Day 39: Professional Development Day

Today I wasn't in the schools. I was on campus involved in a professional development day. I saw a presentation on civil rights. Then I watched a presentation on standards based grading. The civil rights presentation was good however, I had heard the speaker many times before when I was in high school and while I was in practicum. Thus the thing seemed a little repetitive to me. The standards based grading presentation was given by a student teacher who is at Searsport High School where they have implemented it. It was interesting but I am not sure that I completely buy it yet. I think that it is great that they are trying to emphasize that they need to be teaching skills to students and that they are moving away from grading. I agree that grading isn't really working. I agree that students need to be able to learn at their own pace. However, I don't think that the interventions necessarily work. It seems like the students are being forced to do the same work over and over again until they get it. It also seems like some students may get more practice at some things than at others. The students are required to show they can do each standard multiple times each year. However, there is no set number of times for this. So what if one year the student hits standard six 12 times but only does standard three 4 times? Or what if one year the students do standard two 12 times and the next year they only do it 5 times? It seems like some students would get more practice than others. And how does this affect them getting scholarships? Scholarships require academic excellence and need. I think I would need to try it and see it work first.