‘Washington Teachers’ Union ee =k EmpowerEdag(@) Contact: Larry Rubin, Washington Teachers’ Union 201-775-0106 Irubin@wtulocai6 net January 25, 2017 Comment responses by DC teachers to survey on DCPS grading policies conducted by the Washington Teachers’ Union and EmpowerED November/December, 2017 There have been students that i know for a fact that have feiled core courses and have missed more than half the school year that have graduated. (2) ‘fa (2) Made phone calls and spoken to parents, but have been yelled at for not sending documents home, and ‘when | do document is returned because of a wrong address and | am told we sill cannot fail them. And when given student failing sheets how we get in trouble when the student does not return it. |Thave multiple students who have never shown up to class. | mark them absent every day. At the end of ‘querter 1, | went to check how many absences certain students had. The students who have never shown up were marked present for the majority of the days. I went back into my aspen attendance to check what it said on those specific days and saw that my attendance for the students who have NEVER COME TO CLASS had been altered. ‘Administration recenlly gave our team 2 new grading policy for the term, which included a mark of 50% for assignments in which the student was present, but did not turn in work | have been told be several different administrators in my building that "too many special education students are feiling” and that itis my responsibilty to “fx it’. In the 2016-2017 school year at Roosevelt, Group 1 teachers’ CSC scores factored in how many students were passing vs failing each class. In small ‘group meetings, administrators have stated that we are not able to fail a student based on poor ‘attendance alone. Administrators have maintained that teachers must make a certain (but not specified) ‘amount of parent phone calls and other interventions (but not specified) to justify a failure, We have been {old that we cannot give students below a 50% on assignments, because we are not allow to give zeros. DCPS does not hold students accountable for their leaming. Administrators, parents, and teachers just want good grades so the school system and the student looks accomplished on paper. No matter how ‘many passing grades are given and what DCPS's graduation rates are, the proficiency rates (ELA and Math) are telling. For years and years DCPS has promoted students that have not mastered grade level material that would warrant a TRUE passing grade. ‘A couple of years ago, | received a phone call to change a grade for a student | had NEVER seen, ‘Student was a senior and my class was needed for graduation. After intial refusal, | was called again the next day by a different person and asked for the same thing, | felt pressured, so | changed it. | was new to Roosevelt so | didn't have courage to stand up to people who have been in school for longer than ! had been. This year, after honestly coming to my administrator and saying that | have failed a significant 1number of students due to attendance, | was asked if| had done Support Plans for them. | said no, because a good number of them don't ever come or pop in once in a while. | was told "you willbe written Up for non-compliance with DCPS policies-you have failed students without having Student Support Plans." I stood my ground and said "So be it, those students deserve F's." The following day, | mentioned the issue to another Administrator in charge over different grade level and was told that "some teachers ‘on my team are just giving low Ds to avoid that issue,” | said in my class a D is eamed so | wouldn't give ‘out any kind of D to someone who hasn't eamed it | often feel pressured to “take into account" a student's IEP, the legal factor (are the parents litigious), their “effort” at the very end of the quarter, or their status 2s @ Senior when the grading window opens. | have had counselors, APs, or other support staff bring students to talk to me or tum in work and wait for the grade to be changed in Aspen. We have been subtly threatened that unless we have fulfilled all possible documentation of ways that we have attempted to support students pass the class, we should ot or cannot fail a student i.e. if we have not called home at least three times, completed a Student ‘Support Plan, completed individual conferences with the student, offered multiple mekeup work ‘assignments, along with scaffolded and differentiated work, then the student has not been given every possible chance to pass the class, and the F is not acceptable. As far es attendance, the attendance ‘eport | receive nightly in my e-mail does not accurately reflect the attendance | input during the day. One time, | accidentally left my attendance untl the end of the day - when | went in to complete it, my classes had already been “posted” with the top half of the students marked "Excused - ISA reason." I corrected the attendance to truly reflect which students had attended that day. This term | have been asked to change the grades of students | have failed, to D's or FA's (failure due to absences). In a department meeting we were also told that part of DCPS policy for grading students who are present but are not completing work, was to give them 50% of the credit. So this is now our current policy. We are also asked to complete student support plans for students who are in danger of failing even though the policy clearly states that the students have to complete it for themselves. Last year, | ‘was scored low for the second cycle of my CSC, supposedly because I had a low weekly average of pass rates. Meaning, every week, my pass rates were being tracked and based on that, CSC points were deducted, | was not even aware that this was a policy, so | brought it up to our principal who said she would meet with me but never did. The conversation on Edmodo regarding this has been deleted. | also ‘taught credit recovery. | had a lot of seniors who were failing because of not showing up. | had to do extensive documentation, like phone calls (often unreturned or numbers not working) and make-up packets (again, would not be done). One particular student who was a senior and didn't show up except for the (ast 2 weeks of credit recovery, asked for the whole semesier’s packet, and | was told to ‘accommodate it and give him the packet. The pathways coordinator though was at least fair that she told ‘me it would be my call. However, because my CSC points have already been deducted because of the low pass rate, | felt the pressure to pass this student. My assistant principal now continues to post data on how many students are passing for each teacher in our department. Although itis anonymous (it just shows the class and the pass rate), and not explicitly demianding that grades be changed, the message is clear: pass more than 80% of your students, or suffer consequences (be it in CSC points lke last year, or in written reprimand). When the Ballou story came out, several teachers in our team found that those messages asking to change grades, have now been deleted. ‘At my former school, | was pressured by emails, conferences with my administrators and during staff meeting to pass students who were not completing work or coming to class, and to mark students absent who were not reporting to class. When a teacher is out for the day, no one accurately posts attendance. All of the students are marked present ~ instead of going through the attendance taken by the substitute and individually marking students presentiabsent. Looking at attendance, there are some students who rarely come to school However, when looking at reports of their absences they have only a few listed. There is defintely something going on behind scenes that changes their attendance (and ! am not talking about those 2students who bring in excuse notes). While no one has directly told me that | have to pass a student, the policies in place make it much easier to pass a student than to fail. Teachers who fail students, even ‘though we tried to notify parents, are asked for “additional interventions" and told explicitly "you can not fail a student if their parents haven't been notified and if you do not have SSP in place” These kind of requirements widely shared by administrators are definitely pressuring teachers to give passing grades to sludents who are never/rarely present. Ifa teacher stil fails a student, they are then not complying with school policies, so points are taken off for CSC. {in the month of November alone, five student absences have been changed to present — not excused ‘absence, but present. No documentation has ever been provided for me as to why these changes were ‘made and no administrator has ever identified themselves to me as the person changing the attendance. | have recommended holding back students and these students have been passed on anyway. ‘8th Grade Academy under Lahue - This woman pressured a lot of teachers to pass students who wes, rarely present in school am not allowed to give any student a grade below 59. This results in massively inflated grades. The Assistant Principal, Tomeka Mckenzie, blatantly told us, “if you think the student should have passed, but wasn't here in school enough, pass them." When teacher said, “REALLLY,” she told teacher individually, "you know { cant say that aloud” Because we use a system of 1 - 4, this system leaves very litle regard to actual. we are culprits of why students are passed on to the middle schoo! level, let alone levels that they don't necessarily qualify to move to, This is in part to the grading policies, the expectations of students, where resources are not equitable and the levels of deficiencies are greater, and the pressure of non-retention since a number of students would be retained if we really looked at readiness. ‘My answers are not specific to the work environment where I am now but this is unwritten rules that apply ‘across the board. | taught my frst unit on Science. I was instructed to give a social studies grade for the first quarter even though | did not teach the subject. | expressed via email to my principal and verbally to the AP that giving aa grade should not be done for content that was not taught in that quarter. In addition, that itis not a reflection of students actual abily in that particular content area. Everything needs to be revamped here. We pass students due to social promotion. Even when they get to benchmark grades of 3 and 5 (where | thought they could be retained). The PRINCIPAL WILL NOT ALLOW IT, period. It is not wonder students get to 12th grade and can not read, they know they are going to pass no matter what effort they put from elementary thru high school Please note that DCPS does not have a consistent grading process for any elementary school. For example: All students ELA or Math grades should refiect the average of units a student passed during that advisory. The grading process is very subjective. We have a goal to reach as a grade level and are reminded of this daily. Pressures are put on us daily to change any grade below a 50% to a 50% ifa student “attempis". An attempt can be just writing their name. | believe the problem begins in elementary school. Students are rarely, if ever, retained. During my ten years of working in DCPS, there have been many students who were more than 2 grade levels below (without IEPs) who have been promoted to the next grade. Would we have these issues at the high schoo! level if we did more about it in elemientary?? The amount of work and documentation that is required for a student to fail (even if they never come to class) is overwhelming. There is no way it can all be done, therefore I feel pressure to pass all of my students. If you don't complete the steps you get an email saying you to meet with the principal and provide all the documentation. You're made to fee! like i's your fault and that your expertise is nonexistent. You are bogged down with makeup work because the culture is students can miss class repeatedly, unexcused, and you have to make sure they pass. | find myself grading things on a low scale,giving students ample chances to do one assignment and more. It makes keeping up with pacing and other demands that much more stressful. What makes it worse is that the students are aware ofthis environment so they take advantage of the situation. I's unfair to the teacher and the students who come ‘every day ready to work and leam. It makes me want to leave education. It needs to stop. Previous to my teaching at Whittier EC, | had been asked by administration to review my grades because parents were concemed that their child had been accustomed to receiving A's in every class but received 8B of Cin my class. | did not get a request thereafter. We NEVER hold a student back. Even if they have over 30 absences, even if they have failed, or are clearly not o grade level. This is a systemic issue. DCPS needs to message that students SHOULD be held back if they are unprepared-instead schools feel like they will get in trouble or "\ook bad! if people get held back. Regardless of grades, central office should see that if a student score way below grade level on PARC, SRI, leady etc, clearly they are not prepared for the next grade. That is not necessarily the schools fault, or the teacher's fault because we can only do so much. If a student comes already below grade level, or gets no support at home, or misses so many days then teachers and schools can ‘only do so much and help that student grow. In the past it has been made a part of our IMPACT evaluation (CSC) that a percentage of our class must be passing, regardless of a students’ attendance record, in order for @ teacher to receive a high score. ‘This was the case last year and several years prior. This fall | gave a student an incomplete but an administrator went into the system and gave the student a grade. | have also heard similar stories from colleagues at my school. ‘Students are consistently passed on to the next grade level without being able to read at grade level or do grade level math and several of these students that have passed on have done so with failing grades | teach PreK 3 we are not altering our assessments | have passed a student and they received a lower grade then | told them they were to eam, | have also ‘gave a lower grade to a student that has passed my class. Many students do not complete assignments ‘88 tasked and when they do complete the work itis well below minumum expectations. Students do not receive the proper resource to service thelr educational needs. My school does not offer advanced curriculum to students that may benefit from the program. They do not have TI83/84 calculators to provide students taking Pre-Algebra or Algebra. My overhead projector does not work, effectively. An OCTO tech has looked into the issue and has recommended a new projector and | stil have not received one. My students do not receive technology resources end our instructional time is limited to 55 minutes per day to expect mastery of content and standards, There was a incident in which a student missed 70 plus days and i inquired about the FA process and ‘was strongly discouraged. the rationale | was given was that Central Office would not do anything about it The root problem is ASPEN! Students can pass courses by receiving a C (I believe) one quarter and F's the rest. A numerical average system should be implemented to make sure that grades are accurate representations of the work a student is putting in ‘The pressure we feel to pass students comes from central office. which in tum causes our administrators to pressure us. ‘Comments from AP- We need students to pass. Central Office says our goal is to pass students. We all get dinged if Ifa student comes to school, they should be passing (even if the student did not complete ‘work or attend class.) HOWEVER, our principal has only given us the best of direction and told us that grades should be an accurate reflection. (This was even before the Ballou story broke.) ''m not sure what is or is not Policy now. But teachers here at Cardozo have been told we cannot give any student a grade below a 60 unless they refuse to attempt the assignment Also, at every marking period we have to complete a student support plan for students making a D or below. Then, we cannot receive @ 4 on our CSC unless we pass 80% or more of our students for Terms 1 and 4. | have never explicitly been told | must pass a student or | will receive punishment, but polices are definitely in place to ‘make it dificult or punitive if we do not pass students. 4Due to excessive paperwork and student conferences, it was extremely difficult to assign failing grades during the first quarter. As a first year teacher, myself and others at RHS were not aware of the full grading policy until the very last minute, and thus were not able to assign fair grades. Entering quarter two, myself and others were on top of the grading policy and ready to implement it with better timeliness. However, we were notified 3 instructional days prior to midterms that SSPs were to be created for mid- terms this time, and that students could not be failed if they did not receive or complete an SSP. This was limiting because the following day was Dec. ist PD, then a field trip on Dec. dth where 95% of our students were out of the building, Realizing that midterms were a needed time to notify students of their actual grades, myself and my colleagues created SSPs and called homes, notifying families when possible. We were in the mindset that students should know their true grades to improve, and so we ‘chose to do what we could given the circumstances. have been pressured to change grades at both high schools | worked et ( Cardozo and Wilson). At ‘Wilson, | was not only pressured to change grades to help kids pass classes to graduate but also co that they would be eligible to play sports. Both schools graduate students that are no where near prepared for college or careers. ‘There has been strenuous pressure to hit specific targets regardless of student performance or attendance. am a SPED teacher. | have middle school students within my classroom. As of last year we were told that we have to start giving letter grades. Before we gave the students U for unsatisfactory and S for satisfactory. | now have to give letter grades for reading, math and science when my students function levels are prek - third grads but that is not reflected on the report card. So when | give @ grade it appears they passed 6,7,8 grade level of reading, science and math when they are on certificate tract. The teachers did bring up their concems to administration and was told by Christopher Nance that it was mandated from downtown. Teachers do not feel pressure from administrators to "pass students.” And sending this survey out does ‘not absolve the district of blame for the known the pressure it places on Principals and schools io meet quotas, rather than act in the best interest of their students. How can the district have the expectation that students will matriculate through high school to be college and career ready when many arrive to high school with elementary school reading levels? 12 year graduation rates for a large number of these students isn't a reasonable expectation, and the district forces schools to make dificult choices to pass students through their grade levels or for "social promotion,” otherwise they face losing funding for those students who do not graduate within a 4 year time frame. The business of education should focus on identifying, understanding and meeting the needs of the students you serve- those needs look VERY DIFFERENT across the wards of this city. Remedial courses should be for credit, there should be a 5 year graduation rate, and students should be required to take high school exit exams prior to leaving high school. Students often attend schools as “out of boundary” students, oftentimes facing 2 hour commutes ‘one way on multiple buses and trains. Providing transportation like school buses for out of boundary students will help alleviate a large portion of the truancy rates we see for this group of kids. So many students come from very challenging circumstances, circumstances that work in direct opposition to the resiliency we altempt to teach them on a daily basis. | frequently speak with the majority of our students about their challenges in class (that's my role as a counselor), which often lead to discussions of challenges at home. This includes: trauma, sexual abuse, no food in the house, no furniture in the house, parent substance abuse, student substance abuse, assault in the community, witnessed community Violence, absentee parents, loss of loved ones, limited financial means, transiency, homelessness, parent Prostituting, etc etc. What's worse, | typically hear a combination of the above stated, These circumstances do not promote personal, social or academic growth, nor do they help students to show up ready to work in class, nor are they challenges that can be overcome by teachers making a lesson plan “fun’ or “engaging,” I's time the district acted lke it cares about the well being of its families. 1) Provide students with transportation- not metro cards but actual transportation if they are an out of boundary 5student, 2) Provide all students with free lunch, 3) Provide credit for remedial courses, 4) Increase Graduation timelines to 5 years, instead of 4, 5) Provide CTE training in al of i's schools so that students ‘can opt into a certification program to leam a skill or trade by graduation, 6) Eliminate the emphasis on IMPACT evaluations for teachers, 7) Provide additional social and emotional support staif for all schools, 8) Eliminate $20,000.00 bonuses for “highly effective" teachers, and provide salaries for co-teachers in every classroom at the elementary and middle schoo! level, 9) Provide students with evening school options, and allow students who have a financial need to contribute to their household to start school later in the day...the list of suggestions goes on and on. College isn't for everyone, and pushing students to apply so you can check a box on a checklist o say that you did it does litle to serve the needs of our districts students. What is the point in providing opportunities if these students are prepared to succeed? ‘What is the point in failing to give our students options after graduation because they can't function in college level classes? Data, at that point, is fraud- no different than fudging the numbers on payroll. And more importantly, itis not different than setting our students up for failure. They have no real options after high school if they graduate ill-prepared to succeed in college or the workforce, We have an implied policy at our schoo! that no student can have a D or F grade for any one advisory. if a student does have one, the administration calls the teacher in for @ ‘conversation’ about the fact that “a Portion of your students have Ds or Fs." The implication is that the teacher is st fault when itis really an indication of the student not completing work or failing to master the course content. The other altemative is that teachers are told to come up with individual improvement plans for each student, to document afl efforts made to “bring the student beck up to our standards,” and ail parent and student communications. Out of 100 students, if we followed standard statistical bell curve for assignment of grades 10-15 students should receive below average grades. (If not, the course content or grading standards are too lax.) Many teachers will progress through the entire school year with NO Ds or Fs. Further, we have a school policy that teachers are required to award a grade of 59 for any assignment not tumed in or if a student scores below a 63 on any formative or summative assessment. Consequently, a student merely needs to show ‘minimal proficiency for 13% of the work for the YEAR and they can pass the class. They do not need to show anything close to mastery-the standard outlined in the Chancellors last missive to parents and teachers—but, simply show SOME level of growth. The result? Students who do very litte (we had a ‘student last year that slept through ALL of her classes throughout the year) and are passed to the &th sgrade with Cs and Ds. Itis not the exception! Finally, most of our SPED kids are provided with “support” in the manner of teacher-aided heavy handed “assistance” (read the teacher gives the students the answers) of course assignments and tests. The results are that most of our our SPED and ELL populations are awarded high grades ( As and Bs). However, in realty, these students continue to function significantly below grade level. One administrator articulated that our job as a middle school was to get the kids through and let the high schoo! deal with the problems.’ pressured to pass students in credit recovery who are either pulled out of class and given an average grade with students not responsible for rd or 4th quarter work or wino are pulled out of an elective class. my name has also been used as a "placeholder" for credit recovery courses when | don't even see or teach those students | used to teach Twilight classes and the standards for passing are ridiculously low. The class is supposed to represent a full year’s work in 9 weeks; however, students that barely attend and/or barely do any work are also being pressured. When | tried to stand up to this, | got blacklisted from teaching Twilight classes. My students are In a Communication and Education support program in which some if not all are functioning below grade level. However, we still have to place our grades in ASPEN in addition to progress reports. I strongly believe the ASPEN system does not adequately represent my students and is ‘somewhat redundant to have to do and adds unnecessary paperwork to our caseloads. | think these ‘students should be subjected to only progress reports which provides a better screenshot of their goals ‘and current functional levels,The percentage of students passing our class is @ condition for our CSC. This means that if we have eamed an effective score for the things we have in place, but students do not pass, we are penalized. In 2 school where most students are performing far below grade level, it makes sense that they not pass the corresponding class. It is unfair to penalize teachers wien the district determines certain weights be assigned (o assessments and homework (which we cannot control). Also, at KMMS it is required that our assessments be created using PARCC items and Eureka Math items, Teachers are required to give 50% for eny assignments students do not complete per the DCPS policy ‘As I mentioned above, itis common knowledge, that | imagine admin would deny if asked about it, that ‘ur principal does not "believe" in holding students back, even when they are severely delayed. There have been many students in my years teaching at Hyde-Addison who have been pushed through to the ‘next grade and just continued to fall farther and farther behind. Its honestly heartbreaking to watch, knowing that repeating a grade would have given them a much better chance at success. My Understanding, and what is discussed among teachers, is that this is to make us “look good" within the district — that we don't have to hold any students back. Again, | 100% believe our admin will deny this is the case to save face, but it absolutely is. One of the most frustrating things about working in DCPS is that teachers have very few, if any, ways to share frustrations or very real concerns about administrators, ‘This is one of those big concerns. lowest possible grade is 50%, which vastly skews grades, making it nearly impossible to fail | do not fee! that the grading sysiem for DCPS is a useful tool in determining whether a child has successfully completed a class. On October 27th, first quarter records day, three administrators attempted to intimidate a group of teachers from across grade levels to pass every student. The method they used was by saying that ‘we better have crossed our T's and dotted our I's" with regards to student/family interventions and documentation. When we asked for a specific requirement for interventions, one of the administrators ‘said "you're not going to get that” One Assistant Principal told us that "the parents know the grading policy and will hold us accountable to it It was obvious at the time that this was also a form of pressure to pass students. At later date the AP contradicted this statement by telling us that if we, the teachers, didn't make a student support plan for every failing student then we cannot fail the student. The reason why these two statements are contradictory is that the Grading Policy is not clear that the student support plans are the teachers’ responsibility. From p14 of the Grading and Reporting Guide: “Instructional ‘support plans must be developed forall failing students. These plans should identify what each student ‘needs to do to improve his/her grade (see optional provided exemple plans). All plans should be documented and approved by leachsrs, however, sludents can be given the opportunity to draft their own plans. If students are unable or unwilling to draft their own plans, teachers must assume responsibilty for plan development.” From p16 of the Guide under the heading instructional Support Plan Forms: Student ‘Support Plan This worksheet is designed for the student to complete and submit to the teacher. A copy of this form once completed, should be included in the student's academic record and shared with parents ‘or guardians. The form on p61 in the appendix clearly states "Completed by Student” The form on p62 sisted Student Support Plan" states "Completed in conference with the student, with teacher, school counselor, mentor or administrator assisting” So ifthe families know the grading policy, then they would know the burden does not fall (exclusively) on the teacher to make an SSP, and therefore this cannot be held above our heads as pressure for passing a student. Settings in Aspen make it possible for students to miss 3 advisories and still pass a class, We must have 80% pass rate in order to get a 4 on our CSC. Teachers have agreed to retain a student but the following year the student is moved to the next grade. ‘The student struggles because s/he has not met skills from previous grade We were told indirect to do illegal grade change AFTER student missed almost 65% of school days. ‘Such, give extra work, do you know you have lot of failing students, etc.| think the DCPS Grading Policy inflates grades. For exemple, an "F* translates as @ 58% when figuring the grades. The requirement of s0 many grades per student of so meny types els0 works to inflate the grades. | am astounded by the high grade averages my students have. They are good students but the ‘grades are very, very high. No one seemed overly concemed about this two years ago. | have worked with Dr. Clarke and the ASPEN team and we have resolved many issues that plagued the system two years ago, but the inflation ofthe grades remains. At Walls, | have not been pressured to change grades bbut there are many extra tasks that one must accomplish if you have a failing student. The burden ‘remains on the teacher and not on the student to improve a grade. We are required to have 80% - 85% passing rate! | would but for fear of repercussions, | do not wish to share more than | already have. My Incident dates back to when Candy Peterson was a union leader. My AP told me that my impactiCSC. ‘would be lowered if| didn’t change a grade for @ student that earned a C. Parents were pressuring me to provide make up work because the student has earned higher grades in the past. Additionally it isa well known policy at Deal that teachers of 6th grade students are not allowed to give grades lower than C- if they do they have been put on a “plan” by administration. ‘Teachers are forced to provide an unrealistic amount of documentation. Administrators force teachers to provide make-up work when the child has simply refused to complete assignments. Impact scores are effected if you do not “get with the program” No one at Roosevelt is abie to follow the policy in its entirety because attendance data is regularly ‘changed thus students who have missed more than 30 days of a class are stil required to be provided ‘the opportunity to pass because in ASPEN it seems as though they were present more days than they actually were. In the elementary schoo! level is it devastating to have an administrator ( Heidi Haggerty) question your ‘grading practices as it retates to certain students. On several occasions | was asked to just give children certain grades so we would not have to deal with a parent later. | have been asked to retest a child because the DIBEL and TRC score / color for growth was not what the principal thought was an accurate account of the student. Heidi only sees color bands as a bonus for herself. Later, that same year! was given " developing" on my IMPACT because like Betsy DeVos my school principal is unware of the difference of proficiency and growth. In elementary school , my principal makes it very difficult to retain ‘students, Heidi Haggerty continues to say statistically retention does not guarantee a child's success in the future, it only hinders them socially. Students at my school are often pushed ahead to the next grade ‘because again the principal does not want to have hard and real conversations with parents. Its troubling that our studenis are being pushed on with out the fundamental basics needed to prepare for thei ‘academic future, No child would be treated like this if the majority was Caucasian. | did contact the union to express my concems more than once and no one ever got back to me. Grades, to my knowledge have never been changed, however my roster percentages have Many students have been pushed to the next grade, after receiving all F's and D's Previously, | taught at Anacostia and an administrator changed the grades of 2 students who missed ‘more than the maximum number of classes allowed. She did this so they could graduate. 9th Grade pressures are enormous My grades changed for certain SPED students | have been retailiated against in my IMPACT ‘CSC impact rubric requires that we have 85% passing rating in order to achieve a high rating | had a first grader last year that was frequently absent and excessively tardy. Her family requested that she be tested for SPED services, but the school refused due to her high number of absences. This student was advanced to second grade, despite the 1s on her report card. | didnt reach my TAS goal (and didn't receive highly effective) because said student didn't reach her reading goal. | met with my principal and my union rep, who stated that she shouldn't be on my list since she should have been tested. My principal said he would think about it, but didn't take her off my list, advanced her to second grade, and she is behind in he reading and math,| don't think the district, elementary schoo! principals and teachers understand what standards based grading is. The report card is @ poor reflection on what is happening in the classroom and parents don't lnderstand it or value it. It leads to teacher confusion of developmentally appropriate "accountability" for young children, especially as students edge their way to middle school. Clarity and professional development for best practice in grading and formative assessments (outside of standardized testing) is LONG overdue. The district has spent more money and time on ASPEN, but no time in the quality of the grading system and report card. There have been seniors to fail my core class and stil graduate. | have also felt pressure to change grades or provide students with frivolous assignments to make up a school years worth of work. |'am new to DCPS/Ballou. | am unable to give @ fair response to this question: My schoo gradustion Percentage is an accurate representation of student readiness for college/ cereer. * Strongly disagree 12 345 Strongly agree (Our CSC rubrics require us to pass 90% of our students, ‘Social promotion is common place at my school. Rarely if ever, do students get retained. This causes ‘teachers in the following grade major difficulty when trying to mest the needs of their students. These ‘students lack of success usually results in become behavior issues (disrupting the inetructionel environment). High expectations isn’t truly 2 reality when teachers can't expect students to complete ail work (homework, ciasswork, special projects). Students know that they don't have to work hard to be Promoted. Summer school becomes an option for enrichment as if students are on grade level. When students aren't ready for high school, it has nothing to do with the teachers in high schoo! but everything ‘0 do with elementary school. No! The blame can't be placed on middle school either. Education is built {rom the basics. Students with many absences beyond the DCPS allowable amount get passing grades. tis very unfair that policies pushed down from central office are now being “investigated” by the same people who have insisted for years that good data is more important than true proficiency. ‘Specifically for reading grades, the WTU and DCPS has yet to acknowledge that there is no ELA curriculum. How are students expected to meet a criteria or demonstrate mastery of curricula materials ‘and assessment that are not uniform. The lack of an identified curriculum such as Houghton-Miffin or ‘Open Court means a passing or failing grade is left to the discretion ofthe teacher and students lack consistency when teachers are forced to continuously create materials. Staff livelihoods are connected to whether or not students meet the bar and the pressure is understandable. Every day teachers have their backs against the wall, careers on the line with little to none of the materials needed to provide students with the leaming opportunity they deserve. Then we end up with stories such as the one that prompied this survey. This goes deeper than this one incident. The practices of DCPS as a whole and its ‘expectations aligned with what schools actually have by way of instructional materials needs to be re- evaluated. had @ parent appeal grades even though the child was under-performing in most areas. Insteed of ‘supporting my decision (complete with documentation of the child's work and assignments) administration overtumed the grade to appease the parent. ‘When | asked about the policy for failure due to absence, | was told that administrators designate failures due to absences, teachers coukin't. One criteria for the highly effective level of the Support of the Local ‘Schoo! Initiatives for CSC lists having a "Average course pass rate of 90% or higher." Our TAS. ‘exemptions are limited to 10% of our roster, even when more than 10% have >30 unexcused absences. (On more than one occasion, | failed some second grade students due to lack of progress. When | Tetumed to schoo! the following year, | discovered that the children had been promoted. ! was told that it ‘was up to the parent to decide if a child is retained. | asked , “even if they can't read’/ | was told if the parent wants the child to move on, the child moves on Itis unfortunate however one of our administrators coerced us to give students grades.| was told not to give students | grades even though they never came to class, bc they'd run into F grads. {was also told not to give any F grades without student support plans. | wrote stacks of plans and had them mailed off all year. There were only 1-4 students in each of my 11 and 12 grade classes that ‘attended so i had to write an extremely high number of plans. When | Ieft Ballou they asked if! had any ‘work be most teachers had none. | have them the binders ! kept all my forms and graded material in. A ‘graduating senior told me and the teacher next door he had walked. We both said we'd failed him be he only came 4 days the entire year. He said he didn't know how he passed. Admin was well aware students ‘roamed the halls. Teachers lst them hang out in the Wright rooms, hallways, and the gym. Counselors kept changing the schedule all year adding bad behavior students to teachers rooms that didn't ‘complaint...miaking it even harder to track them or create an environment conducive to learning. All these happened in my first year there and only my second year of ever Teaching. Aside from no support and kids not being in class to be able to lear, | got a low rating with absolutsly no debrief. They even asked a student questions during my impact...the kid was never at schoo! and came in late, yet | was held accountable when she said she didn't know the answer. | got @ 2.22 and 2.88 From bellous vp and 3.00 ‘and 3.44 the same time From master teachers. | was told by a vp that they had to give some teachers low scores In order to justify students having low testing scores and to be able to get rid of teachers they didn't want. | was further told | should be happy with a 2.8 bc most mid year teachers were lucky to get a 2.5. All my kids had growth and I got a good tas score, but Ballou stil game me a lower rating. Teachers that didn’t complain about what was going on for high scores while those that didn't go along had lower scores. ‘We need to change the way we grade elementary work. Grading should start right away and be consistent. ‘Aspen controls final grade. Not good Itis @ part of our GSC evaluation to pass at least 80% of our students, in order to score highly effective. Were also pressured to submit our grades prior to the deadline. have had an entire ciass to be given B's by the administrator, students who feiled a semester with an °F have been given D’s, C’s of possibly B's, Students who've missed over two months of school were ‘passed to the next grade level. Students who failed were sent to summer school, and those same students were kicked out of summer school, but they were stil passed on to the next grade level. ‘My grade level administrator (Mr. Errol Johnson) has provided thinly veiled threats to our impact scores by telling us in meetings that “if you have more than 5 students failing" your ciasses “that's not effective". He had weekly (sometimes more than weekly) "data meetings" where the only agenda item was interrogating us about our grades, week after week. He would implore us, in some cases, that we needed to find ways to support students getting passing grades even when they were absent more than 25% of the time and did very litle work. He would emphasize repeatedly that we had to “reach our numbers" of having 85% passing. He would sit with us, both individually and in group meetings with names on the board and say things like "8 of these students have to come off the F list’. He had the assistance of two returning teachers with administrative aspirations. The two teachers met the new teachers multiple times to inform us that we absolutely had to make sure that 85% of students were passing. We were told by those teachers that our plan this year, as in the previous year, was to just figure out how many students ‘we could fail and stil reach that goal. Then, they said, we would come together as a team and decide, in ‘advance, who those students were going to be. At the end of the year, Mr. Johnson called at least three teachers into his office and handed them multtiple grade change forms with students’ names on them and told the teachers what he wanted them to change their grade to, without explanation. CHEC teachers are required to use the standard DCPS pian for success for any students who are feiling classes. Our CSC rubric says that "20% of students receive passing remarks". Students who have received F's in multiple classes get moved on to the next grade level. | teach at Ballou High School (3 years) and | have never been asked to pass a student who | was failing. | never received any notices from Aspen that someone changed a student's grade. | have never been 10bullied or intimidated to do anything unethical. | have taught in 4 states for 35 years and | am not aware of any unethical grading practices being done at Ballou H. S. This survey did not address suspension, and whether or not teachers’ behavior referrals for level 3-5 infractions are being carried out. Or if suspensions are being withheld. Or if teachers are pressured to bring students back into the classroom afier unsafe behavior. ‘AS a teacher at Roosevelt STAY Opportunity Academy last year, | felt pressured to change grades on ‘Several oocesions. In fact, | remember inputting grades and then logging back into the system to notice that they had been changed by someone else. This was also the case for attendance. | was told that my Impact score would drop if | had “too many” students fail my course. However, itis a known FACT that ‘attendance continues to be @ major concer at ail of the opportunity academies in DCPS. Basically, everything that happened with teachers at Ballou, happened at RSTAY. Deal grades are from 59-100. Formative and Summative Assessments on IB Rubrics may only be converted into the following grade: 63, 66, 77, 83, 87, 93, 100. We use GOLD. Most of the questions listed above are not applicable (N/A) to early childhood (Pre-K3 and Pre-K). At times a student may be taken out of one class and put into another without explanation. And the students usually have issues with attendance. | don't think the principal is changing grades. | don't know wat the school counselor does with switching students and placing them in credit recovery mid year. Attendance changes, | believe. But | cannot prove any of this ‘At Banneker, we were forced to change our grading scale to comply with DCPS mandates, a change we, 8 @ faculty, mostly did not agree with. We find this lack of autonomy and trust of the teachers and schoo! leadership disheartening and not in the spirit of rigor and accountability. Itjust requires a lot of documentation before students can be held back. Even though, teachers may have Suificient proof, administrators make the final decision, which prevents anyone from being retained | provide supports with muttiple opportunities for success. Ballou is one of the highest truent schools in the district and our students have different challenges around attendance. ‘Attendance is updated to reflect Tardy siudents daily after teacher entry izabeth A. Davis, Presider +239 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20003, T: 202.517.1477 F: 202.517.0673 www.wtulocal6.org nWashington Teachers’ Union and EmpowerED Survey of DCPS Teachers on Grading, Promotion Policies PRESSURE OR COERCION FELT High Schoo! Middle Schoo! Education Campus Elementary School 40/40 High Schools Other High Schools 40/40 Middle Schools Other Middle Schools ‘40/40 Education Campus Other Education Campus 40/40 Elementary Schools Other Elementary Schools 40/40 Schools Total Other Schools Total Total Highest Response Schools Anacostia HS Ballou HS Banneker HS Cardozo EC Columbia Heights EC Deal MS Dunbar HS Eastern HS Mckinley Tech HS Roosevelt HS Wilson HS Woodson HS Yes 179 50 4 32 265 103, 66 uw 34 19 122 122 244 10 10 24 v 14 B 14 27 uw u No 124 39 14 132 306 18 176 294 Total 300 89 18 164 Smt 157 130 24 59 3 23 56 96 240 298 538 18 30 34 28 20 14 2 a5 34 25 Yes 59.7% 56.2% 22.2% 19.5% 46.4% 65.6% 50.8% 45.8% 57.6% 0.0% 23.1% 14.3% 19.8% 50.8% 40.9% 45.4% 56% 33% 11% 71% 61% 70% 93% 56% 40% 79% 48% 65% %Ne 40.3% 43.8% 771.8% 80.8% 53.6% 34.4% 49.2% 54.2% 42.4% 100,0% 76.9% 85.7% 80.2% 49.2% 59,19 54.64 4a om 30% 20% 30m 30% 7% 44% 60%, 21% 56% 35%2 ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF READINESS Strongly aisagroe 107 2 Education Campus 2 Elementary School 4 Total = ad 40/40 High Schools 6 Other High Schools 34 40/40 Middle Schools 8 Other Middle Schools 10 40/40 Education Campus 2 Other Education Campus ° 40/40 Elementary Schools 5 Other Elementary Schools 6 40/40 Schools Total 84 Other Schools Total 50 Total = 134 highest Response Schools Anacostia HS 4 Ballou HS 8 Banneker HS. ° Cardozo €C 7 Columbia Heights EC 6 Deal Ms 6 Dunbar HS 10 Eastern HS a Mckinley Tech HS 2 Roosevelt HS u Wilson HS 5 Woodson HS 8 Disagree 65 2 19 107 31 32 v7 a 43 61 104 Neither agree nor disagree Agree 80 30 31 B 7 5 70 35 188 83 43 3B 34 v7 10 3 19 10 ° 1 6 3 2 15 40 19 75 32 96 49 171 aL 6 2 a 4 0 2 6 4 5 3 8 3 2 2 aca 2 6 6 3 10 2 5 1 Strongly agree 30 9 3 40 82 u 2 BSucenSa uv 62 7 Total responses 312 96 18 178 604, 162 136 26 64 3 2B 60 105 251 318 569 18 32 35 30 2 15 26 15 34 26 v Disagree total 472 43 3 33 251 100 66 2 27 2 1 2B 7 a7 at 238 B 23 19 10 a1 19 24 13 13. ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF READINESS Strongly disagree Percentage High School 34% Middle School 22% Education Campus 1% Elementary Schoo! 2% Total 24% 40/40 High Schools 23% Other High Schools 5% 140/40 Middle Schools 1% Other Middle Schools 16% 140/40 Education Campus 67% Other Education Campus 0% 40/40 Elementary Schools 8% Other Elementary Schools 6% 40/40 Schools Total 33% Other Schools Total 16% Total 28% Disagree 21% 23% 6% 11% 18% 19% 24% 15% 27% 0% 8% 13% 10% 17% 19% 18% Neither agree nor disagree 26% 32% 39% 39% 31% 27% 23% 38% 30%: 0% 46% 37% 38% 30% 30% 30% ‘Agree 10% 14% 28% 20% 14% 8% 13% 12% 16% 33% 23% 25% 13% 2B% 15% 14% Strongly agree 10% 9% 17% 22% 14%, 4% 16% 456 13% 0% 23% 17% 28% 1% 19% 14% Total rasponses 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% Disagree total 55.1% 44.8% 16.7% 18.5% 41.6% 61.7% 48.5% 46.2% 42.2% 66.7% 1.7% 21.7% 16.2% 50.6% 34.9% 41.8%4 PLACES BARRIERS High Schoo! Middle Schoo! Education Campus Elementary School Total 40/40 High Schools Other High Schools 40/40 Middle Schools Other Middle Schools 40/40 Education Campus Other Education Campus 40/40 Elementary School: Other Elementary Schools 40/40 Schools Total Other Schools Total Total Highest Response Schools ‘Anacostia HS Ballou HS Banneker HS, Cardozo EC Columbia Heights EC Deal MS Dunbar HS Eastern HS. McKinley Tech HS Roosevelt HS wilson HS Woadson HS Strongly disagree aa 1B 6 65 115 B 18 6 7 1 5 16 46 36 76 2 he BE NCONRUeO Disagree 33 8 3 21 65 Oo ON UNANNYEN Neither ‘agree nor disagree 58 2 3 59 142 32 25 8 14 0 2 23 31 63 2 135 4 S Agree 65 2 3 16 105 34 27 5 15 3 6 8 45 53 98 10 Strongly agree 125 32 3 7 77 70 48 Total responses Agree total 312 96 18 178 604 162 136 26 64 3 3B 60 105 251 318 569 18 Ey 35 30 2 15 26 a5 34 26 v7 190 53 6 33 282 104 8 2 35, 2 4 B v7 131 131 262 14 2 19 21 15 10 5 29 10 2 €& PLACES BARRIERS Neither Strongly agree nor Strongly Total disagree Disagree disagree Agree agree _— responses Agree total High Schoo! 10% 11% 19% 21% = 40% 100% 60.3% Middle Schoo! 14% 8% 23% = 22% = 33% 100% 55.2% Education Campus 33% 17% 17% 17% 17% 100% 33.3% Elementary Schoo! 27% 12% 33% 9% = 10% 100% 18.5% Total 19% 11% 24% «17% 29% 100% 46.7% 40/40 High Schools 2% 8% 20% 21% 43% 100% 64.2% Other High Schools 13% 13% 18% 20% «= 35% 100%. 55.1% 40/40 Middle Schools 23% 0% 31% = «19% 27% 100% 46.2% Other Middle Schools 11% 13% 22% 23% 31% 100% 54.7% 40/40 Education Campus 33% 0% 0% 0% = 67% 100% 66.7% Other Education Campus 38% 15% 15% 23% 8% 100% 30.8% 140/40 Elementary Schools 27% 13% 38% «10% «= 12% 100% 21.7% Other Elementary Schools 40% 10% 30% 8% 9% 100% 16.2% 40/40 Schools Total 14% 8% 25% = «18% 34% 100% 52.2% Other Schools Total 24% 12% 23% «17% 25% 100% 41.2% Total 20% 11% 20% = «17% «= 29% 100% 46.0%6. GRADE OR ATTENDANCE CHANGED Yes No Total = %Yes = % No High School 91 22a 312 29.2% = 70.8% Middle Schoo! 25 m1 96 26.0% 74.0% Education Campus 1 v7 18 5.6% 94.4% Elementary School v 161 178 9.6% = 90.4% Total 134 470 604 22.2% 77.8% 40/40 High Schools 37 105 162 35.2% 64.8% Other High Schools 23 107 136 213% 78.7% 40/40 Middle Schools 5 a 26 © 19.2% 80.8% Other Middle Schools ” a7 64 26.6% 73.4% 40/40 Education Campus 0 3 3 00% — 100.0% Other Education Campus a 2 1B 7.7% = 92.3% 40/40 Elementary Schools 7 53 60 11.7% 88.3% Other Elementary Schools 9 96 105 86% (91.4% 40/40 Schools Total 69 182 251 275% 72.5% Other Schools Total 56 262 318 17.6% 82.4% Total 25 44g 569 22.0% 78.0% Highest Response Schools Anacostia HS 6 2 18 -33%@ 67% Ballou HS 6 26 2 19% 81% Banneker HS 4 8 9 11% 89% Cardozo EC 4 31 35 11%@ 89% Columbia Heights £C 5 25 30 17%@ 83% Deal MS 10 2 22-45% 55% Dunbar HS. 5 10 15-33% 67% Eastern HS d 25 26 4% 96% Mckinley Tech HS 3 2 15 20% = 80% Roosevelt HS 20 u 34 50% 41% wilson HS. 5 2 26 19% = 81% Woodson HS 8 9 17-47% 83%i ADMINISTRATORS TRUST MY JUDGMENT Strongly disagree Disagree High Schoo! ‘Middle School Education Campus Elementary Schoo! Total 40/40 High Schools, Other High Schools 40/40 Midale Schools Other Middle Schools 40/40 Education Campus Other Education Campus 40/40 Elementary Schools Other Elementary Schools ‘40/40 Schools Total Other Schools Total Total Highest Response Schools ‘Anacostia HS Ballou HS. Banneker HS Cardozo EC Columbia Heights EC Deal MS Dunbar HS: Eastern HS Mckinley Tech HS wilson HS Woodson HS 53 16 0 10 73 37 2 2 un wuce vas 53 8 1 18 80 disagree 86 31 3 36 156 a 39. Agree 66 22 8 45, 14a 28 37 5 v7 Vv 26 50 86 136 Strongly agree 54 19 6 68 148, 2 30 7 2 2 al v7 48 48 94 342 oF unroraauboa Total responses 312 96 8B 178 604 162 136 26 2B 105 251 318 569 18 32 38 30 22 15 26 a5 34 26 "7 Disagree total 106 24 1 28 159 69 30 5 15 1 10 15 8s 60 use ADMINISTRATORS TRUST MY JUDGMENT Neither Strongly agree nor Strongly Total Disagree disagree Disagree disagree Agree agree responses —_ total Percentage High School 17% «7% 28% KTH 100% 34.0% Middle School 17% = 8% 32%_—=«23KH—« 20% 100% 25.0% Education Campus 0% = KATH: MK 33% 100K 5.6% Elementary Schoo! 6% «10% 20% = 25% 39% = 100% 15.7% Total «13% = 13% 26K 23K 25%H 100% 26.3% 40/40 High Schools, 23% ©: 20% = 27% =A 100% 42.6% Other High Schools 9% —«13%@ = 29% 27% 22% 100% 2.1% 40/40 Mile Schools, 8% «1K SKK: 7K 100% 19.2% Other Middle Schools 1% 8% 31% TH 19K 100K 8.4% 40/40 Education Campus 0% 33% 0% 0% = «67% == 100% 33.3% Other Education Campus 0% = «0% 3% AGH 31% 100% 00% 40/40 Elementary Schools 8% = «8% 17% BH 28% 100% 16.7% Other Elementary Schools 5% «10% 15% 25% HGH 100% 14.3% 40/40 Schools Total «18% «= 16% 27% 20% 19% 100% 33.9% Other Schools Total —«9%_—=s10%_— 25% 27% ~—=««30%_—=—=«100% 18.9% Total «13% «13K = 26% 24H 25 100% «25.596 20003. T: 202.517.1477 F: 202.517.0673 www.wtulocal6.org