An email I sent to my child’s school
The following is the actual text of an email I sent to one of my kids’ schools regarding their use of final exams and grades as a lever to influence student tardiness and attendance in extra-curricular study activities.
I edited the email to keep things as anonymous as possible as it is certainly not my goal to publicly criticize any one particular school. I can’t help the fact that many readers will see their own child’s school(s) between the lines here… please understand that my intention is to discuss philosophy, not a specific instituion.
Dear Mrs. Administrator,
I’m writing to vent a little; I don’t expect you to change any policies — or even to respond — based on my comments, but I want to share one parent’s opinion.
I am disturbed by your policy of using academic grades as a lever to affect student behavior. I am a father and an educator and feel that the dual practices of punishing students’ tardiness by lowering grades or raising a grade to encourage “voluntary” participation in extra-ciurricular programs are misguided, dishonest, unsupported by research and, ultimately, hurtful.
If you want students to come to school and/or class on time, teach them why this is important. Lowering a student’s GPA because they are unmotivated to arrive on time seems simply mean-spirited to me. Students are often late through no fault of their own: buses come late, the parking lot is congested at drop-off time and, by your own admission, you have too few sign-in computers to meet student need. Even if a student is late because (s)he is unmotivated to participate, it stretches credulity to suggest that forcing him or her to come on time by bludgeoning his/her GPA will do anything but increase whatever disinterest or outright resentment (s)he feels for learning and the institution.
Further, rewarding student participation in a voluntary, extra-curricular program by raising grades or dropping finals requirements is similarly misguided. As a teacher, I use assessment for many purposes but chief among them is learning: students know and understand more about the subject matter after they complete my Final Exams than they did before and the Final is a necessary component of the courses I design. If your faculty members think that a student who doesn’t take their Final has gained the same knowledge and skills as one who does, then I humbly suggest that they should aim higher when designing their Final Exams.
Robert Marzano has literally written the book on grades (Transforming Classroom Grading) and, in it, he lists five things grades can accomplish (administrative purposes, feedback about progress and achievement, guidance to students about future course work, instructional planning, and student motivation). In his informed estimation , student motivation is the least-significant and the one least-affected by grades: in short, using grades in this way simply doesn’t work. I am certain that, if you take the time to look back at your attendance records, your data will bear this out.
I have worked in several schools and struggled with the issues of student motivation for participation in voluntary programs. I understand how difficult it can be to make headway and why, in the short-term, grades seem like a good tool to use to motivate students to take part. But, again, this is a misguided and potentially hurtful idea. As I said at the outset, this is only one parent’s opinion… but it’s one I hold strongly and feel that you should hear. If you would like to discuss further I would, of course, be happy to.
To their credit, the school responded:
Thank you for your well thought out comments. I too am a fan of Robert Marzano and have read many of his publications. I have also read alternative view points.
In short, I believe that we need to find a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It is very difficult to motivate adults intrinsically, all the more so teenagers. While in principle we should aim for intrinsic motivation, in reality we may lose too much along the way.
I have been working in schools for 18 years and have tried many different approaches. We are constantly evaluating, tweaking, and changing. We are open to suggestions and advice.
Once again thank you for sharing.
This is a tough issue and, while I disagree, I understand the need to “find a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.” I love the work that I do… but I don’t do it for free and, if my clients stopped paying me, I would probably stop working for them. That being said, school is not a job and grades are not salary.
I really want people to chime in on this… please share your thoughts.
