7 replies to this topic

[WillRusso]

The many departmental changes occurring at Brooklyn Technical High School may be affecting students just as much as teachers.

Earlier this year, each department was asked to hold a meeting in which every member would agree on a universal department-wide grading policy. For some departments, such as mathematics, whose policy has been 80% test scores, 20% homework/class participation for several years now, this was very easy. For others, this was not the case. This time around, proposing grade ranges was unacceptable, unlike it has been in the past.

The logic behind the decision to standardize grades is that all teachers in a given subject should weigh your work equally. There has also been a recent citywide push towards more standardized grading, unfortunately causing Tech to move in that direction as well.

This decision also brought on the adoption of Skedula, a new grading system that has been in use since the beginning of this school year. Each department’s universal policy has been embedded into this system, meaning there is little to no flexibility when it comes to report card grades. However, many are not happy with the way it has been working.

Prior to Skedula, there has been no online grading system required of all teachers to use. Daedalus is still up and running; its primary function, however, is to deliver final grades to students, rather than provide a detailed class performance for each class.

In this first marking period of usage, Skedula has proven to be no less glitchy than Daedalus. Students have had trouble logging into the system, even after receiving confirmation emails that their usernames and passwords were correct. Teachers who entered grades would find them missing the next day. Some find it hard to adapt their own personal grading policy to the new universal ones, towards which Skedula seems unforgiving.

While Skedula has been described as “not user-friendly,” some concede that with time, it gets easier to operate. Some of the above-stated issues have in fact been solved: students should log in on pupilpath.skedula.com/, rather than skedula.com, and teachers should not enter grades with a weak Internet connection.

Skedula was also adopted to bridge the communication gap between teachers and parents. Rather than waiting for report cards and parent-teacher conferences, parents can now track their child’s up-to-date progress online.

However, as was the case with Daedalus and ARIS, many parents do not check Skedula regularly, and even more do not even know of its existence. Many argue that this makes the whole system counterintuitive. Others believe that its target audience is not the parents but the students, the ones whom the grades actually affect.

Many students are uncomfortable with the personal information available to their teachers, and the sheer quantity of it. Not only embarrassing ID photos, but entire transcripts are available on student profiles, as well as scores from standardized tests in third grade that no one remembers taking. Teachers, while also generally uncomfortable with access to this information, do sometimes find it helpful, and claim that this same information is available on many other websites as well.

Another irksome change for teachers is a new tutoring schedule: certain departments are only allowed to offer after-school tutoring for students on certain days. The days they are not offering tutoring, they are to attend department-wide meetings. This schedule has not been implemented yet and no meetings have occurred; however, meetings will be focused on teacher development.

Declining trends in education have prompted a change in qualifications for teachers. Teachers who received a teaching license in the past were able to keep it for life; now, a teacher must renew his or her license every five years, calling for a few hundred hours of teacher development meetings for renewal.

While in the past, students would get days off of school for professional development days, meetings during school days are now seen as more fit to meet requirements. Meetings are not only after school either; many are during class periods. This marking period, some teachers have had to miss class once a week to attend professional development meetings, or something of the like. Students lose valuable class time and may fall behind in the curriculum because of this.

The new tutoring schedule is problematic because most teachers were previously available for tutoring every day after school, and now they will only be available for two days. The schedule effectively reduces the availability of tutoring by half.

Sweeping changes such as these are made by Tech’s administration, but affect everyone – teachers, parents, and students alike. Hopefully we will get familiar with these new policies, and no more drastic changes will be made any time soon.

[NickC]

Well written. Very objective.

[R. Asher]

Well written but not totally accurate. Let me clarify a few points:

• Departments were asked to follow their grading policy and to make any modifications they agreed upon so the final policy could be posted online.
  
• Skedula was brought in to provide transparency into the grading process and to eliminate subjectivity. While most faculty follow the established grading policy, not all were doing it as required. Using Skedula allows students to see their exact standing in the class and allows parents to keep track of academic progress. Part of the project is to improve communications with parents and students.
  
• The information available to teachers was always available to them thorugh either the program office or using the DOE version of data management software (ARIS).
  
• The "new" tuoring schedule was requested by faculty who do not have enough time to do some of the other tasks they are required to do. We received negative feedback regarding the model including opposition from the teacher union that proposed it, and as a result we decided not to implement it. Tutoring is still four days per week.
  
• The changes mentioned above are not drastic but have been in development over time. There are some other changes pending that will be rolled out for student feedback shortly. These include moving to a 1 point incremental grading policy for grades between 65 and 90 (you can get a 73, 87, etc), possible inclusion of Physical Education into the GPA, and increased course offerings for independent online classes (no class meeting time - just online).

Please continue providing feedback by responding to upcoming surveys and by informing your student goverment so they can appropriately represent the student body.

[Alanmp08]

I say we leave the 5 point increments for scores under 90 and leave Physical Education out of the total GPA.

[WillRusso]

Thanks for the clarifications, Mr. Asher!

[Josh]

It is arguable that since so few people knew how to use ARIS that the information wasn't really available to all teachers.

In a similar vein, there's presumably a difference in the behavior of teachers when the information is readily available to them at all times versus having to go to the program office to request one or more transcripts. I don't think anyone, other than for PSAL-related reasons, would have the gall to ask for 170 transcripts from the program office.

So I still think it's a valid question to ask if it is a good thing that the information is now so readily available to the teachers. Is there a protocol (such as going through the guidance department) for teachers to approach students about their grades in not just their class but other classes as well, or can they do it at their own discretion? Are they allowed to call the student's parents and mention their performance in other classes, perhaps without knowing much about that class, teacher, department, or the slew of other factors that go into a grade? Imagine what would happen if a teacher commented to a parent about a student's performance in another class, and that parent got in contact with the other teacher, and that teacher complained to the department head. Teachers are very territorial. And if the rule exists, what is the process of discipline for a teacher transgressing that rule?

There's a good debate to be had here, and I encourage students at school to pursue it.

[NickC]

Josh, on 16 November 2011 - 10:39 PM, said:

It is arguable that since so few people knew how to use ARIS that the information wasn't really available to all teachers.

In a similar vein, there's presumably a difference in the behavior of teachers when the information is readily available to them at all times versus having to go to the program office to request one or more transcripts. I don't think anyone, other than for PSAL-related reasons, would have the gall to ask for 170 transcripts from the program office.

So I still think it's a valid question to ask if it is a good thing that the information is now so readily available to the teachers. Is there a protocol (such as going through the guidance department) for teachers to approach students about their grades in not just their class but other classes as well, or can they do it at their own discretion? Are they allowed to call the student's parents and mention their performance in other classes, perhaps without knowing much about that class, teacher, department, or the slew of other factors that go into a grade? Imagine what would happen if a teacher commented to a parent about a student's performance in another class, and that parent got in contact with the other teacher, and that teacher complained to the department head. Teachers are very territorial. And if the rule exists, what is the process of discipline for a teacher transgressing that rule?

There's a good debate to be had here, and I encourage students at school to pursue it.

Well said. I personally feel that classes should be independent of each other and guidelines should definitely be set on how to use this data. If I'm doing poorly in AP Physics, the last thing I need is for my Government teacher to see my bad grades in physics and think of me differently and have the mindset that I am not doing well in another class or that I'm "dumb" or a poor student. I strongly believe that classes should be independent of each other. It allows a student to continue doing well in whatever classes they are (sort of like a mental get away from classes they are struggling with) doing well in.

Numbers should not be the sole factor of how a student learns or how much information a student retains. A number, a grade, is just made of up several independent factors in the grading policy that does not take into account who a student really is.

[R. Asher]

While I do not disagree, it also works in the favor of the students when a teacher realizes that the student earns 90's in every other class and that the performance in their class may or may not be being evaluated at the appropriate level.