On Wed, 2 Jul 2003 18:45:48 EDT, "Rosalie B."
wrote:

As a middle school teacher I had to grade on effort expended. In
elementary school the kids were graded on whether they achieved grade
level standards. In middle school it was were they 'working up to
their potential' whatever we perceived their potential to be. I
thought this was a horrible idea. The kids who were bright and didn't
have to work were given poor grades for getting the material easily
and the kids who worked hard but couldn't get it were given good
grades because they tried.

Then when they got to hs, they went back to strict numerical grades -
if you didn't get the numbers you didn't get the grades.

I thought this was very confusing for the kids. I don't think it did
anything for their 'self-image' to go from 'If you work hard you will
succeed' to 'If you don't get 65% on your test you will fail'. It
didn't inspire the bright kids to work harder for sure.

The year that I finished primary school was the year they decided to
not award a Dux of the school but instead a "Most Improved" student.
Considering that I'd topped my class (there were only 2 classes in
each year group) every year of primary school I had a great chance
of getting dux but absolutely no chance of getting most improved.
It's no fairer a way to grade than the other and can actually do
some damage to students if they decide to go the other way and not
work at all because you don't get any reward for it. This is in
effect what I did and my end of high school results suffered for it.

Cheryl