Beyond Grades and Honor Rolls

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Sunday December 08, 2013 · 5:00 AM PST

2013/12/08 · 05:00

Recently an EdWeek blog I hadn’t seen before (K-12 Parents and the Public) caught my eye with this: Florida Mom Balks at Son's Honor Roll Recognition.

Based on this story, it reports on a parent, Beth Tillack, who is very upset that her middle schooler ended up on the honor roll after she had taken away his iPod and computer time for having received a C and D. Turns out those grades were averaged with the 4 A’s he had also received, qualifying him.

“I am furious and appalled," Tillack wrote to Superintendent Kurt S. Browning, according to the (original) article. "Talk about minimum standards! So now instead of losing privileges and trying harder, he ... thinks he has done enough. I am so shocked."

The school responded and is working on a new Honor Roll calculation to include only those with all A’s or A’s and B’s. Both the story and the blog went on to talk about grades and student motivation and changes in how those are being approached.

In the paradigm of grades and honor rolls, Beth Tillack has a point that including Cs and Ds may not be the best way to calculate Honor Roll inclusion.

But my question is, why have grades and honor rolls at all?

Read on.

reconnected for Education Alternatives

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Wednesday September 28, 2011 · 5:00 AM PDT

2011/09/28 · 05:00

Quick. What comes to mind when you hear “Democratic Education?” Pause…

Okay, years ago the first thing coming to mind would be that there was at least a Civics class being taught in the school. Later, I would add that there should be a student government. Then I would have thought that an experiential piece should be included, like a mock presidential election or town hall meeting.

Much later I came to understand that teaching about how our democracy works (even including a “mock” event or a student council with limited decision making) is a pale imitation of the lived experience of democracy. And therein lies the rub.

reconnected

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Sunday August 14, 2011 · 5:00 AM PDT

2011/08/14 · 05:00

Today I watched two short videos about learning to read and write that could not be more different. One is by NIEER (National Institute for Early Education Learning, www.nieer.org) and the other is from an interview series of participants in learner directed democratic education (a particular form first started by the Sudbury Valley School, www.sudval.org).

I would never have guessed 25 years ago when my first child was born that I would end up in such a completely different place that the NIEER video appears all wrong to me now, based on assumptions with which I no longer agree. And that democratic education would make sense to me after living through my own, unexpected, experience of it.

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Beyond Grades and Honor Rolls

Democratic Education: Lifting the Veil

Who Directs the Learning