Average grade on test 50%

So I dropped her off at school before 7 to meet with her teacher at 7am. My daughter texted me at 7:18 and said the teacher wasn't there. Then texted me back at 7:22 saying she came in at 7:10? how the heck did she even get to talk with her?

The teacher said they had a lovely meeting.

I can tell you -- I am not going to like her.

To be honest there are very few teachers (as a student and even fewer as a parent) I did not get along with -- and I can tell this is going to be one of them that I will not like.

as a poor student (entirely my own fault, i loved learning but couldn't see the value in tests or assignments), i'd have taken the school board to court if my shitty grades had affected the grades of my fellow students

if a kid works hard they deserve everything they worked for, if a kid slacks they also deserve everything they don't work for, if a kid truly needs help they deserve to get help, this averaging thing is crap

I think i wasn't very clear- my daughter's grade was something like 35% an F on the test. Previously with her homework and quizzes she had an A average. This one test brought down her grade so much she is failing the class.

The other students grades did not impact her grade. She took the test and that is how much she got correct.

The other averages are what the other students within her class got on average so the highest grade a student got was a B- all the way down to a 4 or F-. The average overall was an F. My student who got a B- will still get the B-.

My concern especially in an honors level class is how they h*ll did most of the students fail? Obviously they are not learning or else the test is not reflecting their learning? To me the purpose of testing is simply to see if the students are learning - not trying to trick them or anything. If most of the students are failing as a result of failing their test, then the teacher is not teaching them.

Anyay we will see how this pans out-nothing else I can do. My focus is to make sure that my daughter is learning.

That pretty much captures my thoughts as well. For the class to perform this poorly, the test must have been poorly written or the teaching was not adequate. I saw some college tests like this, but they were graded on the curve.

I also went to her open house - basically you follow one day of your child's typical schedule - about 9 minutes in each class where the teacher goes over his/her philosphy, how they teach, their approach, background - pretty much what they would like to share with the parents as a whole.

This teacher did say she changed the grading allocation - so in other words the kids were all getting high grades on their vocab quizzes so it looks likes she assigned them a lower percentage of their overall grade - now they are only 15% of their grade where as before they shared equally as other quizzes, homework 15%, tests 40% and 30% for other written work. So I get the impression she doesn't want them all to get As.

Supposedly she has taught for quite a while, has a certain arrogance about her. She did say one thing I liked that she sets the bar high and has high expectations - I like that, but you do not want to make work so impossibly high that they fail.

My daughter said it was the weirdest meeting with a teacher - she never really went over her test -- she simply said you need to learn to be student. Don't worry about the grades,they will come once you learn to be a student.

So when she asked my daughter if she had any questions, she asked well how to I better prepare for your test next time, what strategies do I need to use to do better in class. The teacher said she plans on talking to the whole class about it.

Great that we all got up extra early to hear crap like being a student - what the heck else she -- maybe teacher needs to learn to be a teacher.

Her softball teammate who is a grade ahead of my daughter, told her to change classes when she heard which teacher she had. But this is the only 10th grade honors english class. According to my daughter many of the kids in class are thinking of dropping down to get out of the class. I didn't recommend it to my daughter - but when the teacher thought it was a good thing for her to come talk her and even was willing to meet with her once a week, I suggested she go ahead and do so. Maybe some of this being a student philosphy will rub off.

ah, i missed that , i thought it was one of those the average of all the grades things, not sure what to say re your daughter, but i stand by my dislike of averaging out marks across the class

Welcome to first few weeks of school.

Everyone gets good grades for the first feel-good quizzes - then the big test comes and wham, reality sets in.

It's meant to be a wake-up call. The teacher is setting standards for her tests.

Your daughter was right in asking how to study for this teacher's tests.

I'm mixed on reading all this. It's possible I'll get the teacher's point, but right now it seems ephemeral.

Well normally I'd think so - but my daughter was warned earlier by an older friend (one that is typically a good student) who had this teacher last year to --- get out of the class! Since this is the only honors class offered for English at her grade level she did not want to change classes.

In one part, I do think it is important to stick it out. She learns how to test/study off this teacher it will only better prepare her for college or higher education (life for that matter) when you will have to deal with these things -- difficult to please people, etc.

She is a steady persistent sort so I know she will work it out. She is also much more level headed than I will ever be so I do trust - I will just need to push her to meet regularly with this teacher - who the one thing I would say positive is she is very willing to do so.

I do get part of the teacher's point of trying to be a student - I think what she is saying is to focus on the learning and understanding and do not get caught up with what grade you received. Easy said than done.

I think she just can't communicate it in a way that the students get it. At least of course this is just on the surface.

Well at least her overall grade moved up to a C as she got 100% on her summer reading assignment - they were to read a biography on someone that inspires them in some way and then write a reflection on it.

Did you have a chance to see the test itself?

No - I asked my daughter for it and she said when she met with the teacher, the teacher took it, and did not return it to her. My guess is she got side tracked and forgot to hand it back to my daughter. I told her to ask for it back today.

I predict she'll be fine in the end. She's going to have to work her tail off in this class, but if she does the work and gets a better understanding of the expectations (which the teacher admits they all need to learn) then she'll do well. I think every school has a least one of those teachers - the ones who are extremely demanding, but end up with successful students who are ready to write good papers once they get to college. M was in a similar situation in her Freshman English honors class. It was a tough, tough slog, but she learned a lot.

thanks - I think so too - but as I said it is easier said than done and more difficult when it is your child seeing them work hard and get a failing grade.

Sometimes she has so much homework and studying she comes home gets a snack and then almost works straight through until dinner time. Then goes and studies some more afterwards until bed with short breaks in between.

This year in particular she has been very mature about it and really hasn't complained - just goes to work on it.

I've had experience with teachers like this one as both a student and a parent and it always seems to be with an honor program.

It seems clear that your daughter's teacher wanted to shock her students with a test that everyone would do poorly on, to take kids used to high grades down a peg, but also to stress her point about learning rather than scoring grades. It can be an effective approach but only if the students have an opportunity to recover from the bad grade earned on this test. Whether or not this teacher approves of it, high grades matter to a kid who wants to get into a prestigious school. Her lesson will be lost on any student who leaves her class with a serious dent in their GPA. Instead of focusing on learning, which is what this woman seems to want to teach, they will be even more focused on getting super grades to make up for the lower one received in this class.

The woman's probably a good teacher, but may not be a great teacher.