Post by doctorwho on Mar 10, 2010 7:39:31 GMT -6
This is what happens when schools are driven by ONLY grades/test scores...is anyone really learning ? And the sad this is for those who are, it get's tainted by this nonsense.
www.suntimes.com/news/education/2094103,chicago-public-schools-grades-raised-031010.article#GRADES
March 10, 2010
BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters
Last school year at struggling Hyde Park Academy High, more than 2,000 grades were boosted at least one notch — including more than 870 F’s that were changed to passing marks, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows.
And this school year, blanket A’s were ordered issued to all students of five new Hyde Park teachers after the students suffered through a string of substitute teachers for most of the first quarter, a letter obtained by the Sun-Times shows.
John Kugler, a former Hyde Park teacher, says pressure to raise grades is "part of the culture," at Hyde Park Academy, which is on probation.
(Brian Jackson/Sun-Times)
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Principal's letter on giving blanket As
THE TOP TEN
TOTAL GRADE CHANGES*
School Total Grades Changed
Hyde Park Academy 3,162
Farragut Career Academy 1,074
Hope College Prep 653
Corliss 466
Orr Academy 451
Marshall Metropolitan 440
Simeon Career Academy 439
Julian 394
Chicago Military Academy 333
Brooks College Prep Academy 317
Source: Chicago Public Schools
*Includes both raised and lowered grades for entire student body for 2008-09 school year
“I would say it’s shocking that all those students got automatic A’s,’’ said former Hyde Park teacher John Kugler, who served as the school’s union delegate last school year. “There’s other things that could have been done.’’
Hyde Park is one of several schools Chicago Public School officials say they are auditing for what appears to be excessive grade changes entered into a new electronic grading system, called GradeBook, after the close of each marking period last school year.
However, Hyde Park’s numbers jump out from high school data obtained under a Freedom of Information request. Last school year, it:
• Had nearly three times more grade changes — 3,162 — than the next highest school, Farragut Career Academy.
• Had more than twice as many F’s upgraded to passing grades — 873 — as any other high school.
• Saw the equivalent of nearly one grade changed upward per student, or 2,031 boosted grades.
To be fair, an additional 1,129 Hyde Park grades were changed downward, raising questions about whether some or all of the grade changes were based on mechanical problems teachers encountered as they tried to adjust to last year’s introduction of GradeBook. Hyde Park Principal Thomas Trotter did not answer Sun-Times phone calls.
“Is it a training issue? Is it a resource issue, or is it a violation of board policy?’’ CPS spokeswoman Monique Bond said. “Those are the kind of questions we need answered.’’
Concerning this year’s blanket A’s, Bond said, the grade-changing policy lists certain cases when such changes are appropriate but “issuing a ‘blanket A’ directive is not within policy guidelines.’’
CPS officials vowed to conduct the ongoing audit after an August 2009 Chicago Sun-Times investigation, called “Grading Games,’’ unearthed complaints from dozens of teachers that their grades were changed last school year without their approval.
Kugler said pressure to goose up grades is “part of the culture’’ at Hyde Park, a school on academic probation where the number of freshmen and senior F’s can help trigger federal sanctions or even closure. At least six teachers complained about it to him last year as the union delegate, he said.
“What’s wrong with this is it sets up the student for failure,” Kugler said.
Principals at Orr Academy and Austin Polytechnical Academy said changes could have reflected teachers’ difficulty in manually overriding GradeBook’s grading formulas or scales.
“We weren’t cheating,” said Polytech Principal Bill Gerstein. “We are completely honest here.’’
Austin Business and Entrepreneurship Principal Karen Washington noted that her students receive more grades because they take eight classes, instead of a standard five or six, allowing more chances for errors needing to be fixed.
At Hyde Park this year, the “special memo’’ Principal Trotter wrote to grading coordinator Sean Streeter indicated the school was given too few teachers, and had to add five teachers sometime between Oct. 19 and Nov. 9. “In fairness to the students and the newly hired instructors,’’ the letter said, all students were getting first-quarter A’s, and instructions on what they needed to do to maintain those A’s second quarter.
Streeter said he asked Trotter to write the “special memo’’ because he realized, as the one who physically made the changes, the system’s new “data integrity’’ push might track back to him.
CPS’ Bond noted that more than 2.7 million grades were issued last school year, and less than 1 percent of them were changed. Auditors will be looking at both this year’s and last year’s grade changes for patterns, and will put a special emphasis on any school with at least 100 grade changes last school year, she said.
In addition, Bond said, board members are expected to vote on a revised grade-changing policy this month that will address some holes in the current policy.
Schools with the highest rates of changing grades*
School Grades raised per 100 students Grades lowered per 100 students F's changed per 100 students
Hyde Park Academy 91.61 50.92 39.38
Hope College Prep 54.23 10.04 17.13
Brooks College Prep Academy 38.66 3.76 17.18
Austin Polytechnical Academy 38.64 18.94 20.45
Farragut Career Academy 33.14 18.22 19.08
Orr Academy 30.36 7.89 13.83
Austin Bus & Entrepreneurship 28.14 13.11 11.75
School Of The Arts 22.89 13.73 9.88
Corliss 21.98 18.83 8.06
Marshall Metropolitan 19.67 16.10 12.20
Source: Chicago Public Schools
*All numbers are per 100 students in 2008-09 school year