Another Crazy Teaching Story: The Time I was Forced to Change Student Grades
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- Опубліковано 14 лис 2021
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That assistant principal will soon be superintendent.
For those of you outside the U.S., our schools are rating as *failing* or not according to several criteria. One is if X% of population graduates within 4 years. That % includes students who have transferred but never officially withdrew from school (usu. international kids), students who have just arrived from another country and language (and must take the state exams), and those from any other school, period, despite the majority of grades being earned elsewhere.
I am NOT an admin. apologist, but I was astonished to learn that info.
Sad but true
At the very least, you know they got a fat raise.
Crazy! They really don't care about the students at all, just funding.
Some of it is parents and society. Quality students are rare in my state. I would guess most of the seniors in my city of over two million, would qualify for special ed. Many can't speak and write complete sentences, tell time, read, or do filth grade math. This started way before Covid. The problem is that they think they are smart and intelligent. However, only 21% graduate from college!
@@ratherbfishing455 And the culture of "college bound or bust" over "learn a trade that will actually contribute and feed you" is ridiculous! Ends up pumping cash into institutions that have no heart and are only there as community symbols, producers of expendable young adult athletes, and dream crushing buildings that create poorly organized and manipulated "scientific" studies that grow the next fad in health and wellness. (My apologies and deepest regards to all those that are doing good science and building solid double blind totally transparent studies. You are few and far between in the publish or perish culture. Thank you for fighting for the good of all.)
Getting better funding can provide better education for the students though?
@@ToomanyFrancis I you do things like that to get the funding you are corrupt and also corrupting your children. Because do you think anybody bothers to learn the next year when the word gets out about how the grading is done in this school? And word will always get out. People brag.
@@ToomanyFrancis One needs people to cull the students and not afraid of the students and parents.
I feel for the kids who showed up and did their best. What a kick in the guts for them knowing they may as well have not bothered because everyone was going to get A’s anyway.
It’s about leveling the playing field… if ya can believe that shit!
No. They learned by showing up, paying attention and doing their best. Those who did nothing and didn't exert themselves...they failed themselves.
@@pinkorganichorse And those are the students that will succeed and exceed later in life.
@@michaelwarren2391 which ones? Lol
@@analyticalperson6648 This person gets it. Signed, guy who once got a $500 bonus then promptly laid off after single handedly doubling the entire company's sales with a project no one asked for that I did in my free time
Unfortunately this doesn't surprise me. My second year of teaching kindergarten I had a student that struggled all year. I worked with him, did tutoring for free after school and nothing was clicking. The end of year rolls around and I recommend he be retained. Mom was a bit upset and the administration told me to pass him. I told them that they were welcome to override my decision but my recommendation stayed the same. Luckily after mom had a little time to process the information she withdrew her complaint. We had had regular meetings all year and she knew how much I cared about her son. She chose to retain him and watching him THRIVE the next year was so rewarding.
This needs to happen more often!
So glad for all involved!
... it's kind of insane that kindergarteners need tutoring and failing students though not gonna lie. Like, what, are you docking points on his use of perspective in finger-painting?
@@uchuuseijin so they're expected to read, write, do basic math, sit at a desk for hours, etc at 5 years old
@@natc1008 yeah that's fucking stupid
I teach English at kindergartens in Japan and I would get fired if I kept kids in their chairs all class.
They learn to read and write the basic Japanese alphabet and do basic math but nothing's graded and it's all developmentally appropriate stuff. The whole point of a kindergarten is to ease the children into the concept of school, if a kid is being held back a grade in KG that's a systemic failure
My mom works at a high school that goes to State for football often. Her first couple of years there, admin would tell her to bring football students’ grades up to passing so they could play in the game. She repeatedly refused. Admin would just end up giving the student a schedule change into the classroom of the teacher that grades easily. They finally ended up just not giving her any football students at all. What kind of education is this
this is probably sushi against n policy
This makes me think that all the crappy teachers at my school were kept for reasons like this.
Pretty much how it was 35 years ago when I was in school.
Props to your mom for standing her ground!
I failed people last year since they don't show up for zooms or turn in zero/blank work. Told by admin repeatedly to pass them, nope, and I said, "that mother threatens to take me to the court. I do not want to explain to the judge why I don't give zeros for blank works or fake grades. So whatever her son turns in, whatever grade." Glad they didn't change grades for me...🙄
I had a principal try to coerce me into changing the grade for the PTA mom's kid. Over the course of a week I was 'encouraged' to be extra sure the grade was correct. He had an 'F' in writing and she was hoping for at least a 'B'. I refused. Next she asked to see everything on how he earned that grade. After seeing his work, there was no question he deserved it, BUT she thought maybe a D or C. I refused as that would have given him over 10% bump when other students who didn't have that bonus. Then at next staff meeting she brought up the philosophy of what an F means to students and when we should list an F on their record. At that same meeting as we worked as grade levels she sat with us and asked in front of everybody if I was sure about that grade. I had enough and loudly said "You want me to change his grade? Fine! I'll change it. What grade do you want me to give him?" The look on all the teachers' faces on us was shock and the principal backed off saying "haha, no I don't want you to change his grade. Haha. Just making sure your decided. Haha" She never questioned my grades again.
Nothing shows that you're serious about a matter than doing it in front of a large group of people. People tend to drop whatever the matter is real quick when it gets to that point.
Standing up for what is right is important. Glad you did that!
The Ego of the people in that room are clearly lower than your average Ego.
I question what is the purpose and reason of why we have principals in schools in the first place? Isn’t the purpose of schools to educate kids? Teachers can surely just give all student A’s and no arguments with admin, but what does that teach the kid. And principals can change the grade to if they wanted, in the grading system. So what’s the purpose of the teacher being there then?
I've always thought that a D was worse than an F. The reason being that a D shows genuine dumbness, but an F can be had for other reasons, such as not showing up.
I retired 2020 (not due to Covid; 35 years was enough, announced it in 2019!). That spring of 2020 when we went on spring break and never came back all schools were trying to figure out what to do. Ours first said to contact all students via Google classroom to just keep track; as it went on we were instructed to make meaningful assignments and perhaps try zoom meetings. Then word came down similar to yours: don’t actually grade anything and whatever they had 1st have would be their grade UNLESS they chose to make it higher. Of course all students with half a clue figured out they didn’t have to do any work or tune in on a zoom and they’d at least pass. No accountability and everyone just smiled and we were all heroes. Smoke and mirrors.
This makes me so sad, my county had everything set up the second a single covid-19 bacteria left china's borders. We were learning remotely after a few staff high up pulled an overnighter to turn everything on, if that.
Same. Exact. Story. It was infuriating. So many of us spent so much time trying to create a system that would work in a bad situation, only to be instructed to give them no less than the grade they had the previous quarter. I was livid.
The Tennessee county where I live did NOTHING….ABSOLUTELY NOTHING after shutting down around the first week of March 2020. Was it 2020? Since this horrible nightmare began, I seriously have trouble knowing what season we are in! No online….. absolutely nothing….no education instruction for March, April, May. How in the world was that allowed & who allowed that to happen??? Not hard to explain just how awful the schools are in Tennessee. I’m a former middle school teacher, so I feel somewhat qualified to give my opinion.
This mentality is prevalent everywhere, and exactly the reason we’re falling behind on the world stage. We are seen as weak and incompetent because we’re giving a voice to the weak and incompetent, and changing policies to reflect. We’re encouraging the youth to “develop” into soft, unaccountable jackasses. We’re the national equivalent of a helicopter mom. “Don’t worry honey, you’re all special.” That won’t help once we’ve slid down this slippery slope far enough to be invaded by an enemy that hasn’t been coddled since birth.
The state government in my state passed a law making sure we weren’t allowed to count remote learning grades so of course most of the kids knew.
During online Learning my school made it so the lowest grade possible is a 50%. They said it was only for online Learning. But we are back in person and they are still keeping that in place. In addition they changed the grading scale so a D is now 50%- 62%. They are so happy that our failing rate is at a 0. But yet if you bring up the reason the failing rate is gone, they get pissed at you.
Same here! And all the kids who missed 100+ days of school, who by policy should be retained in their previous grade, are being pushed through and it's now painfully clear this is why we have so many middle school students who can barely handle kindergarten and first grade level English, and why we have such high rates of illiterate high school graduates and have for over 20 years. This isn't new, but boy do they LOVE using the pandemic as an excuse for the "zero failing grades" and "zero retention" functional policies that they know they can't put in writing but they enforce like it's the law.
Damn! Not even good sleight of hard! Just bullshit "you can't see me because my eyes are closed" two year old stuff!
@@KatieCottingham please use your own head you think schools can handle being back up right now and furthermore unless your a really stupid teacher school doesn't prepare you for anything in the real world and 90% of you teachers are lazy self centered assholes both my parents were teachers and good ones nothing you teach is important or prepares them for anything you teach to a standardized test made by lawyers kids are better off being on there own learning there own skills and forming the relationships that will actually support them threw there lives school is waste of everyone's time it was invented in response to napoleon to install nationalism and proganda into the minds of young Austrians in the 1800s use your head and history to see how that turned out notice how they Austria doesn't exsist anymore maybe we should rethink how we teach people since it killed its inventors
@@thewildcardperson Well, you're very wrong.
I teach students a foreign language, and after graduating, many of them send me pictures of the countries they have visited and the friends they have made there where the language I taught them is spoken 😊. So I know damn well they are using what I taught them in the real world 😉.
@@analyticalperson6648 you may teach it but that isn't apart of the main schools teaching directive curriculum what you teach is an elective which is more useful but first to be cut from a school and not apart of its main body
This is crazy and doesn’t make any sense.
We prosecute parents for cheating to get their kids into college but not school administrators for passing everyone with 100 A.
Thanks for sharing. I wish there was more accountability and oversight into the process.
That's because they're "doing it for the good of the children" and "the good of the community", because illiterate high school graduates means that there's a whole generation (second in my area) who have zero chance at skilled trade schools or college but they can be taught to be home health aides and care for the still majority baby boomer population. They created a generation of slaves through illiteracy and zero consequences for bad choices and bad parenting, and they're damn proud of it.
@@KatieCottingham well said let the boomers die
Sure it makes sense. The Teacher's Union gives a lot of money to politicians. That's not a donation. It's an investment.
> This is crazy and doesn’t make any sense.
But it DOES make sense. It makes perfect sense that this environment is precisely what you'd want IF your goal was to destroy a society.
@@yehoshuakahan9336 "school administrators."
This is why I finally left teaching…no integrity! My school has a policy that if they pass with a 60% third quarter, they pass the fall semester. I had students who never showed to even take exams and they passed them. We were also told that we had to accept ALL late work for the semester and the penalty could be no more than 30%. At another school parents threatened to sue over grades and the principal changed them.
Wow 😯, that’s crazy
I left in 2013 because I dealt with all this. Our administrator told us to "just pass them along" in the spring of 2010
During the pandemic, my school wouldn't let us take any points off for late work and we had to accept late work up to a month after the semester was over. I asked them who was going to be grading the late work when my contract was over when summer started lol
I have teenage relatives in high school, and the stories they tell me about how kids act in school now is ridiculous. They aren't held accountable for _anything._ We're creating a nightmare generation of entitled morons who will be completely unable to function as adults. It's disgusting and so very very sad. I was in high school only a decade ago, and I can't believe how much school systems everywhere have deteriorated in that time.
You just had an entitled moron as president who lives in his own reality that he won the election ... he is followed by scared morons in Congress and White Christian Cult members ... so you are surprised by their kids' behaviour in school?
As a first year high school teacher, I can confirm this
Taught a Dual Enrollment class for a college on the High School campus. One student never turned in homework or class work. His highest test grade was 40%. Mid-semester he had a clear F. However, he was a starting football player for his high school. They asked me to change his grade to a C so he could play. I refused. However, the High School gave him a C for the class on his report card. He literally shoved it in my face and bragged about it at the start of class. Once football season was over, they changed it back to an F. His final grade was a whopping 12%. Ironically, he works for the landscaping company that cuts my lawn. He has told me several times how he regrets not even trying because he thought his football coaches had his back.
The irony is how few of those football players ever go on to play for a Big 12 university, let alone go pro. So what’s the point in ruining them academically? A stupid gold or silver ball in the trophy case. Happened at my HS.
@@powers1217 i imagine it brings the school revenue some way. From what i have seen, admin tends to be very lazy about just about everything. So them going out there way to do something is odd.
At my high school, you could go in and complain about an incompetent teacher to try and get them to do something. Didn’t even had to tell them the name of the teacher. Just the subject they taught and they’d be like “ oh, you mean mr. so and so.” The teachers were also given dates of when a supervisor out of school would inspect the class. Those the the only day our AP physics teacher did anything other than play a video in class despite the fact he give massive weekly hw packets to do and expect us to know.
Sports need to be divorced from academia
I saw a student emptying a garbage bin the other day. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me come out of my house! "Miss, you live over here in this nice neighborhood?" I had told him to put his education first. He was on his phone 24/7! The thing is that he will make more than I do with good insurance and retirement if he can last.
@@powers1217 I was told that there are "tutors" for sports when I was in college. Many high school students can't write a complete sentence.
Long long long ago when I taught, some students broke into a teacher’s office (like broke the lock - jeez kids, at least learn a skill like picking a lock!), stole the exam, made copies, and handed out both questions and answers to all students in that class - Senior English. They got off scot free. Parents called it alternative studying.
As did their lawyers. This was before cell phones were really a thing, and you certainly couldn’t take pictures with them. Someone had to physically steal the paper exam/answer suggestions, take it off campus to someplace like Kinkos, then bring it back. And then physically disseminate those paper copies to approximately 125 kids.
Now you see where Alternative Facts came from.
Alternative studying? Wtf?
That is wild!! The fact that the parents supported their kids’ actions is absolutely ridiculous.
I don't blame the kids for doing that when the school system is fucked. They shouldn't have gotten away with it though.
That's like a movie plot
Our school said the pandemic was just too hard and everyone would be passing regardless of work quantity or quality. But still do your own teacher work and your lesson plans, bc it’s important.
Side note: pretty profile pic! Congrats on getting married!
this irritated me too- we're expected to show up and work hard and follow up everything but oh, heaven forbid kids do that, or reap the negative consequences of not doing so. No, it's 'so hard' for them to submit even one piece of work or reply to one email, they all must be given positive report comments and passing grades 😤
@@alexwood3459 Same story here in good old Canada, the great white North.
I was just given an short term contract when the pandemic initially started last March. I had to teach on line. I wasn't given time to prepare, set up Google Classroom, never mind any training on how to use it, I had to learn all of this at the speed of light, all on my own time, after hours. I had to know everything like the back of my hand in several hours. I got the job Friday, I started Monday, I had to have everything ready to go.I was given ZERO resources and assistance by the adm or the f/t teaching staff. It was sink or swim, actually, it is ALWAYS sink or swim in Ontario, Canada in education.
The adm welcomed me by telling me NOT to ask anyone for help as everyone was over their head, ironically she kept telling me that I couldn't find a more supportive staff...NOT! She also told me that I am privileged to have a job...WOW! I had just started, I was broke, still broke.The adm told me that the school community wasn't well off and many of the parents lost their jobs, meanwhile as I was getting to know the kids, they had travelled the world by 10yrs old, their parents were well off, yet they still took advantage of the system...
We teachers,were expected to be on line 24/7 during the initial lockdown. We had to be online from eight thirty to three thirty Mon-Fri and then always on stand by after hours, on line. We had to be available to our "poor" traumatised students from 4pm until the next day, inclusive of weekends. Many students produced ZERO work, yet I was still expected to give them As.How is that fair to those poor students who actually participated, and completed all work tasks? My adm wouldn't allow me to talk about COVID w/ the students, according to her, they were all traumatised...
Education is not valued or seen as a priority in the US.
Exactly, you still need to prep lessons even though the students won't do an ounce of work.....
Back in the days of bubbling in answers on a scantron sheet, I had a student who failed the final miserably and thus the course as well. I was instructed to ‘run their sheet again’ to make sure there wasn’t a machine error … lo and behold, there were obvious erasure marks and the kid passed with a ‘C’. Gee, I wonder how that happened …
He's right. Every teacher has seen this in some form
I had a principal whose kids would routinely get on the honor roll despite the fact that many of their teachers knowing it was mathematically impossible based on the grades they had earned in their classes.
My current school is deathly afraid of parents and has made me change grades (it’s always up, never down for some reason 🤔) because I didn’t have “enough evidence” to support the grade I had given them (despite the fact that I had the failed assessments and logged the relevant missing work cuz that’s how, y’know… you calculate the grade).
Yeah, this has been going on before Covid. Admin & Guidance too often push to meet grad rates.
I saw it as a long term sub last year for the last 10 weeks of school. I was given the directive to bump grades for those close enough. It was a really weird place to be in as I did not know these kids for long. I do know they lost their teacher half way through the school year (with half kids being taught online and in person) so I felt for the kids the most as the stability in the classroom was all over the place the last half of the year, so I fully committed myself to them. The school then tasked me with making phone calls to tell parents their child had failed the class. For parents that had bigger questions than I could answer I directed them to the head of the dept or the director of instruction. It was a very uncomfortable place I found myself in as I had no idea that would be asked of me. I just tried to be a kind human as best I could.
Yep
That's exactly the reason why I quit teaching. I had political pressure to "correct" grades of "important" students.
Now I'm a car mechanic. It's tough, but cars don't mind grades.
And Cars don't have whiny parents too. 😂
@@connordrake5713 Well, some do haha
Same. Now I'm a bike mecanics!
This has been happening for years. It is the equivalent of cooking the books. If a private firm were to inflate their profits, people would be going to prison.
no the wouldnt.. all big corporations/entities cook the books. the govt and churches too.. none of them go to prison lol. its the way of the world sadly and it has always been .... corruption.. look into ANY sector that is profiting money/power and go up the trail far enough and you WILL find corruption
Maybe they’d go to prison. Unfortunately, that’s not always true. But of course they should, because like this, it’s fraud.
Not for a private firm!! Only a pubic one
I'm a college math professor. During the pandemic my dean basically told us to turn a blind eye towards cheating. I've never seen grades so high and now post pandemic we are back in person and collectively the math department has never seen grades so low.
I had a boy that didn't do anything all year (not when online and not when we returned in person). His mom and I were in touch all year (nothing going on in his personal life to cause this, just refusing to do it). Of course, he was failing. The LAST week of the semester I was forced to let him make up work, grade it, allow him to make corrections, regrade it, and round him to a D.
That happened to me a lot and I quit teaching in 2013. That's one of the many reasons I quit
I had a senior who SHOWED UP to school 50 days out of 180 back in 2010. I was forced to pass her.
I sincerely apologize. My daughter fell apart when lockdown kicked in. She was a graduating senior, and I could not get her to do anything at all. Eventually the counselor got involved, and my daughter was allowed alternative online school so she could get the final English grade she needed in order to graduate.
Months later, we finally figured out our girl was suffering from massive anxiety with a healthy dose of depression. She’s doing a lot better now, but I still feel guilt for all those teachers who bent over backwards for her to graduate.
@@MrsWheezer If there's an actual problem, I'm more than happy to help a student. However, this particular student was just being lazy.
@@jennyhammond9261 we thought that was the problem with our daughter. We were wrong.
If I was one of your students and found this out, I'd be pissed. Why should I work my butt off to do all the work and get the same grade as someone else that did nothing?! I would have complained to my parents, the school board and etc. So ridiculous!
This is exactly what happens. Those who care initially, are demoralized by the system that is more rewarding those who try. I know its in the name of not letting kids fail - but sometimes, you fail! If I go to a pizza shop - I expect to get a pizza. Sometimes it's better, sometimes its worse, but I still got dinner. If I don't get a pizza I shouldn't have to pay. If you don't do the work, you should not get "paid" with grades.
This happened to me too many times. One school I worked for, the AP had a “talk” with me about how I have to keep the number of Ds under a certain percentage. They made me change the grades. Then I worked for a college in the program that had a lot of international students. I knew some failed, but they still showed up the next semester enrolled in the next level. I was told the program coordinator fixes grades, so that some students keep their visas.
I’ve seen a lot of illegal things done at schools. It’s sick.
That's exactly what happened in NY. We had to give students whatever their grade was as of March 13, 2019 regardless of the last 20 weeks of school.
This one is college, but we gave a very generous curve in a general education class. So generous that the only way to do it was to manually reassign the letters. To the students, this looked like all students getting an A had 99.99; A- was 93.99; B+ 89.99; etc on down. This made tons of students email and ask us to bump up their grades, since they were so close. Usually, I'd explain what happened and students would understand.
Once, a kid kept arguing that his 93.99 should be an A. I explained, and he kept arguing. Finally, I said, "You want me to round? Okay, I'll make your 83.6 a B. Because that's what you have. "
Somehow, he was okay with his A-
Technically, im my state its illegal for anyone but the teacher to change the grade. I was told everyone got at least a 50. Even if they never did a thing. Then was asked later to up them to 65. I refused.
We were told the first nine week grading period was a minimum of 60, with the following nine week grading periods was a minimum of 50.
We were required at my high school to enter six-week report card grades not lower than 50. That was supposed to allow students to be able to improve their grades later in the year and still pass and not feel early in the year that they had already failed for the entire year. Then for the last grading period, they got what they earned. I suppose it was not a bad deal.
I’ve never changed a student’s grade due to pressure. I’ve had a principal say that 80% of my students in a physics should get an A. It didn’t happen. Had a coach try to get me to change a grade so a baseball player could graduate. Didn’t happen. Had a cheerleader proposition me for a passing grade. Didn’t happen.
Ok
👍
What did you mean she proposition you for a passing grade???
@@seyersusej8329 Probably means exactly what it sounds like.
After not changing grades, was your contract renewed for the next year? Did you have any students sign up for your class at all? You will not be renewed if you surprisingly have no students.
Sadly the same thing happened to me for decades while I was in the classroom. Integrity is lost because you are fighting a battle with admin that you will never win. Students quickly learn the system and behave just as you would expect. And you wonder why so many people feel so entitled to receive anything they want from society without any effort from their end.
Exactly thank you
I started teaching halfway through last school year (January 2021) when I took over for a teacher who decided to retire early. This will be my first full year teaching. Before this (while finishing my degree), I had been a substitute teacher and a paraprofessional (title 1 and SPED) and I grew up with both of my parents being teachers. I also volunteered in my kids' classrooms while I was a stay at home mom. I have spent most of my life in the classroom. And as a first year teacher, I'm just starting to see why all of the best teachers want to leave. That is all I'll say. Sorry for your experiences.
I have recently graduated from college. I acquired my hard earned degree in Elementary School Education with a concentration in mathematics. I was such a hardworking and spectacular student, all the way from middle school until the day that I walked across that stage to collect my magical piece of paper that costs more than 85,000 dollars (mind you: I went to the cheapest university in Denver Colorado). I was always top of the class, and I know for a fact that I would be a spectacular teacher. I have schools calling me wanting to hire me on the spot, yet I can’t seem to push myself to go into a profession that will pay me as much as a bank teller (which is what I am doing in the moment). Hearing all of the horror stories about teaching, as well as my personal experience during residency; I don’t think I’ll ever pursue my actual profession. It makes me sad that teachers are disrespected on all levels. Thank you for shining a light on the several problems that teachers actually have, and major props for doing it in a way that’s entertaining and hilarious. 🙂
Why not tutor?
Yep. I have a Master’s in curriculum and I never did take a full time teaching job. I had a principal want to hire me to teach kids how to pass the math portion of the state mandated tests. That’s when I saw the writing on the wall and noped right out of education.
I do provide free math tutoring for my kids and their friends, though.
Consider a sideline in adult education or something like that. Maybe a class on everyday money management. You'll get students who want to learn, and you can use your education.
I hear you, sister! I teach at a two-year college and actively discourage students from going into the classroom. They will not be respected, trusted, or compensated. My husband, on the other hand, works as a corporate trainer and has noticed a sharp influx of ex-teachers at his interviews. I do not have any advice, but there might be other ways to use that degree more lucratively.
Oh, dear lord, I had a similar thing happen to me! It was at a private high school in Coral Springs, Fl. The owner of the school was changing the low grades I had put in, which the dear students had earned by not doing work/not coming to class/not studying for tests, and changed them to As or Bs (whichever was more believable) so the parents would be happy and keep paying tuition!!! I fought it when I found out, and was subsequently "not renewed" for the next school year. This was back in the late '80s and I was a young, new teacher. But honestly, today, as in right now, in my FL public school district, we were told that no student can ever be assigned a grade lower than a 50, even if they've never come to class, and it's been made known that you should enter those grades so that they receive a 60 (lowest D) as a report card grade, so we have a low failure rate, thus a high graduation rate. Absolutely drop-dead true.
It should be a law that grades given by teachers can’t be changed by someone else, if that’s the case then what’s the purpose of having teachers at the school for? Admin should just write the syllabus for the teachers, and teachers follow, so there’s no arguments or frustration. And if anything refer back to it. The problem is admin don’t follow the logistics and procedures in place. They change the rules of the game however they want when they want, makes it hard on everyone. Because the clear expectations set out in the beginning have now just became unclear and confusing to everyone.
this is fraud. This is like a corporation cooking the books ...
@@marcelvaillancourt7776 these principals, parents and public. Do they understand what they are doing to the child and what kind of message they sending out to the kid, it’s okay to not do work and get paid, thats not how the real world works. These three types of people are actually destroying the country and the future of the kids. Blame these people when the country will face more problems in the coming future. Would you want these types of future adult kids in the operation room with you,? I don’t think so. Maybe the principal will like it when he is in the operation room with one of these irresponsible kid. Don’t pay attention to detail, don’t focus or care on what they are suppose to do for their job..Very unfortunate the US will endure much more self inflicted problems, because of these principals, parents and public.
When I was a high school student my principal got pissed that my French teacher gave a class full of academically-advanced (I’m talking top of the class) students all 90%. She was out on leave after having emergency, major abdominal surgery (a total hysterectomy at age 45), and they never hired a sub for her. For 10 whole weeks. She wasn’t with us for 10 whole weeks, and our principal expected her to give us midterm grades while she was on sick leave.
Just came off of leave After abdominal surgery and because I was out for half the semester I have to give a diagnostic assessment not a final. Not even getting graded. Thanks to modern tech students still learned through Edpuzzle but it never replaces the real teacher.
@@meganparreira2350 you’re a superstar. At least it’s not a final I guess, right? I’m sure some of your students are just as anxious about how they will do as you are. And just to clear something up that was confusing in my original comment I think: we didn’t have to take a midterm. She just had to submit “grades” at the end of the quarter (our classes were only a semester long in high school). She was also expected to give us assignments virtually while she was on leave; I’m pretty sure that’s boarder line illegal. It was a rough way quarter for everyone involved. Nevertheless, we were so happy to have her back, even though she was still feeling nauseous all the time and couldn’t teach much. I hope your kids were as happy to see you.
I was student teaching when everything went online and this is what happened at my intern school too. No student was allowed to fail, even when they did absolutely nothing. My poor mentor teacher was up to her neck in work and was in the middle of raising her newborn child.
I believe we work for the same school district. This is exactly what we were instructed to do by the district.
I am on medical leave now. Years of foolishness has taken its toll.
I was overseeing an after school credit recovery program for kids who were failing so they could avoid going to summer school. I caught two of the students in the program that had completely cheated on some of the work. I took it to the principal, and he asked me if I could create new materials for the students to do to give them another chance....
I just finished my student teaching and all throughout college was encouraged and cheered on my professors about how great teaching is! Maybe it was naive of me but I went into it with rose colored glasses loving the idea of working with students, making connections, and teaching about something I loved. During my few practicum experiences before my internship (which were only a few weeks long due to covid) I definitely did not get a realistic portrayal of teaching. They stuck me in a GT class with 10 kids in order to experience being a teacher (crazy how unrealistic that is). Now after graduating and after having experienced what is actually happening in schools, I am seriously considering not going into teaching. The more I think about it, I don’t know if I can justify myself going into this profession even though it’s everything I’ve been working towards for the past five years which hurts and is embarrassing to admit!!
Stay away. Stay far away. In our part of Canada a teacher has a 50 percent chance of a burnout in their first ten years of teaching. The professional drop out rate according to the Ontario College of Teachers (I have a professional designation here in Ontario just like lawyers, accountants, et ... it takes six years of post secondary education plus six more university courses to be fully accredited ..) the drop rate is 23% after five years in the profession (note: profession not job, not vocation, a professional like other professions). Imagine if one out of four accountants, doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers quit after five years ... there would be a societal outcry and things would change because these are still male dominated and managed professions.
As a nurse this has a similar vibe to the absolutely insane things that go on in healthcare. For us this would be like falsifying documentation (which is illegal) but I know people who have been asked to do it!
This is both not surprisingly and absolutely infuriating for our countries future
/country's/
@@fylosofer Way to be a nit-picking asshole. You got what he meant.
Grading is infuriating to me. Why is the lowest grade I can give a 50%? You mean to tell me that if one student turns in a paper completed but gets 5/10 they can get the SAME SCORE as someone who didn’t even do it, I literally have to spike everyone else’s grades to make it fair
When I started teaching my mom suggested that as a thing to do on the 6 weeks grades. She said a 50 is still failing, but it also allowed students the chance to pass for the year if they made a big turn around later in the year. Sometimes things go wrong, but I think kids should always be given the chance to recover from short sighted mistakes.
@@SarahBethMac I’ve heard that a lot, but it makes it too easy to cheat the system. I prefer to work with my students on an individual plan if they really want to turn things around. Sometimes this means changing an old grade for every new “good” grade they get, or sometimes it means looking at a curve and ignoring the lowest 10% of their grades provided the curve slopes up at the end. Regardless, I want them to show me they are serious about improving. For students who prove that they really do want to change, I’m happy to make some gradebook magic happen at the end of the semester/year. But many of them don’t want to put in any effort.
I’m convinced grades only matter to 3 people: the few students who care, teachers, and those involved in ratings/funding.
I've gotten "I'm concerned about 's grade in your class" thousands of times.
I've never gotten "I'm concerned about how well understands logarithmic functions." Not even once.
I'm assuming it's the same way for the students. They've heard "What did you get on the test?" thousands of times, but never, "What are you learning about? Logarithms? What are those? Can you explain it to me?"
As a result, the student hears the message: "I don't care if you learn; your grades are all that matters. Cheat if necessary."
Similarly, the administration hears the message: "I don't care if my kid learns; hand them straight As or you'll be hearing from me at the school district board meeting."
Similar grading stuff happened in my former school district. Ridiculous!! So totally over the moon that I retired in 2019. I had enough gray hairs as it was... To my former colleagues, cheers to you for hanging in there. Respect!
1st year teacher here. Started just this September, as in-face learning returned. I never dealt with distance learning but I'm dealing with it all right. End of the semester was today and putting in grades, a solid half of my students are "failing". About a quarter has an F and another quarter with a D; the real kicker is that the school district considering a D passing, so all the kids with 65s are going to pass. They do just enough to get that D then stop trying
But I roll with it. End of the day I still get paid and don't really give a shit if the student isn't putting their effort in. Does that make me a bad teacher? Perhaps, but if my job is to make sure they pass then technically I've done so. Why should I put so much effort in when admin, students, and parents won't?
I don’t blame you.
Is a D not considered passing in almost all school districts? Or did my district normalize me to D being passing?
@@tabletbrothers3477 a D is passing in most public school districts. Sometimes a D is defined as a 60-69 percent, sometimes a D is actually a 65-69, depending on the district.
Same story... except I pursued legal action against my VP (I had a new job at a university - nothing to lose) and informed my "professional organization" (non union state), pressed the district and had a state audit initiated by the attorney Generals office
I could tell you so many stories of how I have been told and then reprimanded for not changing grades due to ethical practices. Yes, I’ve also had admin go into my grade book and change grades for me.
Last year I had a student that stayed virtual the entire year. They showed up on zoom on the first day of class only. The ended up with B for the year. Not by my choice. Kid still has a school instrument too. Again, not by my choice.
A few years back I had a really upset parent because I gave her son a 97, but the mom believed he deserved a 98. Yup, I got called into the principal’s office for this one. Are you kidding me?!?
Grades mean absolutely nothing anymore. And the kids all know it.
So teachers should give all kids A’s
Just another example of how the school system is creating a generation of irresponsible human beings. I get it, online learning sucked and there needs to be some grace, but to have absolutely no accountability…? It’s a complete disservice to the students and they’re going to get a rude awakening when they enter the “real world”.
Exactly thank you
It’s a disservice to all students. The ones who are now insanely behind, and the ones who kept up with their work and will now have to suffer through the reviews that will bring their classmates up to speed.
So cruel to do that to all these kids and their teachers.
the newer generation is far far far better than us older gens. better rights, better equality, better paying jobs, I seriously cant think of a single thing that hasnt improved
@@Xarai You are blind to the problems in modern society, the gap between workers and the exploitative grows bigger daily. Things haven't gotten better, they've fundamentally gotten worse.
@@anthonygeiter5842 lol shall we go back to religion taking over schools? Where evolution got teachers jailed?
Considering your nonchalance toward this type of dishonesty and willingness to continue in it, I know protecting my daughter from a culture filled with people like you by homeschooling was the best decision I've ever made in my life. Thanks!
After teaching 42 years in a large metropolitan area, I’ll see your stories and raise you some! People don’t believe us.
Nothing as bad as that (although I've had some admin do some sleazy things), but I once had a student who was failing my class for the year, just didn't do work. A counselor contacted me that this student was trying to get into our district's Health Careers HS, (a pretty rigorous academic program) and needed passing grades in all her classes to be accepted. Was there any makeup work the student could do in my class to bring up her grade? I said yes, and I'd let her know what she needed to do. I talked to her, and lo and behold...she did NOTHING to bring it up. So I just gave her the (failing) grade she earned. Yet SOMEHOW she got into the Health Careers HS. I never knew who changed her grade in my class, but wasn't too surprised. Nor was I surprised when the student flunked out of the Health Careers HS and ended up back at her neighborhood school.
Minority?
I doubt it; 80% of the students at my school were "minorities" (the same "minority" that makes up about 60% of the population in my area). Since they felt the need to tell me she needed to be passing in order to be accepted, I still feel like SOMEONE messed w/ her grades after I entered them, so she'd qualify.
Whew, thank goodness it stopped somewhere.
@@ruthc8407 perhaps a white evangelical Christian ... they are a strong minority
Worked with a teacher that was giving the kids the same grade as the semester before because if the grade went down they would be questioned why they the teacher didn’t do a better job.
So rather than addressing a struggling student they ignored the real grades and pushed the kids through.
Students cannot get less than 50% at our school. They can never show up and never turn in anything, and they automatically get a 50%. So, I usually have a few who will do 2-3 assignments all year, just enough to get to that 60% to pass and get their credits.
Oh my god this tracks. I started the school year at a school district I had never been at. I was told by my mentor teacher to make sure everybody passes the required tests no matter what it took. Then she winked at me and gave me the nod of “doctor the grades if need be”. I could go on and on in a video like you just did. I resigned from that job. The whole system is completely broken. And nobody is doing anything about it. It’s disgusting
Don't worry everything will be fine you will soon have a tough tyrant who has all the answers as He is a genius supported by the White Christian Evangelicals.... just follow the stable genius .... lol if the top honcho can be corrupt, a fraud, a liar who doesn't actually work (doesn't read, doesn't listen, doesn't think but he tweets) and thus the model for students, why should kids work hard???
I have a similar story, but from a student perspective, which sounds very odd, but hear me out.
This was two and a half years ago; I was a junior in high school. My French teacher (this was my third year with her) had been very sick for a long time. They finally figured out what could be wrong, and she had emergency surgery. She was out for a good portion of the semester (but less than the FMLA allows her). However, the school never found a sub who could speak French (obviously). She was on leave recovering from major abdominal surgery (a total hysterectomy, I later found out). Our admin was still expecting her to post and grade assignments from home. How f-ed up is that? So some of us did every assignment, some of us did none. It didn’t matter in the end though because she didn’t grade any of it. So we all got 90%s. Some of us in the class (those of us who did the work) were pretty frustrated we all got the same grade, but we did feel horrible that this teacher was left with so much work she shouldn’t have had to do. So we tried to discreetly talk to the principal about it. He said he’d take care of it and it would all be fine and no one would be in trouble. Nothing was ever taken care of, A. (Probably because he knew he was the one at fault-not having someone else enter grades). And B, I think she got in trouble. Our principal said something ominous in my gifted IEP meeting when my parents mentioned the 90% (they weren’t mad I got a 90-they were quite frankly upset that there was so much stress put on my class because the admin didn’t do their jobs). He said, “I made it clear that I never want to see anything like that happen again.” Most of us were tracked to graduate valedictorian (and we still did), and I really think he was mad at what she did because we were the cream of his crop.
You are so lucky, these schools you have. Public free school and you have gifted classes and drivers Ed and calculus classes and basically can learn to direct films .my school didn't even have a choir
It was the very last semester of my senior year when all this covid stuff started, and the way they worked it was if you were passing during the first 6 weeks, they would give you a P, since they made it pass/fail. Within the first 2 weeks, 75% of my classmates stop showing up, and I did soon afterward. I realized there was no point in going as my grade couldn't be lowered, and I could be doing literally anything else in the meantime. (and a few of my teacher gave up on actually trying to teach) I have to wonder now if what happened at your school happened at mine, and how many people they pushed out with no readiness for the real world.
School? Make you ready for the real world? Grift and graft are the best lessons xD
the best thing school teaches you is how to deal with assholes in the real world take that out and school is actually useless if not harmful for people's development and perception of real life
@@thewildcardperson Yeah how to deal with assholes, and to never rely on other people
I’m stunned by your story! Can we say no accountability! Holy Cow!
Am a teacher, can confirm that this is the state of education.
a story from my time as a student in high school: i was taking a precalculus class in my senior year, and as we come to the last few weeks of class, we find out that the class hasn't covered even half of the material we where supposed to (we where supposed to be into basic derivatives, we actually stopped at quadratic equation) . my grade on the final exam was 18% , second highest in the class. admin pushed such a severe curve that my grade after the curve was almost 180%.........
If we didn't learn any of the material I'd except a curve, but not a 170% curve...
@@Taco-pd4ce they where trying to save the graduation rate of the class.
I bet you felt ready for College Calculus!
@@evansfamily8156 i managed to pass calc 1 because my professor gave multiple choice tests, but calc 2 felt like running into a brick wall.
@@rickbirch4090 So sorry to hear that 😢 Nothing like helping people right over a cliff.
A lot of schools give As in Title 1 schools. Then the students are shocked when they go to college and the real world.
Thank you for standing up to them about this. We need more teachers like you that actually care if kids are showing up and learning.
From the bottom of my heart. That school should have it's funding cut and the assistant principal should face charges of fraud.
Wow.. that's... just wow. I've had several principals that banned zeros because it skewed averages so much. They had to be 50% instead. Now this was elementary so it's not like we had a true grade recovery program or anything so we learned to live with it. Having done a bit of time (like a prison sentence) as an AP myself and being on the district side of things as well, I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say that command had to come from the district. I can't imagine an AP doing something so in your face obvious without the wink and nudge from higher-ups.
True. I think you're right about the AP's higher-ups.
I definitely understood the grade inflation I saw during covid, but it still bothered me a little.
I was in college, and my final exam in one class was 100%. I didn't expect to do that bad on it, but there were a couple questions I didn't answer. I know my professor was being kind, but I didn't feel like I deserved that grade and it made my A in the class feel hollow.
I’m crawling on the floor looking for my jaw because it dropped so hard. You HAVE to be kidding me!!
Not a teacher nor do I have any stories in detail but I just wanted to say I really appreciate teachers. There have been stories around my school of teachers straight up having mental breakdowns in class and quitting because of students, I really feel bad for y’all. Just wanna let you and any other teachers out there know I appreciate you!
One of the districts near me basically did this: Everyone passed during the pandemic school year 2019-2920, no matter what. Part of me does understand this: everything was so crazy, I get it. But then the same thing happened the next year. Even the kids who tanked the year and went to summer school all automatically passed summer school. Then that same district kept the standards the same, even though the students were basically 1.5 years behind in their knowledge. So somehow the teachers are supposed to get them caught up on 1.5 years of curriculum the kids pretty much didn't do, and teach them everything in the curriculum for their current grade.
It also gives the kids no incentive to do work because they assume they'll just pass anyway. And the worry is that the district *will* do that again, despite what teachers and admin are telling them.
Also, I worked in a district where they wanted every 9th grader to take at least one advanced class. This was to help all students kinda choose a major or area of focus. NOPE! The school just made all the 9th grade English classes "advanced."
And guess what? As educators that stayed for this year, we are all feeling the failure of situations like this. This year is way more difficult than last year. The kids are struggling, behaviors are up, and the teachers are overwhelmed and stretched beyond belief. Subbing in grades they know nothing about and dealing with clueless administrations.
i laughed when i heard substitute change the grade. im a building sub and i dont even get access to the online attendance let alone the grade book
I started teaching in 2019. When the pandemic hit full force we went remote learning. We are a poor district so no students had technology. Only one teacher used google classroom before COVID. Administration created packets for students to do. It couldn’t be anything new. We were forced to grade it, however, we were later told that students will get the same grade they had from the previous 9weeks. It broke my heart that some of the students worked so hard turning in everything couldn’t get a better grade. They did the work for nothing. They still were passed onto high school. Last year when we were virtual for the majority of the year, we also passed students on to the high school who literally had a zero percent because they never showed up to the google meets. Our students have had zero consequences for too long. They have gotten lazy and uninterested in learning because of this. I question whether I want to continue as a teacher almost daily now. Our district is pushing hard for vertical alignment coming from a person who has no experience outside of math, yet she is dictating how ela science etc need to run and not broad strokes micro managing bs. When I first met with her, I was excited to talk about 8th grade science curriculum and how I thought it should be taught, she made it abundantly clear that she was not interested in what I had to say.
I have never attended one of your classes.
Maybe I should reach out to the school and request my transcripts showing off my impressive 100%! 😁
Watching teachers on UA-cam is the best encouragement I have to continue homeschooling.
I love your videos. You keep me hanging on. 1 year until retirement for me. It can’t come soon enough!
Did you file a grievance? I am sure we are in the same district and an admin shouldn't be touching your gradebook. Those some fighting actions there!
He would be fired!
And he has a paper trail of emails!
It should be a law, nobody can change grades except the teacher themselves. If admin can change it then what is the purpose of the teacher giving the grade in the first place?
Bridge engineer: Sir, I've measured a defect in this bridge's major support structures.
Bridge manager: Right you did. Excellent work, engineer. But you know what, mistakes happens, so we just gotta roll with it.
lol
This is part of why I had to give up on going into education and look for something else. Thought things were changing for the better and I could be part of it. Sorry to see it hasn't.
I respect you for going back and trying again. Also for sharing this story. Hopefully talking about it will help bring about some much needed changes.
This has been a problem for a ling time! When my first child was in grade 3, he could barely read, and I mean barely. I was working full time but noticed he should be doing better so I brought it up during the next parent teacher interview. The teacher said he was doing fine, approaching the goals and if I would like to read with him every night from his grade appropriate books he would take home, that would be good practice. I had tried before that to read with him when I had time, but seriously, he couldn't read a book from the kindergarten class, let alone his books from the classroom. They passed him. The grading was done by IN(incomplete), approaching, meeting, exceeding. He ended up meeting in all subjects. Weird, since you need to read to do anything. Then, years later in high school, his friend was not doing well and someone told him he better shape up and work harder and the boy said 'who cares? They'll pass me no matter what I do, So I'm doing nothing'. He did nothing. He passed. This last 'incident' was about 7 years ago. I've been just disgusted with the system for a long time. Most of the teachers have been amazing and I thank them for trying to teach properly, but the powers that be, I can't say the same. Absolutely revolting, the amount of garbage lurking in the educational system. I have way more stories but those two baffled me years ago.
I was told that I’d be taking on ALL grades pre k-6 (a special subject teacher) from previously preK-3 last year. But to keep me at .6 pay; they would jam the kids into a 30 minute time block on zoom and they could come whenever they wanted …to relax… I put material on GC and SeeSaw- had 3 schedule changes and then they had the nerve to question me about grades- and we’ve been told for years not to grade special needs children accurately and during these times - no student would be held back- now our school ranks high in the state- it’s all smoke and mirrors!! The losers are the kids who should be learning these lessons of hard work now before HS.
Failing a student that does nothing is the same as saying you actually care about them. If they fail and still pass, that's the greatest way to tell a generation of kids that they really aren't important enough to waste a school's time and continue their education.
Here in Queensland, Australia. Same thing, same story, same indifference.
This story is stranger than fiction. I wouldn't believe this story second-hand but you seem as blown away as all us listening are!
Yep, I just left teaching after 18 years, and I'm so excited! I going to be a content writer at a law firm.
Last two years all students were passed as long as they completed one assignment.
This was very common in my time teaching in Vietnam. Scores were regularly changed and when giving speaking tests, the metrics were often out of 5 but we weren't allowed to give less than 3. It's such a disservice to the students and the teachers. The students who earned good scores are demoralised and those who didn't study quickly learn to not try and they'll fail their way through life
Love these stories!!
Could have also been a student hacker using the assistant principal’s login. But if you didn’t hear back after notifying her then it was probably her haha.
Can prob check IP address or something. Full blown investigation!
Sadly, considering the times we're living in, that doesn't surprise me at all.
After the first semester as a first year teacher I was told by my union representative, and then my principal, that I needed to start inflating grades. Like raise them all a full grade up. And this was over ten years ago…based on your story this practice is in full swing. Grades are just a function to keep parents content enough not to complain and ultimately out of the classroom.
I can’t even crack a smile at this story. It’s absolutely sickening, the levels of corruption.
I taught in the public schools for many years with special education students. I had a parent who wanted their child to go to his community school and not the school where I worked. She rightfully wanted her child to attend school with people from their community. However this child was deaf and used sign language as a form of communication. I contacted my supervisor to make sure I knew what the protocol was to be able to move this student to his community school. My supervisor said have a meeting and discuss with a representative from the child's community School to see if that school can meet the child's needs. I called the special education lead teacher of the community School and discussed when we could have a meeting. The lead teacher started to fuss and say I don't know what to do with a student who is deaf and we have no one here who can communicate with that student. I explained that an itinerary teacher could handle the child's special needs and an interpreter could be assigned to help with communication. A meeting was set up. But the next call I received was from my supervisor saying that there would be no meeting the child would not be moved and I was in the wrong. I had followed my supervisors instructions to the letter.
If my kid's teacher had to do that I would welcome a call to help out. I would make my kid earn that grade!
I am a retired teacher . What you have said gives new meaning to "weeping , wailing and gnashing your teeth !"
Sickening to the extreme .
As soon as I heard "yeah, someone must have made a mistake". Yeah. I knew it was her. lol I can't believe you still emailed her. OMG! LOL
If I remember correctly, in my school district when school closed for covid safety (I was in 10th grade at this point) they set any grade that was "passing" (60%+) to an A when schools closed, and gave students the opportunity to raise their grade to 60%+ via online work. The exclusion being Precalculus for me and one other student in the class of about 7 people (He and I were the only ones taking the class for college credit) so a grand total of 2 sophomore students out of all students at the high school had to earn their A grade.
Why doesn't this surprise me? Oh yes, because we were told the same thing last year, although I did not have to give160 students all 100%, crazy! It's always the administration.
I feel you, Mr. Siebold. As a teacher myself, I have witnessed it so many times in our country "no child is left behind" and they take that literally. Students who can't even read simple sentences could pass in college. Students who haven't shown up during the entire semester and then just suddenly pop out of nowhere asking for their grade come by now and then. I haven't even been in the industry for over a decade and I've seen how ridiculous it can be. Even students now just casually walk up to you as if you're their closest friends and not even addressing you as a teacher could openly tell you they'll just worm their way through their classes. I mean it's really draining.
This needs to go viral
How corrupt. In college my prof wouldn’t even round the decimal points to keep me from hopping from the B+/A line.
How is any of this supposed to prepare students to become adults. I guarantee if these students treat their place of employment the same way we, as a society, all suffer.
It is quite frightful to think of what type of adults these students will make!! This seems to help explain why so many adults (those who were passed undeservedly) will/do believe the weird and wild inaccurate data that is tossed out at them!!
Amazon and the Walmarts of the world just need compliant workers ... if they don't work out, there are more where that came from ....
Yes, the same here in So-Cal! Some schools were panicking because they would lose their "distinguished school" status. Admin panic ensued...even students who weren't in class (we know one that was out of state staying with grandparents and no internet!)
Yup. Had that happen too! How sad that we are all experiencing the same thing!