Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-06-12

parents?
There are q variety Of opinions.
It is safe to say there never win
Seventh Of q Series
be a report completely satisfac-
tory to all. It is also probably
true that assigning an accurate
value to q youngsters perform
ance in school is one Of q teach
er'S most difncult tasks.
Some parents familiar with
the A-B-C-D-F scoring Of their
youth tend to reject other types
of reports. These include nar-
rative reports, in. which the
child's progress and achieve
ments in school activities are
described in q, variety Of ways:
conferences between teacher and
parent, and the use Of q card
with only such judgments as
Satisfactory" or "UnSatisfac-
tory"
Against 1.-THE last there has
been the complaint that it does
not give SUFFICIENT recognition to
the child who works hard and
deserves top rating. Some
schools, therefore, have intro
duced the term Outstanding. ("
Parents criticism of cards
other than the A-B-C card are
that they do not give enough in
formation. The parents want to
know promptly if their child is
failing. They want to know how
he stands in relation to his fell
low students. How, they ask, can
they stimulate their child to
greater effort if they do not know
it is neeedd?
Once 0 to 100.
Many schools in the old days
graded a pupil on a scale of zero
to 100, with 20 as passing. The
100 score meant presumably, the
pupil had learned everything Of
fered him. Seventy meant he
had taken in Seven-tenths
Then came the A-B-C report.
A usually means excellent. or a
grade of from 81 to 100; B good.
Or from 81 to 90; c average. or
from II to 80; D below average,
or from 81 to 70, and F failure.
There are variations on this.
At one District high school. A
stands for a rating from IS to
100.
School people began to doubt
such a system Here are some
of the reasons given:
/. It promotes competition, and
some believe competition, at
least in the classroom, is not de-
Sirable. One reason is that it
may be followed by too great a
concentration on grades alone.
2. There is question just how
precisely teacher can evaluate
a child'S work.
3. There are questions con-
corning the basis on which q
child'S work should be scored:
According to a scale of the ideal?
According to standards based on
some theoretical norm for the
grade? According to the norm
for the particular group Of chill
.dren? According to- the child's
capabilities and his persistence
at work? g..
Raises Question.
This last brings up the ques-
ton how to score a brilliant
child who needs to make little
effort, and slow learner who
works hard.
4. The psychological reactions
of a child who is labeled a fail
ure may be bad. If he is a back
ward child, he may develop a
what's-the-use attitude, cutting
down the possibilities of later de-
velopment.
On the other side are argu-
ments that ours is a competitive
society and a child had better
get used to it early. The same
applies to Illustrations. There is
also the consideration that.
where only the grades Salts
factory" and Unsatisfactory"
are employed. and backward
student working to the extent
of his capabilities is rated Sat
isfactory," why should a bright
student work hard when he can
achieve no higher grade.
Just how exactly can a pupils
performance be judged? One re-
searcher concluded that. when
the 0 to 100 scale is employed,
the teacher may come no closer
than five points to the bull's-eye
when grading papers.
The National Education AS
ISOLATION published a pamphlet
on School Marks and Promo
tions." It told a story of a
group of expert readers grading
a college history examination.
One of the readers made out for
his own use a set of what he
regarded as the ideal answers.
This got in with the examina-
ton papers, was read by the
other readers and graded from
40 to 81.
Fl to So on Arithmetic.
Presumably in arithmetic,
where an answer is correct or
not, this could not occur. But
the pamphlet tells of an expert
ment in which a sample arith-
u1etic paper was given to Ill