Making Up the Grade

This afternoon, I was in the office and ran into the principal. He asked me to talk with him for a few minutes, and, of course, I can't say "No." He wanted to talk about grades, and he had a few rather interesting pieces of information to tell me. First, he did not know what the district policy on grading was. In fact, he wasn't even sure if there was one. It is his first year in the position, so I guess he has an excuse for not knowing. So, he asked the school counselor, who has been around for several years, and she didn't know either. How are these people supposed to enforce district policy if they don't know what it is or if it even exists?!

The other thing he wanted to talk about is that although no one knows if they're following the rules, there is a grading "tradition" at our school handed down from the previous principal and more tenured staff that everyone follows. Part of this tradition is that RSP students can not be given an F. Instead, they get a P for passing. This does not make any sense to me. If they would have gotten an F, then no, they're not passing. These students are called resource students because they are given extra resources beyond what all of our other student receive. Depending on the nature of their disabilities they may get extra time or assistance on assignments, for example. My thinking is that, if they get that extra help, and they still can't manage a D-, then they shouldn't be considered passing. Putting a P on their report card might make their parents happy, but it doesn't help them any. It is not entirely relevant in any of my classes, because as long as they don't get retained, all students go on to freshman English at the high school. But what about in math. Should these kids be promoted to Algebra if they can't understand pre-algebra?

The most asinine point to this whole conversation is that I turned in my quarter grades yesterday. Report cards are already being printed, so I can't change anything. No one had thought it prudent to mention any of this at any of the three new teacher meetings we've had this year. I suppose I could have asked, but what would I say? "By the way, I have some questions about grades. Do you have any stupid grading 'traditions' that I should know about? And are those traditions consistent with district policy? Or do you even have a clue?"

I know that I do not post all that often. You may think that it is because I am so busy at work. In fact, that has nothing to do with it. The real reason I can't find the time to post on a regular schedule is because I have been too distracted by other blogs. Since starting my own blog, I have been perusing the interweb to find some highly entertaining content. So, I thought I would share a few of my favorites with you. That way, you'll be so distracted by looking at those other blogs that you won't have time to miss mine. So, here are the two funniest websites I have ever seen...

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/
This blog lists photos of professionally made cakes that turned out terribly wrong. While the cakes are pretty funny looking, it is the commentary that makes this thing filarious.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/lovelylisting
Here are posted photos that come from real estate listings that really shouldn't have been in there. I keep asking myself, "Do they really expect people to want to buy that?!"