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• Elona Hartjes, MEd Candidate, Ontario Certified Teacher

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What are we to do about high school kids who fail courses in grades nine and  ten and don’t seem to care?  We are being told if a student doesn’t earn 16 credits by the time he is 16 years old, there is an excellent chance the student will drop out of school and not graduate. In the province of Ontario where I teach, high school students are expected to earn eight credits in grade nine and another eight credits in grade 10 for a total of 16 credits.

There’s so much pressure on teachers to do what it takes to get these kids to pass courses.  At the end of the semester when teachers are writing report cards, sometimes teachers are called down to the office and told strongly encouraged by the administration to change a failing mark to a passing mark. The word rigor seems to have no place in these conversations.  Small wonder teachers are disillusioned and discouraged.

High school teachers are always complaining about the social promotion that goes on in the elementary schools where students who fail subjects in a grade still get to go (are socially promoted) to the next grade even though they’ve  failed .  These students come to grade 9 with huge gaps in their knowledge and skill sets. These gaps set students up for failure. I think socially promoting students is morally wrong. We’re not doing students any favors by passing them now when they haven’t mastered course content  just to fail them later because the gaps in their knowledge prevent them from mastering the next grade’s content.  That’s not being respectful of our students.

I know, I know there’s a huge debate about social promotion, about a kid’s self-esteem etc. I actually haven’t seen any studies on the topic of social promotion. I can only tell you what I know from my own personal professional experience. Maybe this summer I’ll search the literature to see what research says and share my findings here.

I teach students who have been socially promoted, and I see many of these students continue to fail and be at-risk academically in grades nine and ten. They often do not earn 16 credits by the time they are 16. Academically at-risk students who continually fail courses are kicked out of regular high school when they reach 18 (legally they have to stay in school until 18) and sent to alternative schools to continue their education.  Some of my students have come back to visit me and have told me that the alternative schools didn’t work for them either. Some students admit it’s their fault they didn’t succeed in high school, but some students blame the school system and certain teachers for their lack of success. They may have a point, but that’s a whole other can of worms.

I’ve been meaning to read Alexander Russo’s Stray Dogs, Saints, and Saviors for some time now and since school is out for the summer, I can.  I’m enjoying it immensely as well as learning a lot about the challenges of school reform. Russo’s  book is about school reform- a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot lately given my frustrations with 16 by 16. Specifically, Russo’s book is the story about the challenges Green Dot and its founder Steve Barr encounter while trying to reform Locke High School in South Central Los Angeles. Surprisingly, I hadn’t heard about the Green Dot story.  It must have been on the news and in the papers.  I don’t know how I missed it, but I did.  I’m certainly going online  to see what I can find to fill in my gaps about Green Dot and Barr.

While reading Stray Dogs, Saints and Saviors, I came across this passage that really spoke to me.

Letting a kid pass a class in which he’d barely learned anything, in the hopes that he’s catch up later and benefit from having moved along, or flunking a kid and making him dig in at least a bit, with the knowledge that such a might not happen? It was a difficult call- and an age-old question. Teachers-and schools-have been passing kids along for decades.( Russo, p. 93).

I naively thought this problem of passing kids along was a problem just in Ontario, Canada. I hadn’t realized that teachers in other jurisdictions are having to make the same difficult calls about passing or not passing academically at-risk students. What happens in schools in other countries like Japan, France, Germany, China, Scotland?  What do they do with kids who really don’t pass? I’d like to know.

photo thanks to dullhunk

There’s lots of controversy about whether or not teachers should assign homework.   I’ve written about the homework question before. My answer to the homework question is it depends on who the students  are.  New research also concludes it depends, but not on who the students are but on what the subject is the students are taking.  Homework in some subjects has little or no impact.

In an earlier post  about homework I argued

For some high school students, any amount of homework is too much. For others, no amount of homework is too much. I’ve had students tell me that they don’t do homework. They’re at school all day long, and they’re not going to take school work home with them at night. School’s school, and home’s home, and apparently the twain should never meet. I’ve had other students tell me they have no time to do homework. They have to work after school to help support the family. Other students tell me they want homework, the more homework the better. They want to do homework so they can earn those high marks that will enable them to get into the University of their choice and have the life they want.

Teachers are divided on the homework issue as well. Some teachers tell me their students should do lots of homework. There’s lots to learn after all, and there isn’t enough time in school to learn it all; consequently, students need to continue school work at home. Other teachers tell me there’s no point in giving homework to their students. Their students aren’t going to do it anyway, so why create more problems?

What do I say? I say that the amount of homework students should do needs to respect who the students are, their life circumstances and their goals. I don’t think a one-size- fits- all homework policy would be respectful of all students. My students who are disconnected from school and are at risk academically and my students who are headed for university need to have different amounts of homework. Students who are disconnected from school and are in danger of dropping out of school aren’t coming to class or working in class. Giving them homework would be pointless. Consequently,  the answer to the question of how much homework is enough is it depends on who the students are.

 

While my decision to assign or not to assign homework is informed by my students’ goals and their life circumstances,  research soon to be published in the journal Economics of Education Review suggests  the decision about assigning homework  should be informed by the subject the student is taking. Researchers determined additional math homework had large and statistically significant effects on math test scores but had little or no impact in science, English and history test scores. The study involved grade 8 students in the United States and used a method that controlled student and teacher traits.

What are we to make of this finding?

Some questions immediately spring to mind.

1. The participants in the study were grade eight students.  Would the findings be the same for students in other grades?
2. The study concluded homework had or did not have a statistically significant effect on test scores?  Is the only purpose of homework to improve test scores?
3. The study was conducted on students in the United States.  Would the data be replicated in other countries with participants of  same age?
4. What is the value of homework in the art, drama, dance or music?

 

I’m certain there are more questions to be asked. I’m also certain  this study will encourage more research on the  topic of homework.

If you are interested in reading the research paper, you can access it here.

What questions spring to mind as you read these results?

 

 

Seventy-two  percent of the 2600 students who took part in a survey sponsored by the Ontario Students’ Trustee Association  students agreed  cell phones should not be used as an educational tool in the classroom because they are such a distraction.  I agree whole heartedly with these students.  Cell phones  are a distraction.

I’ll admit, I was quite surprised  by the results of the survey.  I thought since cell phones now are really micro computers that can access the internet, students would argue  cell phones could be a valuable learning tool in the classroom.  I guess students might still feel cell phones could be valuable learning tools in the classroom but realize the distraction factor is too great and would thwart learning instead of fostering it.

The distractability factor of cell phones in the classroom does concern me and my colleagues. But, that’s only one of the concerns we have about cell phones in the classroom.  We’re more concerned about the fact that students can use cell phones to cheat on tests and exams.  For example,  my students who take my math class in period one could text answers to students who take my other math class in period four. Students in period one could also take pictures of the test using their phones and share them with their peers who write the math test later in the day.  I already create two versions of every quiz and test I give and distribute these two versions strategically to try to minimize any cheating. I  spend far too much time and energy monitoring my students to prevent cheating when they write quizzes and tests. I wish there was some easy way to completely disable cell phones so that they wouldn’t even turn on in classrooms during quizzes and tests.

Any suggestions?

I want my students to reflect on how well or how poorly they prepared for tests. I want my students to think about being better prepared for their next test. Often, they don’t prepare at all beyond the review for the test I do in class. I see this happening all the time. I think my students may intend to prepare for the test, but when they leave my classroom they leave their intentions behind. I’m hoping the test reflection handout I have them complete will encourage them to remember to prepare for the next test. I’m thinking that maybe after completing a half dozen or so of these reflections, the idea of preparing for the next test will stick in their mind. Now that I’m telling you about my plan, I think I might even have them reflect on their quiz preparation as well. Then the idea of preparing should be deeply embedded in their minds and they will remember to prepare. Here’s a copy of the reflection handout.

I have tried to use kid friendly language, you can change it to suit your purposes. Also, this reflection was about a math test ; you can change it to suit your purposes.

Test Reflection Sheet

Name: ________________________________  Date:______________________

How do you feel about your performance on this test? (circle one)

Awesome!!                   Cool                        Lame                                       Get Real

Do you think  you demonstrated what you knew about the topic on this test? Why? Why not?

How much time did you spend studying for this test? I spent about Days ____            Hours ____       Minutes____ studying for this test.

How much of the assigned work did you complete on this topic? All____     Almost all_____  Some_______   Little_______

What would you do differently preparing for the next test?  Why? What would you do the same? Why?

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