Dust Devil Weekly

The harrowing events we are seeing around the globe are a stark reminder of the importance of understanding that people are very different, and hold different views and beliefs. If humanity could only come to accept that people’s differences should not be viewed as a reason for conflict, but, rather, as a chance to learn something new about this wonderful planet, we would all be happier, and the world a much more peaceful place. The same is true about our humble, little Middle School. This week we introduced the No Place for Hate pledge to our students. Our goal is to make Joan MacQueen a safe place for every child, where differences do not equal conflict. Our purpose is never to tell a student WHAT to think, but how to navigate a school, community, and world with a wide variety of lifestyles and world views.

We have made it through the halfway point of October, and the end of the first trimester is coming soon (11/3). That means we are already almost ⅓ of the way through the school year. Time sure does fly.

Enjoy this edition of the Dust Devil Weekly!

Last week we established that a grade is a communication tool, which explains to a student and their family how the student is performing against a set of academic standards or Learning Targets. However, many of us probably remember our teachers grading us by categories. We may have had categories such as “Participation,” “Homework,” “Tests,” or “Projects.” Usually the explanation would sound something like this: “Twenty percent of your grade will be based on Participation…” Many teachers still use this practice today. It is very common. But does this system reliably communicate how a student is performing against standards? Usually not.

The core issue is that there are no standards for participation. There is no standard in any content area that covers ‘homework’ as a category. If we truly want student grades to represent what a student knows and knows how to do relative to Academic standards a different way of computing grades has to be implemented.

Another way to think about the problem raised by categorical grading is to consider what the grades actually communicate. What would it mean to have a 96% in “Participation?” How would a student or their family determine how to make up the 4%, or even how the 4% was lost? Students participation and behavior and work habits are communicated in the Citizenship and Work Habits categories.