1. Is failure a real and regularly option and experience for kids at your school? Yes. I have had the opportunity to see many different schools this semester, there are many students who talk about failing a class. It seems normal, failing a class is just something that happens, like part of the culture of the school. It isn't just one school, it is almost every school I go to including charters. Failing seems to be part of the education experience for a lot of students here in San Diego. Which has been a real wake up for me as a future leader of a school. I want to make sure that failure is not part of the culture of my school.
2. If so, what impact do you believe that is creating? If not, what structures have been put into place to accomplish alternatives?
I think it is starting to create different classes within the school. I have worked in schools where the students in the classes had roughly the same GPA as each other, students who had high failure rates and low grades seem to be in the same class and vice versa.
There is a rule that a teacher told me when I first got hired: "When it comes to the class you teach you have to wait in line to teach the honors and AP classes". Tracking of students was creating a hierarchy for what classes teachers wanted to teach! When students fail and are then moved on to the next grade or are grouped with students who have also failed they get placed in class with a teacher who may or may not have assigned them a label already.
3. What conditions exist that make it too late to learn and reach competency in your school? Can you give an example?
Plenty of teachers I know do not accept late work. "If it is late then you do not get credit", it seems to be the purpose of the assignment was to make sure you can hit deadlines not learn the content. By not allowing students to turn in late work we condemn them for not hitting due dates, not for non comprehension of the content. I think that we as an education system and me personally are committed to students learning the content.
4. What would you do, if anything, to introduce/enhance “never too late to learn” structures in your school if you were the school leader?
This is really hard, I don't want to design a plan that has students waiting until the last minute to do work and then swamping teachers with work that needs to assessed and graded. I want to implement a plan that holds students accountable and has them proactively working towards competency.
Offer paid tutoring hours to teachers to work withs students who want to make up work in their classes to achieve a passing grade. Students would be able to work on past work for an improved grade or for support on current topics. The idea that would passed on to students is that; help is always available and teachers want students to pass.
5. What can you do in your present position to create “never too late to learn” structures into your current practice and those of your peers? Are those things in your sphere of influence?
I could help stay after school for a few hours a week and try to model this program. I think that if I can prove that it works and it can help the students then maybe the department could implement and then maybe go school wide. I think it will be in my sphere of influence shortly, I think it is a realistic way to give students another option to pass.
6. Commit to 5 things you are willing to do this semester that will make your school and increase learning opportunities:
1. Offer make-up work for students. If they turned something in when it was due they can remake it for full credit. If they did not turn anything in they can remake it for 85%. This way students are incentivized to turn something in when it is due, even if its just a little bit.
2. Talk to the admin about getting additional funding for tutoring hours for students who are at risk of failing.
3. Talk to the department about implementing a program for the whole team to help reduce failing grades.
4. Have a conference with every student who drops below a 75% and work out a plan for them to succeed.
5. Have a comprehensive final based on all of the information from the semester. A rigorous test, that if passed proves competency of the material. If a student can pass the final, they pass the class regardless.
2. If so, what impact do you believe that is creating? If not, what structures have been put into place to accomplish alternatives?
I think it is starting to create different classes within the school. I have worked in schools where the students in the classes had roughly the same GPA as each other, students who had high failure rates and low grades seem to be in the same class and vice versa.
There is a rule that a teacher told me when I first got hired: "When it comes to the class you teach you have to wait in line to teach the honors and AP classes". Tracking of students was creating a hierarchy for what classes teachers wanted to teach! When students fail and are then moved on to the next grade or are grouped with students who have also failed they get placed in class with a teacher who may or may not have assigned them a label already.
3. What conditions exist that make it too late to learn and reach competency in your school? Can you give an example?
Plenty of teachers I know do not accept late work. "If it is late then you do not get credit", it seems to be the purpose of the assignment was to make sure you can hit deadlines not learn the content. By not allowing students to turn in late work we condemn them for not hitting due dates, not for non comprehension of the content. I think that we as an education system and me personally are committed to students learning the content.
4. What would you do, if anything, to introduce/enhance “never too late to learn” structures in your school if you were the school leader?
This is really hard, I don't want to design a plan that has students waiting until the last minute to do work and then swamping teachers with work that needs to assessed and graded. I want to implement a plan that holds students accountable and has them proactively working towards competency.
Offer paid tutoring hours to teachers to work withs students who want to make up work in their classes to achieve a passing grade. Students would be able to work on past work for an improved grade or for support on current topics. The idea that would passed on to students is that; help is always available and teachers want students to pass.
5. What can you do in your present position to create “never too late to learn” structures into your current practice and those of your peers? Are those things in your sphere of influence?
I could help stay after school for a few hours a week and try to model this program. I think that if I can prove that it works and it can help the students then maybe the department could implement and then maybe go school wide. I think it will be in my sphere of influence shortly, I think it is a realistic way to give students another option to pass.
6. Commit to 5 things you are willing to do this semester that will make your school and increase learning opportunities:
1. Offer make-up work for students. If they turned something in when it was due they can remake it for full credit. If they did not turn anything in they can remake it for 85%. This way students are incentivized to turn something in when it is due, even if its just a little bit.
2. Talk to the admin about getting additional funding for tutoring hours for students who are at risk of failing.
3. Talk to the department about implementing a program for the whole team to help reduce failing grades.
4. Have a conference with every student who drops below a 75% and work out a plan for them to succeed.
5. Have a comprehensive final based on all of the information from the semester. A rigorous test, that if passed proves competency of the material. If a student can pass the final, they pass the class regardless.