More Coffee, Please

I was awakened at 6:30am this morning by a student who needed help on a research paper.¹ In this case, the student wanted to run the conclusion by me, and thankfully, it was pretty good.

The student who sent me a frantic email at 1:30, “Can you look at my paper!” was much less fortunate.

Today, at 3pm, the axe came crashing down on the 2009 MRHS senior class. The senior project research paper, which doubles as their midterm grade, came due. My hunch, from the small microcosm of students I was working with, and memories of watching it happen for four years, is that the papers are not going to be all that good.

Of course, that doesn’t mean all that many will fail. Most, I’ll bet, did something, and that something will be honored with a “D” or perhaps a “C.”

My gripe is that we’re not really grading their papers. We’re grading the student’s ability to get the work in on time. They’re obviously not the same thing, and one of the problems with the way grades are assigned is that the two things—the measurement of the student’s mastery of the skills involved in the assignment, and the ability of the student to manage the workload and get the task done—are grouped together.

They’re obviously not the same thing.

Classes are always filled with kids who could easily² do the work, and often don’t. I’m not sure if I ever failed a kid because they just could master the concepts that I was presenting or just couldn’t manage to do what I required. I failed kids left and right because they couldn’t get the work in on time, or they didn’t do it at all.

One of the things I like most about MC² is these two things are separate. There is a set number of things a student must do in order to graduate—every kid does it, no matter what. There’s no such thing as doing “just the assignments I like to do” and relying on accumulated grades to carry them through. Don’t do an assignment? Don’t get the credit, don’t graduate.

On the other hand, I can—and will—take that assignment any time. It doesn’t matter if it’s a week or two after I assigned it—I’ll take it.

Even better, if it’s not “good enough” then I’ll hand it right back to the student—dozens of times if needed—until it is good enough.

There’s no free pass on not handing it in on time, though. Students are assessed on whether or not they handed work in on time—completely separately from the quality of the work. Not handing work in “on time” can be just as detrimental to that ultimate goal of graduation, but the difference is the right thing is targeted.

All of which is the true benefit of a competency based system—which, theoretically, all of New Hampshire now is. The trick is finding a way, inside the classroom with all it’s grades and all its assignments, to pull out the skills a student needs to have in the subject area and the skills they need to have in their lives.

I’ll tell ya, that thought entertains me. I don’t think it would be that hard in a single classroom to implement a system like that. The problem would be training the kids to see the effect it would have on them—which would take anywhere from several seconds to several years to figure out, depending on the student.

Good habits take time.

1 Okay, this is a wild exaggeration for effect. I was already up at 6:30am, and the student in question didn’t call—she sent a text message. In student etiquette, this is the most polite and kind way to “intrude” on a private space and time possible, and they’re not far off. A text is, for our kids, something quietly ignored (especially in class) and non-ubtrusive. It’s a nice way of getting someone’s attention. Our kids can actually be pretty polite, if the “way” they do things is understood. ↺

2 “Easily” might be the problem—the common complaint of students is they’re bored. The right challenge might do wonders for the classroom—but that’s where Extended Learning Opportunities and Internships come into play, and MRHS is making very strong strides in incorporating this more. ↺

Gregarious

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