Faced with soaring Ds and Fs, schools are ditching the old way of grading
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A few years ago, high school teacher Joshua Moreno got fed up with his grading system, which had become a points game.
Some students accumulated so many points early on that by the end of the term they knew they didn’t need to do more work and could still get an A. Others — often those who had to work or care for family members after school — would fail to turn in their homework and fall so far behind that they would just stop trying.
“It was literally inequitable,” he said. “As a teacher you get frustrated because what you signed up for was for students to learn. And it just ended up being a conversation about points all the time.”
These days, the Alhambra High School English teacher has done away with points entirely. He no longer gives students homework and gives them multiple opportunities to improve essays and classwork. The goal is to base grades on what students are learning, and remove behavior, deadlines and how much work they do from the equation.
The changes Moreno embraced are part of a growing trend in which educators are moving away from traditional point-driven grading systems, aiming to close large academic gaps among racial, ethnic and economic groups. The trend was accelerated by the pandemic and school closures that caused troubling increases in Ds and Fs across the country and by calls to examine the role of institutionalized racism in schools in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a police officer.
Los Angeles and San Diego Unified — the state’s two largest school districts, with some 660,000 students combined — have recently directed teachers to base academic grades on whether students have learned what was expected of them during a course — and not penalize them for behavior, work habits and missed deadlines. The policies encourage teachers to give students opportunities to revise essays or retake tests to show that they have met learning goals, rather than enforcing hard deadlines.
“It’s teaching students that failure is a part of learning. We fall. We get back up. We learn from the feedback that we get,” said Alison Yoshimoto-Towery, L.A. Unified’s chief academic officer.
Traditional grading has often been used to “justify and to provide unequal educational opportunities based on a student’s race or class,” said a letter sent by Yoshimoto-Towery and Pedro A. Garcia, senior executive director of the division of instruction, to principals last month.
“By continuing to use century-old grading practices, we inadvertently perpetuate achievement and opportunity gaps, rewarding our most privileged students and punishing those who are not,” their letter said, quoting educational grading consultant Joe Feldman.
The urgent need for change became painfully apparent during pandemic-forced school closures as educators grappled with how to fairly grade students living through an unprecedented disruption to their education. Some of the challenges that students faced were unique to the pandemic. Others had long been present and were more visible.
Suddenly, teachers had an inside view of the crowded home conditions of some low-income students. They saw how some teenagers were caring for younger siblings while trying to do their own work and witnessed the impact of the digital divide as students with spotty internet access struggled to log on to class.
“The COVID pandemic just highlighted across the nation a trend of looking at the inequities in learning circumstances for students,” said Carol Alexander, director of A-G intervention and support for L.A. Unified. “But those different circumstances of learning have always been present.”
Feldman, a former teacher and administrator who wrote the book “Grading for Equity,” had been working for several years with school districts across the country as they reconsidered grading policies. In October and November of the 2020-21 academic school year, he suddenly found himself fielding a “tidal wave” of calls from districts, as teachers issued progress reports and realized that Ds and Fs were skyrocketing.
“Our traditional grading practices have always harmed our traditionally underserved students,” Feldman said. “But now because the number of students being harmed was so much greater, it got people more aware of it and ready to tackle this issue.”
Several school districts across California, reflecting a diversity of demographics, are taking steps toward revising grading with an eye toward equity. Some have formally adopted new policies while others are offering training and support for teachers who want to grade differently.
Last year, West Contra Costa Unified, which is majority Latino, issued a memo encouraging secondary teachers to give students a five-day grace period to turn in work and eliminate zeroes in grade books.
Placer Union High School District, where a majority of students are white, has directed teachers to base grades on “valid evidence of a student’s content knowledge and not...on evidence that is likely to be influenced by a teacher’s implicit bias nor reflect a student’s circumstances.”
In Los Angeles, the district had begun to train teachers on practices including basing grades on whether students are meeting academic standards. But when faced with a flood of Ds and Fs during school closures, officials quickly moved to change policy , giving students additional time to make up work.
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A recent L.A. Times analysis of L.A. Unified’s assessment and grade data showed how grades fell significantly during school closures for students in Los Angeles. The gap in grades that existed before the pandemic between Black and Latino students and white and Asian counterparts widened to as much as 21 percentage points.
There were also significant gaps in the rate of students meeting University of California and California State University admissions requirements, which say students must complete certain courses with a C or better. During the 2018-19 school year, about 59% of students met the requirements. For the class of 2022, about 46% of students are on track to meet the requirements — with a gap of 17 percentage points or more between Black and Latino students and white and Asian students. Officials have said they expect more seniors will meet the requirements before the end of the school year.
Despite the broad decline in grades, educators said the pandemic also showed how giving students extra opportunities led many to improve their marks. In the fall of the 2020-21 school year, after the district directed teachers to give students several extra weeks to make up their work, almost 15,000 grades were improved.
In the recent guidance, teachers were directed to base final academic grades on the “level of learning demonstrated in the quality of work, not the quantity of work completed” and mastery of standards.
“Just because I did not answer a test question correctly today doesn’t mean I don’t have the capacity to learn it tomorrow and retake a test,” Yoshimoto-Towery said. “Equitable grading practices align with the understanding that as people we learn at different rates and in different ways and we need multiple opportunities to do so.”
The district’s guidance says academic grades should not be based on attendance, including unexcused absences, late work, engagement or behavior, which can be reflected in separate “citizenship” or “work habits” marks that do not count toward a student’s GPA.
Students earning Ds and Fs should also have the opportunity to take an incomplete grade in order to have extra time to improve their grade or retake the course for a better grade or credit recovery.
Gary Garcia, principal at John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, said many teachers have been moving toward more equitable grading practices for years. But shifting away from traditional grading to basing grades on whether students have mastered standards is not easy.
“It is a heavy lift, which is difficult in this pandemic time with the challenges teachers face,” Garcia said. “But, I think over time, over the next few years, we’ll see more and more schools adopting mastery grading and learning.”
Gavin Tierney, an assistant professor in the Department of Secondary Education at Cal State Fullerton, who teaches aspiring educators on equitably assessing students, agreed that asking teachers to fundamentally change their approach to grading — which often replicates what they experienced in school — requires more training and support.
“It’s hard work to rethink how we are assessing and grading on a deep level,” Tierney said. “We can’t just say to teachers, ‘do this work.’ Because they’re trying to just figure out how to get through a lesson a lot of times.”
In San Diego, district officials said they were compelled to make changes following calls for social justice in the aftermath of Floyd’s death and the pandemic’s exposure of long-existing racial inequities.
“Our goal should not simply be to re-create the system in place before March 13, 2020. Rather, we should seek to reopen as a better system, one focused on rooting out systemic racism in our society,” the board declared last summer.
Similar to Los Angeles, the San Diego changes include giving students opportunities to revise work and re-do tests. Teachers are to remove factors such as behavior, punctuality, effort and work habits from academic grades and shift them to a student’s “citizenship” grade, which is often factored into sports and extra-curricular eligibility, said Nicole DeWitt, executive director in the district’s office of leadership and learning.
Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, said he thinks some of the changes seem sensible — like giving students a chance to retake tests. But he’s skeptical of others, including removing deadlines and behavior from academic grades.
“The questions that are getting asked here are certainly worth asking,” Hess said. “My concern is that by calling certain practices equitable and suggesting they are the right ones, what we risk doing is creating systems in which we tell kids it’s OK to turn in your work late. That deadlines don’t matter... And I don’t think this sets kids up for successful careers or citizenship.”
Thomas Guskey, author of “On Your Mark: Challenging the Conventions of Grading and Reporting,” said the United States lags behind other countries in modernizing grading.
In Canada, for example, it’s common for students to receive separate grades for academic achievement, participation, punctuality and effort. That makes each mark more meaningful than a grade that is a hodgepodge of factors that can vary from teacher to teacher.
“We in the United States are more bound by tradition in grading than any other developed nation in the world,” Guskey said. Grading reform is not about watering down expectations; it’s about ensuring that grades are meaningful and fair, he said.
“I want us to honor excellence,” Guskey said. “I just want it done in ways that are defensible and not really pitting one kid against the other.”
Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
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Paloma Esquivel is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She was on the team that won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for public service for investigating corruption in the city of Bell and the team that won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for coverage of the San Bernardino terror attack. Prior to joining The Times in 2007, she was a freelance writer, worked in Spanish-language radio and was an occasional substitute teacher. A Southern California native, she graduated from UC Berkeley and has a master’s in journalism from Syracuse University.
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Schools Ditch Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'
The changes aim to measure mastery and account for hardships at home, though teachers say some students are gaming the system.
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Growing number of schools ditching traditional homework
Dive Brief:
Parent and student complaints about the amount of time consumed by homework are leading several schools nationwide to drop the assignments all together.
Many of the schools banning homework are simply requiring kids to read for 30 minutes every night, with California private school VanDamme Academy, for example, calling homework "largely pointless."
Another approach sees schools continuing to assign homework, but not for a grade.
Dive Insight:
Parents have joined their children in bemoaning homework as the assignments have become more time-consuming. University of Arizona South teacher education associate professor and "The End of Homework" co-author Etta Kralovec told Today that while some don't mind their kids being heavily scheduled and focused on school, others want more time with their kids and want them to have more free time to explore their interests.
The National PTA, of course, has a "10 minute rule" that suggests homework take up no more than 10 minutes per night for each year a kid is in school, which Today explains as 10 minutes for a first-grader and an hour for a sixth-grader — amounts of time that are reportedly often exceeded.
Of course, with the rising popularity of models like flipped learning, which places emphasis on assigning short reading assignments or video explanations to students for the evenings, homework as it exists today could be on the way out regardless.
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Some elementary schools are getting rid of homework — and experts say it's OK
Second grade teacher Brandy Young gained national attention in 2016 when a note she wrote to her class parents was posted on social media.
"There will be no formally assigned homework this year... rather, I ask that you spend your evenings doing things that are proven to correlate with student success," she wrote. "Eat dinner as a family, read together, play outside, and get your child to bed early."
Two years later, Young is teaching second grade at a new school, A.G. Elder Elementary School in Joshua, Texas. She is still not assigning formal homework — though she has tweaked her policy a lot, she told TODAY Parents, since she wrote that note.
The no homework policy has worked great, she said, but it has been a learning process for her. Young found out that some of her students really do want homework, for one thing. She will also send work home with a child who needs more practice on a specific skill from time to time, but when she does, she communicates with the parent and sends an answer key to ensure the practice will be effective.
"Also, not assigning homework doesn’t change the fact that the kids who need extra practice the most usually don’t have the necessary support at home," said Young, who has three young boys of her own with her husband Klint. "It’s a battle that educators are used to fighting, and it isn’t going away any time soon."
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Young said her experiences in the classroom for the past two years have only reinforced the idea that effective teaching is all about relationships.
"I want my students to know that I care about them at every second," she said. "I want parents to trust me and let me into their family. I want open communication lines between us so that I can better understand their children and help them succeed."
For that to be possible, Young said, "Student work, regardless of when and where it's done, should be meaningful, engaging, and relevant. No packets ever. Period." Her second grade students approach learning enthusiastically as a result — even at a Title 1 school where nearly 70 percent of the students are eligible for free or reduced lunch prices.
"Kids can conquer mountains when given encouragement, choices, and support!" said Young. "They want and need to be nurtured as a whole child. I believe the no-packet theory supports that effort."
Young was not the first nor the last teacher to implement a classroom policy eliminating homework. In 2017, Marion County, Florida, School Superintendent Dr. Heidi Maier announced she was banning homework for the 31 elementary schools throughout her school district. At the time, Maier said her plan called for "no traditional homework, no work sheets, no endless pages of workbooks. Instead, our children are reading aloud with their parents at least 20 minutes a night.”
A year later, the Ocala Star Banner reported that under pressure from her teachers — 86 percent of whom did not support the ban — and school board members who called the policy "micromanaging" and blamed poor test results in part on it, Maier loosened the guidelines. She is asking that any homework be "meaningful" and not "busy work."
However, Alfie Kohn, author of "The Homework Myth," told TODAY Parents, "It is important to realize that no research has ever found any advantage to any kind of homework before kids are in high school — and newer studies are questioning whether it's necessary even in high school."
Kohn — who has written 14 books covering parenting and education and lectures on those topics at universities, parenting groups, and corporations — is a well-known critic of homework. He said that though some defend the concept of homework as having non-academic advantages like teaching kids responsibility, work habits, or independence, "To the best of my knowledge, not a shred of evidence supports those claims."
What evidence does show, he said, is the disadvantages of homework, some of which parents are already familiar. "It causes frustration, unhappiness, and family conflict; it often makes children less excited about learning and leaves them with less time to pursue other interests and just enjoy their childhoods," he observed.
"But we seem to assume it's worth it to force them to work a 'second shift' after they get home from a full day in school," he said. "We take on faith that the academic benefits must outweigh the substantial costs."
Though many parents support homework, others say they would love for their children's teachers to adopt no-homework policy. Omaha, Nebraska mom Ashley Austrew said she is relieved her first grade daughter has less homework this year than she did in kindergarten.
"Her only homework is whatever she doesn’t get done in class, which I believe is the teacher’s way of saying she doesn’t give homework," she told TODAY Parents. "I am a fan of no homework policies because I think its mostly busy work at this age level and they work hard enough all day."
Julie Burton from Overland Park, Kansas, said she gets annoyed with her fourth grade daughter's math homework even though it is usually just one sheet a night. "If she ever has a question, sometimes we are stumped too," she said. "I feel bad emailing a teacher in the evenings. I’m slightly annoyed at homework in general because I don’t know what the teacher taught."
Kohn said that even small amounts of homework can still be frustrating and damaging to children's attitudes about learning for reasons like Burton's. "The bottom line is that research fails to support the practice of giving any amount or any kind of homework to a 12-year-old, let alone to a 6-year-old," he said. "Making kids unhappy about learning is more likely to undermine than to promote academic excellence."
He encouraged parents to speak up on behalf of their children. "If your child's teacher never assigns homework, take a moment to thank them for doing what's in your child's best interest — and for acknowledging that families, not schools, ought to decide what happens during family time," he added. "If your child is getting homework, organize a bunch of parents to meet with the teacher and administrators — not to ask, 'Why so much?' but, given that the research says it's all pain and no gain, to ask, 'Why is there any?'"
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Why Some Elementary Schools are Ditching Homework and Encouraging Reading
Back to school is right around the corner, and for many students, the outdoor playtime they enjoy right now is at risk of being taken over by hours of homework. Especially for those starting elementary school, continuing to do school work after a long day is a tough concept to grasp. Times are changing, and possibly elementary school students won’t have to sacrifice their playtime after school. In 2016, second-grade teacher Brandy Young announced to parents on Facebook that she would not be assigning any homework. The post went viral, as did the concept. Now more schools are not assigning homework and instead encouraging students to play, eat with their family, and most of all, read.
What research has to say about kids and homework
In a study by Duke University , they researched the impact homework has on students at different age levels. Researchers found that for those in high school and college, homework in moderation had a positive impact. The study says that doing about two hours of homework is adequate enough. They didn’t see much of a difference when students had a heavier load of homework. The study continued to discuss why researchers believe that homework isn’t necessary for elementary schools. Harris Cooper, the professor who led the study, says, “The bottom line really is all kids should be doing homework, but the amount and type should vary according to their developmental level and home circumstances. Homework for young students should be short, lead to success without much struggle, occasionally involve parents and, when possible, use out-of-school activities that kids enjoy, such as their sports teams or high-interest reading.” Their research is encouraging more elementary schools to test out the concept of no homework.
What parents have to say
Ask any student about no longer having homework, and they’ll tell you how excited they are about it. If you ask parents what they think about elementary schools not giving out homework, you’ll hear a mix of opinions. Nebraska mom, Ashley Austrew told TODAY Parents , “I am a fan of no homework policies because I think its mostly busy work at this age level and they work hard enough all day.”
In the same article from TODAY Parents, mother Julie Burton from Kansas says she gets annoyed with her daughter’s math homework assignments. “If she ever has a question, sometimes we are stumped too. I feel bad emailing a teacher in the evenings. I’m slightly annoyed at homework in general because I don’t know what the teacher taught.”
Those opposed are concerned that it will put kids at a disadvantage. Some say that not understanding the concept of homework at an early age will make it harder when they do get to middle school and have to start working on assignments at home. With all the technology and distractions kids have at home, one has to wonder whether they will be able to tune out and focus on an assignment. As this concept is still in the experimental stages, only time will tell.
Why read instead of doing homework
Superintendent Heidi Maier at Marion County Public Schools in central Florida was one of the first in the movement of decreasing the amount of homework in her school district. USA Today reported that she encouraged families to read with their kids every night for at least 20 minutes in lieu of assignments. Maier explained that reading every night will help kids to learn to love reading, which will carry out throughout the rest of their schooling.
Elementary schools may be getting a break from homework, but that doesn’t mean the same for those in college. Our speed reading courses are designed for both students and professionals alike. Check out all of our courses today to find out how speed reading can help you succeed in school.
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Ditching Homework
Penna Dexter
The trend toward de-emphasis on hard work and merit is playing out in large school districts in Nevada, California, Iowa, Virginia and other states. Policies there now require that schools make doing homework optional and give students multiple opportunities to complete tests and assignments. The Wall Street Journal reports that these districts have decided to jettison hard due dates, giving students “more chances to prove they have mastered a subject without being held to arbitrary deadlines.” Students’ knowledge of material is only measured at the end of the term.
This is being done, says The Journal, “ in recognition of challenges some children have outside school” — perhaps a job or caring for siblings. A new theory, equitable grading, purportedly eliminates bias toward students living in stable homes. It relies on students’ “intrinsic motivation” in allowing them to decide when, or if, they will turn in homework.
Clark County, which encompasses Las Vegas, is the fifth largest school district in the nation. Laura Jeanne Penrod, who teaches English there, told The Journal , “intrinsic motivation…is the furthest thing from the truth” for students in her 11 th grade honors class. With an assignment to write a persuasive essay, she would normally require them to first brainstorm the project and then to write a rough draft . Under the new system, students skip these steps without penalty, but they miss out on the teacher’s guidance along the way.
Alyson Henderson, another Clark County high school English teacher says, “If you go to a job in real life, you can’t pick and choose what tasks you want to do and only do the quote big ones.” Samuel Huang, a straight-A student in the district doesn’t like the new system. He sees AP students skipping class until the exam and says “There’s an apathy that pervades the entire classroom.”
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Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'
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| | | have worse interpersonal skills than those of previous generations? Let alone point to data that says on aggregate Millennials and Gen Z workers have bad interpersonal skills? From the teachers I have come across within these 2 generations, they seem to be incredibly intelligent and personable.
You saying that good teachers with robust interpersonal skills are expensive and rare just shows that you haven't stepped into a school recently, or haven't conversed with a teacher for more than 20 seconds.
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(We do however, have lots of studies that show grade inflation is real: )
> From the teachers I have come across within these 2 generations, they seem to be incredibly intelligent and personable.
I wouldn't argue that millenials are dumber or meaner (my generation, btw), but I think it would also be wrong to mistake our expressed sensitivity and aversion for conflict as actual interpersonal skill.
And if we are talking about needing to pay teachers more so that we can attract better skilled teachers, what other skill would we be talking about?
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| | | costs of essentials like healthcare and housing and education have shot up, further encouraging people to maximize income just to not feel .
[EDIT] That is, to keep teacher supply & quality roughly static, I'd have expected Baumol-like increases in the cost of teacher labor (because accessible alternative careers are paying a lot more than they used to) but instead wages have stayed fairly flat, or even slowly fallen in many places, once you take inflation into account.
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| | | | . Of course, parenting patterns have a lot to do with the agency of their children to begin with. So how can anyone, with a straight face, assert that kids are somehow lacking when it's the parents that instill these skills and values into their kids?
You're going to have to do better than polemics.
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| | | features of conversation, while for some that can be grating and wholly . Some see no issue with talking down to service industry employees, while some consider that a grave sin.
That you've avoided answering what notion of "proper" you're interested in discussing this far into the comment thread is telling that you just want to assert your own viewpoint on this inherently subjective matter. It's intellectually dishonest which ultimately makes it irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Standards differ over time and between people.
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In the previous methods where kids actually got credit for doing the work every day, you would have some sense that students were learning order of operations before you moved onto linear equations. You can generally build off of the ideas.
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| | | involves a lot of teacher discretion, to the point where I'm not convinced that a significant amount is being added here.
Also, I'm not sure these teachers would necessarily say the policy is specifically intended to increase equity (as much as that is a priority in general). As one of my professors explained it (I'm a graduate student working towards a teaching degree, so my professors are also K-12 teachers), giving a child a bad grade means they did not master the learning objective. Allowing the child to retry the assignment at least provides an opportunity for them to go back and learn the material.
(For what it's worth, when I become a teacher I don't think I'm going to allow unlimited retries in my own classroom. I'm not sure though—I like some aspects of the idea.)
| | | it doesn't have a bearing on their understanding of a subject, is pretty quickly revealed as an arbitrary waste of time that favours people who are already likely to be able to succeed at it.
Homework to me is just reps, which are only useful because of how things are tested, which aren't terribly useful, but at least if that's explained up-front then you learn that reps are sometimes kind of useful.
People who succeed at homework were raised in a way and lucky enough imo (in that specific context) to be imbued with a sense that everything depends on perfection
| | | his TV shows started and then asked if there was anything else he needed to do because he didn't want his shows interrupted.
But the folks who hate homeschooling and decry it as the work of the devil don't want to hear that chores are a good substitute for assigned homework.
However we do it, taking ownership of a task is something we need to instill in kids.
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Oh, and more controversially, we can't lay parents' attitude and child rearing directly at the hands of the baby boomer generation. The parents of current school-aged children were largely born after the 1980's now.
Yes, people born '40 to '80 are shaping school budgets and curriculum. But they are not shaping how children or their parents behave.
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Schools ditching homework for "equitable grading"
More schools are ditching homework for a new method of "equitable grading." The DMV Zone took to the streets to see how people feel about this idea.
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Schools ditching homework, deadlines for 'equitable grading'
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An Irish school is ditching homework for a month, assigning 'acts of kindness' instead
Despite controversial-but-compelling evidence that homework takes time away from families with little to no appreciable benefit for students, kids continue to slog through hours of school work outside the time they spend in the classroom. And despite evidence that small acts of kindness can infect a community like a positive virus , far too many kids are on either the giving or receiving end of unkind bullying on a regular basis.
Perhaps that's why an elementary school in Ireland has decided to do something radical—ditch all homework for the month of December and assign kids "acts of kindness" instead.
RELATED: Viral stories of people helping strangers pay for groceries are inspiring other acts of kindness
In the weeks leading up to the holidays, kids at Gaelscoil Mhíchíl Uí Choileáin, Clonakilty have been given a kindness task for each weekday. Mondays they are asked to reach out to and communicate with an elderly person. Tuesdays they make a family member's life easier by taking over a chore or helping out without being asked. Wednesdays are for random acts of kindness of any kind, and Thursdays are for doing something kind for themselves to take care of their own mental and emotional well-being.
Students are asked to keep track of their kind deeds in a Kindness Diary. The school has also created a Kindness Bucket, where students can write down and deposit positive observations and affirmations to boost the self-esteem of their schoolmates. On Friday mornings, a random selection of the notes are read aloud for everyone to hear.
In addition, each class will cooperate in a collective act of kindness for the community based on the students' own brainstorming as a team. How lovely.
According to a Facebook post from the school, the students have been doing similar programs in December for three years running. Last year, the focus was on Gratitude, which resulted in "overwhelming success and positivity."
Vice Principal Íde Ní Mhuirí was quotes in the post:
"We are encouraging our pupils to think of the real spirit of Christmas, the spirit of kindness and giving. With such an emphasis on the materialistic and commercial aspect of Christmas, we often tend to overlook what it's really all about…. Good will! Unfortunately not everyone is in a position to be able to enjoy Christmas, some are lonely, some are sad, some might yearn for what they do not have and some might simply not enjoy the festivities. But there is nobody in this world who wouldn't benefit from an act of kindness, and the joy of kindness is that it costs nothing.
RELATED: As a teacher, I used to give tons of homework. Here's why I regret it.
What if schools everywhere did something like this, and not just during the holidays? What if we focused just as much on good character and citizenship as we do on test prep? What if each school took it upon themselves to say, "Being kind is more important than being smart," not just for a month, but always?
The most pressing issues our world faces are not so much due to a lack of intelligence or knowledge, but rather a lack of shared values that compel us to care about one another. Without a foundation of basic human decency and kindness, knowledge and skill-building will only lead to more problems, while focusing more energy on kindness can only help build a better world for all of us.
As the school noted on Facebook:
In this world, consumed by social media, where our young people are constantly experiencing pressure, there is no better way to show them the way forward in the world than by practicing kindness. We all know that helping others makes us feel good about ourselves…. What's not to love about that?!? That feel good factor we experience form helping others cannot be quantified. Our message to the children is very simple: they can be the reason somebody smiles today and they can definitely help make this world a better place for others and for themselves.
How wonderful. Less homework and more kindness all around, please and thank you.
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A 6-year-old designed a custom t-shirt for his first day of school and it's seriously the best
Thank you, Blake, for bringing some much-needed sunshine into our day.
When 6-year-old Blake Rajahn shows up to his first grade classroom on Monday, he will arrive bearing an uplifting a message for his fellow students.
Blake's mother, Nikki Rajahn, runs a custom personalization business in Fayette County, Georgia, and she asked her son what kind of t-shirt he wanted for his first day of school. He could have chosen anything—his favorite sports star's number, a cool dragon, a witty saying—anything he wanted, she could make.
Blake chose something unexpected—an orange t-shirt with a simple, sweet message for the other kids at his school to see. Five little words that might just mean the world to someone who reads them.
"I will be your friend."
Ouch. My heart.
Rajahn shared the story on her business Facebook page :
"I have to brag on my son. I told him that as a back to school gift, I will make him any shirt he would like. It could have anything—a basketball theme, football, etc. which are all his favorites. He thought a while and said, 'will you please make me a shirt that says "I will be your friend" for all the kids who need a friend to know that I am here for them?' Never underestimate your kid's heart for others! I love my sweet Blake! #stopbullying"
Apparently, such a gesture is typical of Blake. "He has always had a heart for others and is very genuine," his mother told Upworthy. She said she's donating part of the proceeds of her t-shirt sales to the Real Life Center, a non-profit that helps families in need in Tyrone, Georgia, all because of Blake.
"During the summer we had a vacation Bible school that he went to," she said, "and they did a toothbrush and toothpaste drive for the Real Life Center. He came home saying we needed to go to the Dollar Store to get some that night. We told him we would go the next day, but he had to use his money for it. He said that was fine, so we asked how much he would like to spend. He said, 'It's for people who don't have any, right?' We said yes, so he very matter-of-fact said, 'Well all of it!' And he did!"
Rajahn said everyone has been very encouraging and people are starting to order their own version of the t-shirt with "#blakesfriends" added to it.
She also shared Blake's reaction to hearing that his shirt idea was starting to spread on Facebook—and again, it's just the sweetest darn thing.
"Ever since I posted about my son and his shirt, I have sold some and told Blake about it. He said, "Oh good! Now more and more people are going to have more and more friends!" He is just so flattered so many want to be his twin too 😊"
Sometimes all a person needs is one friend so they won't feel alone, and Blake going out of his way to make sure kids feel welcomed by him is an example even adults can learn from. If we all reached out to people who might be shy or who might feel excluded , and let them know in some small way that we are open to being friends, what a better world we could build.
This article originally appeared on 8.2.19
People are shocked to learn that 200 years ago we lost the 27th letter in the alphabet
We got rid of it for no good reason..
Woman shocked to learn about the history of the English alphabet.
An eye-opening video on TikTok by @ZachDFilms3 is an excellent example of how language constantly evolves. In a video with over 900,000 views, he explains that the English language had a 27th letter a little more than 200 years ago.
ZachDFilms3 is popular on TikTok for creating videos that explain surprising facts about science and history.
In a video posted on March 6, he surprised many by revealing that the ampersand ( or "&") once came after the letter Z in the English alphabet. “This is an ampersand and believe it or not, it used to be the 27th letter in the alphabet. You see, back in the day, this symbol came after the letter Z and signified the word 'and,’" he shares in the video.
However, incorporating the letter into lessons for English-speaking kids was a problem.
“But when reciting the alphabet, students weren't allowed to just say 'and' after Z. Instead, they were taught to differentiate the symbol by saying 'per se' before it, which sounded something like this: Q R S T U V W X Y Z &. And 'per se &' ampersand."
@zachdfilms3 Why Highway Signs Are Green 🤨
The melding of the words “and per se” eventually led to the strange symbol called the “ampersand.” According to ON Words , other names for the symbol included ampazad and zumy-zan, but they failed to take hold with the general public.
It’s believed that the symbol got its name around 1835, but it ceased to be part of the English alphabet by the late 19th century.
The symbol dates back to over 1700 years ago when Roman scribes wrote in cursive and commonly used the Latin word “et,” which means “and.” So, the cursive combinations of the E and T together came to symbolize “and.” The symbol evolved over decades into the ampersand we know and love today.
These days, the ampersand is relegated to informal English and is mainly used as an abbreviation or in the names of businesses (AT&T, US News & World Report) or partnerships (Simon & Garfunkel, Jacoby & Meyers). However, it’s doing far better than the 5 other letters ditched from the original Old English alphabet recorded in 1011 by the monk Byrhtferð.
In the original Old English alphabet, there were 29 letters, which included the ampersand and 5 additional English letters : Long S (ſ), Eth (Ð and ð), Thorn (þ), Wynn (ƿ) and Ash (ᚫ; later Æ and æ). During that time, 3 new letters were added: J, U and W.
So whenever people get stuffy about new slang that they are using or changes in style or grammar, remind them that language is ever-evolving and that what we accept as standard today may be archaic in just a few decades. As the writer Rita Mae Brown once remarked , "Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going." So, when a language becomes static, it’s safe to say that those who use it have failed to evolve as well.
This article originally appeared on 7.3.24
Fascinating video explains why 'R' is sometimes considered a vowel in the English language ›
A short and sweet explanation of why certain words have silent letters in them ›
Mother of 7 stunned to learn the ‘Alphabet Song’ has been changed to get with the times ›
School responded to a parent's book complaint by reading it aloud to the entire student body
What possible issue could a parent have had with this book.
Schools often have to walk a fine line when it comes to parental complaints. Diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and preferences for what kids see and hear will always mean that schools can't please everyone all the time, so educators have to discern what's best for the whole, broad spectrum of kids in their care.
Sometimes, what's best is hard to discern. Sometimes it's absolutely not.
Such was the case when a parent at a St. Louis elementary school complained in a Facebook group about a book that was read to her 7-year-old. The parent wrote:
"Anyone else check out the read a loud book on Canvas for 2nd grade today? Ron's Big Mission was the book that was read out loud to my 7 year old. I caught this after she watched it bc I was working with my 3rd grader. I have called my daughters school. Parents, we have to preview what we are letting the kids see on there."
The book in question, "Ron's Big Mission," highlights a true story from the childhood of Challenger astronaut Ron McNair, who had experienced discrimination as a child in South Carolina because he was Black. In 1959, when he was nine years old, McNair wanted to check out books at the library, but the librarian told him the library didn't loan books to "coloreds." McNair refused to leave the library until he was allowed to check out books. Rather than give him a library card, the librarian called the police, who ultimately convinced her to just let him check out books.
Seriously, what issue could this parent possibly take with such an inspiring story of a kid standing up to injustice and fighting for the right to educate himself? This was a child who single-handedly changed a library's racial segregation policy and grew up to be an astronaut—a genuine, real-life hero. What is there to take issue with? The parent didn't specify, so we're left to conjecture, but if there's any other possible reason than racism, I can't think of one.
Rockwood Education Equity and Diversity Director Brittany Hogan told KMOX News Radio that after hearing of the complaint, other parents responded immediately in the book's defense.
"They were saying this is amazing that they were buying copies of the book," Hogan said. "One of our parents came out and said she was going to purchase a copy for every second-grader at the elementary school that her children attends."
Hogan called McNair a hero and said, "He deserves to be celebrated. His story deserves to be told to our children. It's important that we continue to move in a space that embeds diverse curriculum."
And the school responded in the best possible way—by announcing the book was going to be read aloud to the whole student body via Zoom. That's how you shut down a bigot. Boom.
Here's Pond Elementary Principal Carlos Diaz-Granados reading "Ron's Big Mission" to students via Zoom and sharing why he thinks it's an important book for kids:
This article originally appeared on 9.18.23
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Pet cockatiel is obsessed with singing 'September' by Earth, Wind and Fire
Kiki remembers the 21st night of september all. the. time. and it's actually quite impressive..
Apparently, "September" is all the rage with cockatiels.
“Do you remember…the 21st night of September?” has been one of the most iconic song openings of the past 45 years, as the R&B hit by Earth, Wind and Fire perpetually serves as a catchy favorite for dance clubs, movie scenes and TikTok clips alike.
However, "September" has also gained wild popularity among an unlikely group— pet cockatiels.
One cockatiel in particular has taken a shining to the song to the point of obsession, to the combined delight and chagrin of his owner. You see, Kiki doesn’t just like listening to the song, he sings and dances to it. Loudly. Over and over. At uncomfortable hours of the morning.
Kiki’s owner has shared multiple examples of her pet bird reveling in his favorite song, and it’s hilarious every time.
@kiki.tiel Send help plz wheres the off button on parrot #fyp #foryou #bird #cockatiel #parrotsoftiktok #birdsoftiktok
"Kiki…it's 7 o'clock in the morning…" Yeah, Kiki does not care. Kiki is feelin' the groove.
This isn't just a one-off and it's also not just a random song. Here we can see that Kiki recognizes it and sings it when his owner plays it. (Just after pooing on her leg— the reality of having a bird, in case these videos make you want one).
@kiki.tiel Babywipes handy at all hours 🫡 #bird #cockatiel #fyp #foryou #september #parrot
But Kiki doesn't even need anyone else around in order to sing his favorite song. Here he is singing and dancing all by himself when his owner left the room and left her camera running to see what he would do.
@kiki.tiel Partying without me :( #cockatielsoftiktok #birds #fyp #for you
As cute and hilarious as this is, it surely gets old after a while, right? It's one thing to watch in a video—it's got to be entirely another to hear it all the time at home.
It's also not just a Kiki quirk. Apparently, "September" is a "thing" among cockatiels. Other cockatiels have been known to love it and sing it, though not quite as well as Kiki does.
Someone on Reddit asked why so many cockatiels love the song —one person even said it was basically the cockatiel national anthem at this point. No one knows exactly why, but this explanation by Reddit user nattiecakes is as good an explanation as any:
" Yeah, cockatiels genuinely like the song in a way they don’t universally take to many other songs. My cockatiel is 17 and early in life basically seemed to max out his harddrive space learning a little bit of La Cucaracha, The Flintstones theme, the phrase 'pretty bird,' and this horrible alarm clock sound that is similar to the hungry baby cockatiel sound. We thought we could not get him to learn anything else because they do have some limits.
Then 'September' came. Every cockatiel loved it. We decided to see if our cockatiel loved it.
I sh*t y’all not, within a DAY he whistled the first three notes, which is really all that matters. He hasn’t been able to learn more, but he loves it.
Now our African grey whistles it to him constantly. He used to reliably whistle La Cucaracha to our cockatiel when our cockatiel would get angry and upset, and our cockatiel would start singing instead and forget he’d been upset. But almost immediately our grey switched to using 'September' 90% of the time. Like, it’s so plain even to our grey that 'September' is the song to unlock a cockatiel’s better nature. I think the grey likes it a lot too, but he has many other songs he likes better.
As for why cockatiels like this song so much… all I can guess is it really resonates with their cheery vibe. I think the inside of a cockatiel’s mind is usually like a disco."
Rock on, Kiki. Just maybe not so early in the morning.
This article originally appeared on 4.16.24
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Video nails 'jukebox brain'—when every conversation triggers a song in your head
Anyone else feel like a walking karaoke machine.
All day long is a sing-a-long.
Most of us know what it's like to get a song stuck in your head , but how many of us spend most of our day with song after song playing in our brains, triggered by the things we or other people say?
Quite a few of us, apparently.
Social media creator Chrissy Allen shared a video on Instagram that is resonating with thousands who "can't have a single conversation without your brain thinking of a song."
Watch and see if this is you:
See on Instagram
"My mind is a literal jukebox," Allen wrote. Same, friend. Same.
Over 18,000 people commented on the video commiserating about being walking karaoke machines.
"I am a teacher and the other day I said, 'Okay everyone stop what you’re doing' and then without thinking said 'Cause I’m about to ruin the image and the style that you’re use to' and the entire class stared at me confused and not knowing what just happened. I then realized I am 50 and my head is filled with old lyrics."
"All the neurodivergent peeps having a mental karaoke session in the middle of conversations 🤣 and we will inevitably say 'could you repeat that?'"
"Her: he was cheating on me, but you know what's really bananas? Me: ...B-a-n-a-n-a-s... I'm so sorry"
"Why am I like this! 😫 The willpower it takes to not sing out loud in professional settings. The struggle is real."
"I can't distinguish an original thought from a verse in a song anymore. Send help."
"Very fluent in song lyrics and movie scenes 😂 "
"Yes. I too have this problem. Lyrics and movie quotes are my language."
"This is me and my husband. We can't have a conversation without being reminded of a song then singing... We were in a harsh disagreement once and I couldn't help but start laughing, it annoyed him until I started singing the song, then he laughed, then we got over the disagreement and went on with our day 😂 "
"My kids 'OH my god!!' Me 'Becky look at her butt!' Then the kids just look at me like something is wrong with me. 🤣 "
Apparently, some of us just have the entire catalog of every song we've ever heard just sitting there on standby until a word or phrase triggers the player to kick on. And yes, it can be a challenge to stop yourself from singing out loud at random times mid-conversation.
There's actually a scientific term for this phenomenon (and the super-related "earworm" phenomenon of having a song playing in your head on repeat). It's called involuntary musical imagery, or INMI, which refers to a "conscious mental experience of music that occurs without deliberate efforts to initiate or sustain it." A study in 2020 found that INMI appears to be a universal phenomenon and that songs with certain characteristics are more likely to be played and replayed in our brains.
“Earworms are an extremely common phenomenon and an example of spontaneous cognition,” the lead study author, Kelly Jakubowski, PhD, told CBS News . “Psychologists know that humans spend up to 40 percent of our days engaging in spontaneous cognition and are starting to try to understand why our brains spend so much time thinking thoughts unrelated to our present task and how such thoughts might be useful.”
While an earworm isn't quite the same thing as having songs on shuffle in your head, there are definitely some song that tend to pop into people's heads and refuse to leave more than others. According to the study, the top earworm songs are:
1. “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga
2. “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head” by Kylie Minogue
3. “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey
4. “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye
5. “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5
6. “California Gurls” by Katy Perry
7. “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen
8. “Alejandro” by Lady Gaga
9. “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga
Terribly sorry for putting those into your brain. (Apparently, Lady Gaga has a special knack for writing songs that stick in the ol' gray matter. Thanks, Gaga.)
The question is, are some of us more prone to INMI than others? Perhaps. According to CBS News, research has shown that being constantly exposed to music and having certain personality traits, such as obsessive-compulsive or neurotic tendencies, can make people more susceptible to earworms. And a small 2015 study found that the size and shape of a person's brain—specifically, the thickness of certain brain regions—affected the frequency with which people got songs stuck in their head.
So those with jukebox brains might just be somewhat special, though judging from the responses to Allen's video there are quite a few of us out there bopping along to the soundtracks in our heads.
This blooper from 'The Carol Burnett Show' is still one of the funniest outtakes in TV history
Emily ratajkowski explains why women are 'obsessed' with pete davidson, gen x has hit 'that stage' of life and is not handling it very well, julie andrews said she could "feel the evil" when she visited the real von trapp house, a woman with dementia adored her haircut. her husband's letter to the stylist is everything., the 3-step harvard conversation trick that makes shy people more likable.
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Schools ditching homework in favor of 'equitable grading'
Quote: Las Vegas high-school English teacher Laura Jeanne Penrod initially thought the grading changes at her school district made sense. Under the overhaul, students are given more chances to prove they have mastered a subject without being held to arbitrary deadlines, in recognition of challenges some children have outside school . Soon after the system was introduced, however, Ms. Penrod said her 11th-grade honors students realized the new rules minimized the importance of homework to their final grades, leading many to forgo the brainstorming and rough drafts required ahead of writing a persuasive essay. Some didn't turn in the essay at all, knowing they could redo it later. "They're relying on children having intrinsic motivation, and that is the furthest thing from the truth for this age group," said Ms. Penrod, a teacher for 17 years.
Quote: Samuel Hwang, a senior at Ed W. Clark High School in Las Vegas, has spoken out against the grading changes, saying they provide incentives for poor work habits. A straight-A student headed to the University of Chicago next year, Samuel said even classmates in honors and Advanced Placement classes are prone to skip class now unless there is an exam.
Quote: Bias can come into play when teachers use a grade as an incentive for behavior, said Tanya Kuhnee, a teacher-support specialist who is helping implement the Albuquerque program. Maybe a student is late because they had to bring their sibling to school. "That has nothing to do with whether they can write a competent, argumentative essay," Ms. Kuhnee said.
Quote: "Classrooms are pressure cookers," he said. With daily deadlines, cheating off classmates can be ubiquitous. "They're now able to relax, say, 'I can have a bad day,' and spend more time on things. It changes the way the classroom feels."
MooreTrucker said: *serfs
Buzzy said: https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/schools-are-ditching-homework-deadlines-in-favor-of-equitable-grading-dcef7c3e non-subscriber Quote: Las Vegas high-school English teacher Laura Jeanne Penrod initially thought the grading changes at her school district made sense. Under the overhaul, students are given more chances to prove they have mastered a subject without being held to arbitrary deadlines, in recognition of challenges some children have outside school . Soon after the system was introduced, however, Ms. Penrod said her 11th-grade honors students realized the new rules minimized the importance of homework to their final grades, leading many to forgo the brainstorming and rough drafts required ahead of writing a persuasive essay. Some didn't turn in the essay at all, knowing they could redo it later. "They're relying on children having intrinsic motivation, and that is the furthest thing from the truth for this age group," said Ms. Penrod, a teacher for 17 years.
Tony Franklins Other Shoe said:
Aggie Jurist said: Can't wait for equitable bridge building and equitable aircraft design.
APHIS AG said: Tony Franklins Other Shoe said:
APHIS AG said: A high school senior was asked about George Washington and who he was. He answered that he was a slave owner and that was it. This is what a public education is teaching kids now days.
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Ditch That Homework: Practical Strategies to Help Make Homework Obsolete Paperback – July 24, 2017
Matt Miller is the author of four books. He has spent more than a decade teaching technology-infused lessons in public schools. As an author, blogger and education speaker, he encourages teachers to free their teaching and revolutionize their classrooms with mindset, techniques and curriculum to serve today's learners. With thousands of subscribers and visitors from more than 100 countries, Matt's blog, DitchThatTextbook.com, is a well-respected source of ideas and insights about educational technology and creative teaching.
Alice M. Keeler
Alice Keeler is a Google Certified Innovator, Microsoft Innovative Educator, and is a member of the K12 Disrupters. Alice has her B.A. in mathematics and an M.S. in Educational Media Design and Technology. She taught high school math since 1999, has taught in the Kremen School of Education at California State University Fresno. She was on the Horizon Report advisory panel for 2013-2016. She has worked on the YouTube for Teachers project and the Google Play for Education project. She designed lessons for Bing in the Classroom. Consulted for Youcubed. Alice is a mother of 5. Areas of interest include gamification, spreadsheets and data, Game Based Learning, Minecraft in education, student-centered instruction and connected educators. Alice is the founder of CoffeeEDU (coffeeEDU.org) which is a one hour unconference get together of educators. Alice regular presents at conferences and schools on technology integration.
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Customers find the book's content useful, chock full of ideas and resources, and refreshing to read. They also say it helps them see as a teacher, what they assign as formative work can be done, and opens up questions to be answered. Customers also mention that the book provides great strategies, suggestions, how-to's, and tools.
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"...They give practical suggestions and a variety of ideas from their own experiences as well as from other teachers that I am able to use in my own..." Read more
"Not a focus on HW specifically. Great suggestions , how-to's, resources and tools. Just dont let the title make you think it's all about homework." Read more
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Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading
Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading' Approach aims to measure mastery and account for hardships at home; teachers say some students game the system
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The National PTA, of course, has a "10 minute rule" that suggests homework take up no more than 10 minutes per night for each year a kid is in school, which Today explains as 10 minutes for a first-grader and an hour for a sixth-grader — amounts of time that are reportedly often exceeded. Of course, with the rising popularity of models ...
AI and mental health crisis fuel renewed anti-homework movement
Dogs may not have anything to eat, but students could feel less stress if more schools reconsider their homework assignment policies.. Why it matters: Conversations about the value of homework in education have simmered for years, but students' mental health struggles and artificial intelligence have pushed it to the forefront. 37% of 13-year-old students said they had "no homework assigned ...
Schools Ditch Homework in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'
Schools Ditch Homework in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'. Sara Randazzo, WSJ April 26, 2023. Feliphe Schiarolli. The changes aim to measure mastery and account for hardships at home, though teachers ...
Teachers, parents just say no to elementary school homework
Two years later, Young is teaching second grade at a new school, A.G. Elder Elementary School in Joshua, Texas. She is still not assigning formal homework — though she has tweaked her policy a ...
Why Schools are Ditching Homework and Encouraging Reading
Why Some Elementary Schools are Ditching Homework and Encouraging Reading. Back to school is right around the corner, and for many students, the outdoor playtime they enjoy right now is at risk of being taken over by hours of homework. Especially for those starting elementary school, continuing to do school work after a long day is a tough ...
Ditching Homework
Ditching Homework. Share . Penna Dexter. The trend toward de-emphasis on hard work and merit is playing out in large school districts in Nevada, California, Iowa, Virginia and other states. Policies there now require that schools make doing homework optional and give students multiple opportunities to complete tests and assignments.
Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'
Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'. Wall Street Journal - 26 Apr 2023 11:30. The changes aim to measure mastery and account for hardships at home, though teachers say some students are gaming the system. Full Article at Wall Street Journal.
Schools are ditching homework, deadlines in favor of 'equitable grading
Schools are ditching homework, ... The kids who aren't performing aren't doing homework either. If you're 35-55 years old, you're a child of the 80s and 90s. You're the old people now, and our perspectives are as out of touch as our 1950s and 1960s parents were.
Schools ditching homework for "equitable grading"
More schools are ditching homework for a new method of "equitable grading." The DMV Zone took to the streets to see how people feel about this idea. Posted April 27, 2023 4:16pm EDT
Schools ditching homework, deadlines for 'equitable grading'
Schools ditching homework, deadlines for 'equitable grading'. Co-host of 'TRIGGERnometry' podcast Konstantin Kisin discusses schools easing standards and no longer grading on merit. Copy to clipboard.
An Irish school is ditching homework for a month, assigning ...
Despite controversial-but-compelling evidence that homework takes time away from families with little to no appreciable benefit for students, kids continue to slog through hours of school work outside the time they spend in the classroom. And despite evidence that small acts of kindness can infect a community like a positive virus, far too many kids are on either the giving or receiving end of ...
Schools ditching homework in favor of 'equitable grading'
Schools ditching homework in favor of 'equitable grading'. Las Vegas high-school English teacher Laura Jeanne Penrod initially thought the grading changes at her school district made sense. Under the overhaul, students are given more chances to prove they have mastered a subject without being held to arbitrary deadlines, in recognition of ...
Ditch That Homework: Practical Strategies to Help Make Homework
Ditch That Homework is a must-have resource for every teacher, providing impactful solutions and alternatives to help students maximize learning during the school day." --Lisa Highfill, co-author, The HyperDoc Handbook "Every day I talk to more educators and parents who are becoming convinced that homework isn't a good way to spend kids' time ...
Ditch That Homework: Practical Strategies to Help Make Homework
In Ditch That Homework, Matt Miller and Alice Keeler discuss the pros and cons of homework, why teachers assign it, and what life could look like without it. As they evaluate the research and share parent and teacher insights, the authors explore some of the benefits for ditching homework: Better education for all students. Reduced stress for ...
"Too Dumb To Fail": Schools Are Ditching Homework & Deadlines in Favor
Last thing I'll mention is, is my schools graduation rate is 90% plus these days. For the first 15-16 years of my career at this school we never broke the 80% barrier. Demographics have not changed. Grading policies and what one has to do to receive a high school diploma have definitively changed.
"Too Dumb To Fail": Schools Are Ditching Homework & Deadlines in Favor
They changed the paradigm by ditching seniority over merit for teachers, allowing very liberal school choice options and maybe most importantly ramping up student performance expectations and inbound teacher quality requirements. ... Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading', Politics and Other Controversies, 235 ...
About MSD
Moscow School District #281 / About MSD. Moscow School District serves approximately 2,175 students in four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and a regional alternative high school. The District is governed by a five member Board of Trustees elected by the patrons of the District. The District provides a program of public ...
COMMENTS
Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading' Approach aims to measure mastery and account for hardships at home; teachers say some students game the system
Faced with soaring Ds and Fs, schools are ditching the old way of grading. Alhambra High School English teacher Joshua Moreno is working to align grades with what students are learning, not on ...
Children attend class at New York City's Yung Wing School, P.S. 124, on September 27, 2021. Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images. But the answer to this homework parenting gap wasn't to provide ...
By 2012, that had shrunk to 22%. But the share of 9-year-olds reporting an hour or more of homework was also down by two percentage points in that same period, from 19% to 17%. The percentage ...
College de Saint-Ambroise, an elementary school in Quebec, is the latest school to ban homework, announcing this week that it would try the new policy for a year. The decision came after officials ...
Schools Ditch Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading' Sara Randazzo, Wall Street Journal April 27, 2023. Annie Spratt. The changes aim to measure mastery and account for hardships at home, though teachers say some students are gaming the system.
Why Some Schools Are Ditching Homework. Michelle Woo. August 10, 2017 A superintendent in Florida became a hero among kids when she recently proclaimed a new policy: No homework all year.
The National PTA, of course, has a "10 minute rule" that suggests homework take up no more than 10 minutes per night for each year a kid is in school, which Today explains as 10 minutes for a first-grader and an hour for a sixth-grader — amounts of time that are reportedly often exceeded. Of course, with the rising popularity of models ...
Dogs may not have anything to eat, but students could feel less stress if more schools reconsider their homework assignment policies.. Why it matters: Conversations about the value of homework in education have simmered for years, but students' mental health struggles and artificial intelligence have pushed it to the forefront. 37% of 13-year-old students said they had "no homework assigned ...
Schools Ditch Homework in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'. Sara Randazzo, WSJ April 26, 2023. Feliphe Schiarolli. The changes aim to measure mastery and account for hardships at home, though teachers ...
Two years later, Young is teaching second grade at a new school, A.G. Elder Elementary School in Joshua, Texas. She is still not assigning formal homework — though she has tweaked her policy a ...
Why Some Elementary Schools are Ditching Homework and Encouraging Reading. Back to school is right around the corner, and for many students, the outdoor playtime they enjoy right now is at risk of being taken over by hours of homework. Especially for those starting elementary school, continuing to do school work after a long day is a tough ...
Ditching Homework. Share . Penna Dexter. The trend toward de-emphasis on hard work and merit is playing out in large school districts in Nevada, California, Iowa, Virginia and other states. Policies there now require that schools make doing homework optional and give students multiple opportunities to complete tests and assignments.
Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading'. Wall Street Journal - 26 Apr 2023 11:30. The changes aim to measure mastery and account for hardships at home, though teachers say some students are gaming the system. Full Article at Wall Street Journal.
Schools are ditching homework, ... The kids who aren't performing aren't doing homework either. If you're 35-55 years old, you're a child of the 80s and 90s. You're the old people now, and our perspectives are as out of touch as our 1950s and 1960s parents were.
More schools are ditching homework for a new method of "equitable grading." The DMV Zone took to the streets to see how people feel about this idea. Posted April 27, 2023 4:16pm EDT
Schools ditching homework, deadlines for 'equitable grading'. Co-host of 'TRIGGERnometry' podcast Konstantin Kisin discusses schools easing standards and no longer grading on merit. Copy to clipboard.
Despite controversial-but-compelling evidence that homework takes time away from families with little to no appreciable benefit for students, kids continue to slog through hours of school work outside the time they spend in the classroom. And despite evidence that small acts of kindness can infect a community like a positive virus, far too many kids are on either the giving or receiving end of ...
Schools ditching homework in favor of 'equitable grading'. Las Vegas high-school English teacher Laura Jeanne Penrod initially thought the grading changes at her school district made sense. Under the overhaul, students are given more chances to prove they have mastered a subject without being held to arbitrary deadlines, in recognition of ...
Ditch That Homework is a must-have resource for every teacher, providing impactful solutions and alternatives to help students maximize learning during the school day." --Lisa Highfill, co-author, The HyperDoc Handbook "Every day I talk to more educators and parents who are becoming convinced that homework isn't a good way to spend kids' time ...
In Ditch That Homework, Matt Miller and Alice Keeler discuss the pros and cons of homework, why teachers assign it, and what life could look like without it. As they evaluate the research and share parent and teacher insights, the authors explore some of the benefits for ditching homework: Better education for all students. Reduced stress for ...
Last thing I'll mention is, is my schools graduation rate is 90% plus these days. For the first 15-16 years of my career at this school we never broke the 80% barrier. Demographics have not changed. Grading policies and what one has to do to receive a high school diploma have definitively changed.
They changed the paradigm by ditching seniority over merit for teachers, allowing very liberal school choice options and maybe most importantly ramping up student performance expectations and inbound teacher quality requirements. ... Schools Are Ditching Homework, Deadlines in Favor of 'Equitable Grading', Politics and Other Controversies, 235 ...
Moscow School District #281 / About MSD. Moscow School District serves approximately 2,175 students in four elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and a regional alternative high school. The District is governed by a five member Board of Trustees elected by the patrons of the District. The District provides a program of public ...