Are fourth-graders too young to fail?

[chanel]

Prevented from flunking her students, Sheila Goudeau of Louisiana is suing local school officials in East Baton Rouge for interfering with her duties as a teacher. Goudeau, a 20-year veteran instructor who teaches fourth-graders, alleges in her lawsuit that Shilonda Shamlin, the principal of Riveroaks Elementary School, ordered the faculty to not grade lower than 60%, in effect a “D.” She claims the restriction is a violation of a state law that forbids administrative and school board officials from influencing or altering grades given out by teachers.

Goudeau, who is now teaching at a different school, further claims that “illegal alteration of students’ grades misled the affected students and their parents into thinking they were passing and obtaining the required skills to proceed to fifth grade, when in reality those students were neither passing nor obtaining the requisite skills needed for the fifth grade.”

AllGov - News - Baton Rouge Teacher Sues for the Right to Give Students ?F?s

Another dirty little secret makes the paper... Good luck Sheila.

Many, many schools do not allow grades lower than a 60. Anyone see a problem with that?

 

[xsited1]

Principal Shilonda Shamlin? After seeing how Little Rock Public Schools are run, that somehow makes sense.

 

[froggy]

Prevented from flunking her students, Sheila Goudeau of Louisiana is suing local school officials in East Baton Rouge for interfering with her duties as a teacher. Goudeau, a 20-year veteran instructor who teaches fourth-graders, alleges in her lawsuit that Shilonda Shamlin, the principal of Riveroaks Elementary School, ordered the faculty to not grade lower than 60%, in effect a “D.” She claims the restriction is a violation of a state law that forbids administrative and school board officials from influencing or altering grades given out by teachers.

Goudeau, who is now teaching at a different school, further claims that “illegal alteration of students’ grades misled the affected students and their parents into thinking they were passing and obtaining the required skills to proceed to fifth grade, when in reality those students were neither passing nor obtaining the requisite skills needed for the fifth grade.”

AllGov - News - Baton Rouge Teacher Sues for the Right to Give Students ?F?s

Another dirty little secret makes the paper... Good luck Sheila.

Many, many schools do not allow grades lower than a 60. Anyone see a problem with that?

Apparently if her students are making a "D" grade she not doing a good job teaching. maybe the school should look into replacing her.

 

[Douger]

Shameeka Goldenfarber agrreze.
22 year old in Da fofe grade is a prollem

 

[froggy]

Shameeka Goldenfarber agrreze.
22 year old in Da fofe grade is a prollem

Speak english man, your in America now.

 

[Douger]

Shameeka Goldenfarber agrreze.
22 year old in Da fofe grade is a prollem

Speak english man, your in America now.

Actually, I'm not.
I escaped Murkastan about six years ago.
I will never ever return ,even to visit.
I told my parents when they die, do it here or cancel my piece of cake.They're in their mid eighties.

 

[midcan5]

This started years ago when students were found driving their jalopies to third grade. Seriously, we had boys in eight grade that drove. Two things changed this, one was leaving some students back made no sense as they only dropped out when they reached a certain age, and two, schools wanted students, some would leave for less strict schools. Today they pass everyone. Catholic school tolerates lots more than they used to as they want to compete with charter schools. But eventually only the well heeled will go to fancy private schools, they cost more than college used to.

The time to leave students back is in the first grade by keeping them home for another year, but parents have to work so even this doesn't work any longer. America doesn't care about education, except to blame teachers and unions. Most still do not recognize it is the economic situation and the private or charter school that creates the better students.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/economy/50564-libertarianism-in-a-nutshell-ii.html

 

[mal]

Most of these Inner City Schools are without "Hope"...

They have been Destroyed via Generations of Liberal Policies that have Assumed, Reenforced and Rewarded Failure...

Most of those Policies a Product of Misplaced White Liberal Guilt.



peace...

 

[Ravi]

No, they aren't.

This story sounds fishy. She's suing the school for damages because she claims the stress of the job caused her a serious heart condition.

Uh huh.

 

[Dr.Traveler]

Honest question:

At what point do the elementary school start assigning grades and percentages? Its been a while since I looked through my old report cards, and my son is only in pre-school, but I seem to recall that report cards were marked based on progress up until a certain point, i.e. no A,B,C,D,F ratings, but instead "Exceptional", "Satisfactory", "Unsatisfactory", "Needs Improvement".

I'm not up on learning theory at the elementary level, so I'm not sure you're supposed to even assign grades at that point.

 

[hjmick]

Ah crap... Are we bailing out the fourth grade now?

 

[xsited1]

Ah crap... Are we bailing out the fourth grade now?

I doubt this is a new thing, but I'd like to hear from people who are more familiar with Public Education. This doesn't happen in the private schools that I know about. Grades are assigned starting in 1st grade and kids are given Fs and held back if they fail. I know some kids who went from private to public schools and they've been at least several months ahead of the other kids, sometimes a year or two. And I've seen many public school graduates that can only read and write at an elementary grade level. I know there are good public schools out there, but I'm in Little Rock so there aren't any. (Not to mention the Little Rock School Board has racist members...)

 

[Zoom-boing]

Our school assigns grades from 1st or 2nd grade up. Although they did lower the bar and shift what each letter grade stands for. A 'D' is now 65-69. Not in our house. . . the bar is still set where it should be, a 'D' is 70-72 and 69 and below if failing. 60% my ass. . . .

 

[Dr Gregg]

It's examples like this as to why our kids education is not very good and up to the standards of many other industrialized nations. Kids will fail, and they should, the curriculum should not be dumbed down for those that can't hack it. Kids are supposed to be educated and prepared for life, which can be full of failure.

 

[rikules]

Prevented from flunking her students, Sheila Goudeau of Louisiana is suing local school officials in East Baton Rouge for interfering with her duties as a teacher. Goudeau, a 20-year veteran instructor who teaches fourth-graders, alleges in her lawsuit that Shilonda Shamlin, the principal of Riveroaks Elementary School, ordered the faculty to not grade lower than 60%, in effect a “D.” She claims the restriction is a violation of a state law that forbids administrative and school board officials from influencing or altering grades given out by teachers.

Goudeau, who is now teaching at a different school, further claims that “illegal alteration of students’ grades misled the affected students and their parents into thinking they were passing and obtaining the required skills to proceed to fifth grade, when in reality those students were neither passing nor obtaining the requisite skills needed for the fifth grade.”

AllGov - News - Baton Rouge Teacher Sues for the Right to Give Students ?F?s

Another dirty little secret makes the paper... Good luck Sheila.

Many, many schools do not allow grades lower than a 60. Anyone see a problem with that?

ONE of the main problems with education (public and private) is that we continue to lump kids/students together according to their age

we should be lumping them together according to their level of intelligence, maturity and ability

 

[random3434]

Here is a great implantation of a different kind of learning. Some public schools have incorporated the Montessori Method in their schools, while other public schools have gone all Montessori. They don't give A-F grades, but S=Satisfactory, N=Needs Improvement and I=Improving on Report Cards. Plus, they use many materials and "hands on" teaching in the classroom.



Montessori method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[chanel]

My children's elementary school did not assign grades. They graded the papers with percentages but wrote a narrative and provided parents with a portfolio of their work. I liked that but many parents did not. The problem with this kind of assessment was that the high schools would only use the standardized test scores for placement.

The high school where my brother teaches started the "no lower than 60" rule a few years ago. He said doing grades was like playing a video game on his computer. If a student with a 0 got a 60, then shouldn't the kid with a 60 get a 120?

But the bigger issue with the OP, is social promotion. As a high school teacher, we are constantly asking "how the hell did this kid get into the 9th grade"? Well we all know the answer, but how long do you keep a kid in the 4th grade?

 

[marvel]

ONE of the main problems with education (public and private) is that we continue to lump kids/students together according to their age

we should be lumping them together according to their level of intelligence, maturity and ability

I agree. The real world is not age segregated. It makes little sense to order schools in this manner.

However, it's hard to apply subjective measures to people and to provide individualized education to all students especially when education is not a priority.

 

[SpidermanTuba]

Most of these Inner City Schools are without "Hope"...

They have been Destroyed via Generations of Liberal Policies that have Assumed, Reenforced and Rewarded Failure...

Most of those Policies a Product of Misplaced White Liberal Guilt.



peace...

"Inner city" ? Riveroaks ele is almost to Denham Springs fool. And I had no clue that segregation was a "liberal policy".

 

[Polk]

Prevented from flunking her students, Sheila Goudeau of Louisiana is suing local school officials in East Baton Rouge for interfering with her duties as a teacher. Goudeau, a 20-year veteran instructor who teaches fourth-graders, alleges in her lawsuit that Shilonda Shamlin, the principal of Riveroaks Elementary School, ordered the faculty to not grade lower than 60%, in effect a “D.” She claims the restriction is a violation of a state law that forbids administrative and school board officials from influencing or altering grades given out by teachers.

Goudeau, who is now teaching at a different school, further claims that “illegal alteration of students’ grades misled the affected students and their parents into thinking they were passing and obtaining the required skills to proceed to fifth grade, when in reality those students were neither passing nor obtaining the requisite skills needed for the fifth grade.”

AllGov - News - Baton Rouge Teacher Sues for the Right to Give Students ?F?s

Another dirty little secret makes the paper... Good luck Sheila.

Many, many schools do not allow grades lower than a 60. Anyone see a problem with that?

Apparently if her students are making a "D" grade she not doing a good job teaching. maybe the school should look into replacing her.

I wouldn't say that. There are a lot of kids that just aren't interested in learning. You could put the best teacher in the world up there and get nothing but terrible marks.