James walks into his first hour classroom. He reaches into
his bookbag and he pulls out a blank worksheet. He wonders when the
monochromatic paper he holds in his hand is to be turned in. To his best friend
Charles he asks, “Dude, when is this worksheet due?”
Charles quickly replies, “Today.” James hastily pulls out
his notes and begins to work on the assignment at hand.
As soon as the bell rings, he finishes the worksheet and
says to his friend Jeff in a quiet voice, “That was close.”
That is what the situation would have come to in the 2009
school year. But as of the 2010 school year, homework is only worth 10 percent
of the final grade in every class. The school policy states that formative
assessments are 40 percent, summative assessments are 40 percent, homework is
10 percent, and the semester final exam is 10 percent.
Mr. John Freiberger said, “The homework policy really isn’t
even a homework policy,” noting that it really affects the entire grading
system at McCluer. Not only that, it was implemented so quickly, many teachers
feel they did not have time to offer proper feedback.
“This idea wasn’t completely thought through when it was
passed,” Freiberger said. The summative assessments are basically just to make
sure you have an understanding of the class. The formative assessments are the
actual tests at the end of every chapter.
Junior Colin Brennan said, “This new grading scale doesn’t
give your grade a chance to fluctuate without doing good on tests.”
Colin was right to say this. Even if a student attempts to
do the homework, it honestly has no affect on their grade. This new grading
scale is ultimately telling students not to do their homework. Since the work
does not even harm or help the final grade, then there is no point to doing the
work at all. In the end, this is only helping the students that only slide by
in all of their classes.
Now students that actually do their work cannot really shine
in class. Along with homework being only 10 percent of the final grade, the
final exam is another 10 percent. In other words, if a student is not a good
test taker, then they are not going to do well from the beginning.
To many students, this is a completely unfair turn of
events.
Senior Michael Roberson said, “It’s not fair. Those of us
that aren’t good at taking tests have to suffer.” Homework does not even seem
to count anymore, so tests are the only things that are left. If someone is not
good at taking tests, they are not going to be happy with their final grade.
Sophomore McKenzie Clement said, “The homework grade is
ridiculous in comparison to how much tests and quizzes are worth. It should be
worth more than 10 percent, and tests and quizzes should be lower percentages.”
According to the administration, an
evaluation of the grading procedures will be done at the end of the school
year, and there is a possibility for revisions for next school year. At this
point the policy, which has been adopted at all secondary schools throughout
the district, will continue as is.