Baltimore Report Cards
Just wanted to comment on the article Prof. Rhodes sent out entitled “Balto. Co. to overhaul report cards” from the Baltimore Sun. Baltimore County apparently is going to try to implement a new electronic report card that provides a detailed assessment of a students growth in elementary school. It will “assess [not only] students’ acquisition of knowledge, but also their application of knowledge” using multiple modes of “measurement” in each individual subject. It is irritating to me (although this is a nice idea and all) that little consideration is given to the extra workload on the teacher. If anyone is a teacher or knows one (elementary school or high school), I am sure they are aware of how much teachers are already highly overworked and underpaid. For the amount of extra hours already required of the job (outside of “contract hours” which is only a portion of how much time teachers dedicate to grading, revising, planning etc.), this additional imposition irks me, especially considering the amount of personal time that is already consumed by report cards. The article does mention this a little at the end. Here’s the link… http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_county/bal-md.co.schools21may21,0,5107596.story
hsvennes said,
May 27, 2008 at 4:04 pm
I read this article and didn’t even think about the teacher workload thing in as much detail- and I am a teacher myself. I guess I am so used to just getting things thrown at me that I have learned to deal with it without complaining. I think that these new report cards are good in theory, but that it just seems like another one of those “brilliant” ideas that districts come up with, use for a few semesters and them get rid of in favor of the traditional methods. Not that traditional methods are always great, but parents are much more comfortable with the A-F thing.