1/5/98 Marlene Tobin: Portfolios are used to keep parents from seeing student work c:\doc\web\98\01\portf.txt From: WitchyPooy Date sent: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 14:36:53 EST To: education-consumers@tricon.net Subject: Grade Inflation and the major causes ( Very Long, sorry) Organization: AOL (http://www.aol.com) I am a School Board member of a top (or should say use to be top) district in southwestern PA. I am now currently fighting the issue of grade inflation and I need help from all of you. One of the major ways, I believe, grade inflation continues to exist, is the new program and policy growing across the nation, namely portfolios. Our district, and I suspect most of your districts, are now KEEPING all papers, projects, written assingments, and most importantly, test, from going home to parents. Students are given the return of their graded papers and tests in school, asked to review them then turn them back to the teacher at that moment. NO work is allowed to be taken home therefore most parents are not being confronted with grade results or more importantly, the ability to compare the quality of their children's actual written work with the grade they are receiving, not to mention to view what exactly it is they are being taught at given levels. Therefore, parents can't compare " A " work from their day to an "A" of today. They think their children are learning but in fact we all know the truth. This practice started when "portfolios" a "revolutionary new concept in assessment" came into fashion. Instead of keeping one or two "examples" of work, most teachers, and districts have now adopted a policy of keeping "all" work. Of course the parent IS allowed to view the work if they want to and this is the position of most administrations to justify the practice. The reality however, is yes parents are allowed to "view" their childs classroom work if they call the school first, make an appointment with each individual classroom teacher, possibly take off work, and then visit their school. And keep in mind this is per class and per teacher, so if you have Middle or High School students you may be asked to make 5 or 6 trips to cover all teachers, and you may be asked to make more if you have more than one student. And also keep in mind that as papers and tests are taken, you may be asked to do this on a weeky basis, if you truely want to keep up with your childrens work. All in the name of Portfolios...and also, and this is major, the teachers are using computerized , true/false, or Publishers "canned" tests, and they don't want the test floating around the community, in case of cheating. In otherwords, parents have been totally taken out of the loop. When asked to change this, teachers unions in PA have protested in the name of additional work. Yes teachers feel it takes too much time to prepare new tests every year, too much work for them. It is now NOT the role of a teacher to prepare tests. I have questioned why our middle schoolers don't "write" more. And I was told the teachers feel it takes too much time to evaluate written papers so they avoid it. Now keep in mind that our curriculum was written by the very teachers that don't like to correct written work, so how much written work do you think is required in the curriculum? The fox is watching the chicken coop here. My distrct you say! Not on your life, this is happening nation wide, and spreading quickly. Teachers and administrators attitudes regarding their job description have changed dramatically. Computers and technology have allowd this to happen, as well as a society running on mostly false and misleading information. And yet we all sit around and wonder why we are in trouble. Another major issue involved with this issue which is just as important to the "new age PC" educators, is that they do NOT want parents to see what is actually being taught to their children. By keeping all papers, most parents are totally in the dark, not only on their own childrens true progress, but in fact what it is there little heads are really being filled with. This is the true test of a curriculum, if parents think it is worth while. I venture to say that if the majority of parents out there really knew what their children were learning in math, and what that A or B really meant they knew, the parents would RIOT! And this is the tip of the iceburg. How about what the kids are learning in say Social STudies or Family Consumer Science? I believe if the majority of American Citizens could see the Social AGenda of the educators/government today they would be outraged. So you see there are reasons for all of this. None of these practices are accidental. When Portfolios came into being, most parents bought into the idea that they would have some legitimate merit. I defy you to find it. I defy you to find ONE good college that will accept a portfolio above class rank, grades, SAT scores. They won't. But the educators never really thought they would. That was a ruse. Portfolios have done what they really were intended to do, that is keep the parents in the dark about their students "real" progress as well as keep us all in the dark about the true curriculum agenda being taught. And all done by keeping all tests, papers, final projects away from parents. A side note, I am in a district with what use to be a 95% population going on to 4 yr major colleges. At least we did have that....in 5 yrs since OBE and National agendas, we now have 90 out of 250 students in 9th grade needing remedial math. We have no tutoring programs, and we never needed them. OUr parents were our tutors. But now we have students failing state tests and their parents see A and B on report cards and ask why? This is a major problem. And I don't want to hear that the parents have to make it their business to get into the school and find out. This is what the Administrations want. Make it impossible for parents to stay involved and then blame the parents. I am in a major fight with our Administration and teaching staff, and 2/3 of our school board I might add, in trying to get the policy changed so that ALL graded papers, tests, projects, go home with each child to be presented to their parent. This to me is fundamental, but I am in fact being raked over the coals left and right from all involved. Why? What do they have to hide? Some say the child won't take it home, well if the child throws it out, so be it, that is between the parent and the child. The school must do it's part. It is beyond my belief that this is happening. What can you do? I would ask all of you to check at your local High School and Middle School and Elementaries, (sometimes handled differently) to see if this practice is in your school or is considered. I think alot of you will be shocked. I would like a note from you if this is the practice in your district. Sometimes I think the answers to many of the education problems are so simple, but we are just too stuborn to look and accept. Having parents REALLY involved is the key. I don't mean putting a token 2 or 3 parents on a committe to establish curriculum. This is a ploy. This "partnership" idea sweeping the nation is also a ruse. Forget the committees, forget the meetings, and the PTA. Get into your school, take 100 parents and demand to see curriculum and your childs papers. And do it each and every week. Get a group of parents and go to the school board meeting and demand that parents be allowed into classrooms to observe. This is true parent involvement, not sitting on a math committee of 20 teacher and 2 parents. Finally , teachers have told me they are the "experts" as to whether papers should go home or not, whether sex ed should be taught at 4th grade or not, whether the constitution is important to learn or not. Experts? says who? Where did they get that title?. The last time I looked teachers were trained in HOW to teach not WHAT to teach. I can't find a college that teaches a class on any of this, but none the less teachers are really trying to control what use to be considered the "philosophy and standards" of your local community. This is what we give up when we give up local control. I really don't care if there are manditory National Standards as long as my district and all others use these standards as minimums to surpass, not maximums to teach to. But it looks like unless the parents wake up and "riot" our schools will be the major producers of "robots" in this country. Marlene Tobin Pittsburgh, Pa EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE