class. Classes such as Journalism should be homework and deadline-heavy because a big part of that field is meeting deadlines.
The real problem is teachers who aren't serious about helping the students learn the material. One of my classes met once a week from 6pm-9:30pm. I don't think there was one meeting that went past 7:30. The professor ran through notes for the first 30 minutes or so and let a movie do the rest of the talking. This class was such a joke- one assignment at the beginning of the semester entailed watching a documentary on Youtube that he linked to in the syllabus. It was taken down because of copyright issues before we even got to that assignment.
Author:  Phil McCracken [ Wed May 09, 2012 9:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Image
Author:  spanky [ Wed May 09, 2012 9:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U Superintendent Email to Teache
Staying out if this one.


But I used to live in Romeoville. Great little bakery there that made the best cookies.
8)
Author:  W_Z [ Wed May 09, 2012 9:33 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U
of a mixed variety i hear.
Author:  spanky [ Wed May 09, 2012 9:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: VVCU School District 365U
W_Z wrote:
of a mixed variety i hear.

How come we never get any cookies around here?
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