KARCHER STAFF BLOG
Karcher 2016-2017 School Calendar
Student's of the week for
February 27 - March 3
- Mckayla Hanna: (Onyx)
- Mckayla is a fantastic girl! She has been working hard to stay caught up and is doing a great job putting her best effort forward. She always has a smile on her face which is appreciated by all who know her. Thanks Mckayla and keep up the great work!
- Kylie Staube: (Applied Academics)
- Kylie is a responsible student that regularly participates in class. She is always kind and very helpful to her peers and teachers.
- Gage Taylor: (Diamond)
- Gage is a great example of a student the follows the Karcher Way on a daily basis. He consistently works to his potential in all his classes. He is responsible and respectful to his classmates.
- Bethany Bauerle: (Hive)
- Bethany is doing an awesome job taking responsibility for her work and is displaying am incredibly positive attitude throughout her day.
- Breanna Grissmeyer: ( Silver)
- Breanna is a conscientious and dedicated student and we appreciate the extraordinary effort she puts in every day.
- Jasmine Medina Lopez: (Karcher Character Bucks)
- Jasmine is a fantastic young lady. She is kind to everyone around her and always has a smile on her face. Thanks Jasmin!
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Kudos
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- Marilee Hoffman was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK! Congrats Marilee and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits.
- If you see Tyler Smith give him a shout out as he qualified to compete in the state level competition for the National Geographic Bee on March 31!!!!!!!
- Thank you to Kurt Rummler, Jenny Geyso, Mike Jones, and Amanda Thate for allowing some visitors to come into your rooms this past week for the short about of time they were at Karcher! The Randall School District just started co-teaching this year and they are planning to begin Units of Study for Reading and Writing so they were in our building seeing both in action! They were truly impressed with what they saw when they were here on Friday! I did not know Peggy Black was bringing them along on Friday but once they were here I was like... absolutely you can go into our teacher's rooms to see the great things we are doing!
- Tough loss for the boys basketball team this weekend and head coach Steve Berezowitz :( You had a GREAT season... tough way to end but the athletes were lucky to work with you all season!
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Reminders
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- Monday, March 6 - Extended Advisory all week this week!!!
- Monday, March 6 - BLT Meeting
- Monday, March 6 - Band-O-Rama @ BHS @ 7:00pm
- Students who are in band will be leaving Karcher at 12:50 to go to BHS and will return at 2:15.
- Band-O-Rama will begin at 7:00pm in the gym at BHS as it involves all students grades 5-12 who are involved in our band program!
- Tuesday, March 7 - Scheduling day - this involves some of our teaching staff (you know who you are :)
- Lets pray it does not get moved again!!!
- Wednesday, March 8 - Student Led Conferences PLC
- We will go over the flow and how things will work for this year's Student Led Conferences.
- Then... the rest of the time we will have you call the student's parents who have not yet signed up for student led and start working on connecting with them to ensure all of our students have an opportunity to attend with their parents.
- Student Led Conferences will be on March 13 and March 21 from 4:00 - 8:00pm.
- An email was sent to parents with the link to our Google Form to sign up for Student Led Conferences (see links below). We will send them to parents again tomorrow, Monday.
- We will go over all final odds and ends on Wednesday during PLC to ensure everyone feels comfortable and knows your role between now and conferences!
- Monday, March 13 - Student Led Conferences 4:00 - 8:00
- Tuesday, March 14 - Half day with afternoon inservice.
- Teachers/Certified Staff: Afternoon time will be from 1:30 - 3:00 for the inservice.
- The focus is on technology and will be held at the high school. Note the time... it does not start at 1:00 it will start at 1:30!!!
- Scott will be sharing sessions you will be able to sign up for soon!
- Special Education Aides:
- You also have inservice from 1:30 - 3:30 at Cooper Elementary.
- 1:30 - 2:30 will be technology
- 2:30 - 3:30 will be with Peter Smet in regard to the referendum.
- March 14 - Sing-A-Bration @ BHS @ 7:00pm
- March 16 - will be the first of two Karcher Open Houses for the community in regard to the referendum. This will start at 7:00pm in our Karcher library with tours to follow.
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Pictures from the week
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Article of the week: This week's article is a continuation from last week...
Grading Smarter, Not Harder
Chapter 1. Grading
How Behavior-Based Grading Contributes to Statistical Sabotage
If a student makes a concerted effort to complete a quiz and does not get a single answer correct, then a zero grade is arguably an accurate measure of the student's understanding. However, if the student receives a zero simply because he or she didn't complete the quiz, then the grade is not an accurate measure of understanding (O'Connor, 2010). Once the accuracy of grading data is compromised, a number of difficulties emerge.
Imagine a scenario in which Johnny is scheduled to take two quizzes for the same class, one on Monday and the other on Thursday. He skips the Monday quiz but is present for the one on Thursday. Johnny's teacher gives him an automatic zero on Monday's quiz because he didn't take it, and a zero on Thursday's quiz because he got all the answers wrong. Anyone looking at the teacher's grade book would find it impossible to determine whether the zeros reflect lack of work or lack of understanding. If Johnny also receives lates on assignments, his grading data are even more ambiguous. The teacher in this case might be advised to use special codes or symbols to understand and possibly defend Johnny's aggregate score. I will admit to having had the following type of conversation in parent-teacher meetings:
Me: Good afternoon, Ms. Smith. Thanks for attending the parent-teacher conference.
Ms. Smith: Thanks. My daughter Jill is really struggling in social studies. I was devastated to see that she got 55 percent on her report card.
Me: Well, perhaps she's not doing that badly.
Ms. Smith: What do you mean? Is she not at 55 percent?
Me (pausing, showing some discomfort): Well, I can see that, in my grade book, some of her scores are circled in blue and others are highlighted. Those symbols indicate a reduction in value from what she would have had if she had handed the work in on time.
Ms. Smith: I'm confused.
Me: Well, um, one circle indicates that the assignment was a day late and therefore the score would have been 10 percent greater than it is. Two circles means that the assignment was two days late and therefore would have been 20 percent greater. I see here that I used a highlighter over the top of the existing circles for her poster assignment, indicating that the score was reduced more than 30 percent—most likely to a maximum of 50 percent.
Ms. Smith: Most likely?
Me (deciding to switch tactics): Listen, if Jill would get her work in on time, we wouldn't be having this confusion.
Ms. Smith: Confusion is right. I wish I had known about all of these lates. Did you phone or e-mail me about these issues?
Me: Sorry, I guess I should have called, but I can't keep up with all of these lates in each of my classes and it is Jill's responsibility to let you know.
Ms. Smith: Do you think most teenagers will come home and tell their parents about late or missing assignments?
Me: Probably not.
Ms. Smith: I guess I just want to know where she is actually at academically and to know that 55 percent means something.
I have come to agree with parents like Ms. Smith. She does have the right to know her daughter's actual grade standing according to the learning outcomes.
Imagine the confusion and frustration that would occur if this type of punitive measurement system were used in the medical community—for example, if a patient's overdue hospital parking fine were factored into her blood pressure reading. It's a challenge to find any other profession that purports to offer personal, measurable data in which the numbers can be as warped as we allow them to be in education.
It is disturbing that the destructive power of a zero grade is often the reason that teachers use it. If the goal is to punish or compel, a zero is the ultimate numerical weapon. When factored into the average of an otherwise consistent set of scores, the result can be considerable. Consider the examples in Figure 1.1, showing two sets of identical scores except for a single zero. As a measure of learning, 59.6 percent is clearly a misrepresentation of the extent to which the student likely understands the material. A serious statistical problem exists if we assume that the rest of the scores are based on sound assessments. None of the scores making up the 59.6 percent average come close to the mean score. The whole point of determining an average is to arrive at a singular representation of a set of numbers.
Figure 1.1. Effect of a Zero Score on the Final Average (Example 1)
Scores
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Scores
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78
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78
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71
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71
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74
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0
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68
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68
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81
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81
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Final Average
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Final Average
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74.4
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59.6
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Clearly, zeros can blur the extent to which students demonstrate improvement or mastery of the material. Consider the set of scores in Figure 1.2, purporting to represent tennis-serving skills measured over the course of a two-week unit. The conclusion that the student properly completed roughly 4 out of 10 serves is not accurate and in no way predicts future performance. If any of the non-zero scores have further been reduced for reasons not directly pertaining to her tennis-serving skills, such as for tardiness or talking out of turn, then the ambiguity of the scores is even further compounded.
Figure 1.2. Effect of a Zero Score on the Final Average (Example 2)
Successful Serves (Out of 10)
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March 1: 0
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March 2: 0
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March 3: 0
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March 4: 2
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March 5: 3
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March 8: 5
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March 9: 7
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March 10: 8
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March 11: 8
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March 12: 9
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Average: 4.2/10
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Let's assume that Catherine, a high school sophomore, attends only half of her biology classes during a two-week unit on communicable diseases. On the day of the summative unit test, Catherine opts to skip class and go for coffee with her girlfriends instead. On account of her truancy, she gets a zero on the test. What are the chances that Catherine, at age 16, knows something about herpes, mononucleosis, or AIDS? If Catherine knows absolutely nothing about communicable diseases by the end of the unit, she has either been living under a rock for most of her life or her teacher is completely incompetent. Any score above zero would far more accurately represent the degree of Catherine's knowledge.
Growing up, I had a toy version of NASCAR legend Richard Petty's racecar—number 43. If we are after grades that accurately measure student understanding, adopting a policy of using the numbers of students' favorite racecars for missing work would make about as much sense as using zeros.
PERSONAL STORY
Imagine that the history teachers at Colonial High School are so fed up with their students' late and missing assignments that they appropriate their department's budget to pay for a set of wooden stocks such as those used in colonial times to punish wrongdoers. Not only do the stocks serve to teach students a little history, but they also help motivate students to complete their work on time. The teachers institute a simple rule: get your assignments in by the due date or spend a day in the stocks. The students, terrified at the prospect of being constrained in a wooden device and having tomatoes pelted at them by jeering classmates, all begin delivering their assignments on time. To their delight, the teachers hardly ever need to resort to the stocks. The system is considered a resounding success: very few students are punished, and rates of homework completion skyrocket.
The history teachers throw a party at the house of the mastermind behind the idea, Mr. Bastille. Though Ms. Lamb, the head of the science department, can hear the revelry from her house down the street, she is not feeling the celebratory zeal. She is frustrated because many of her own students have suddenly stopped handing in their work on time, choosing to spend their time on history assignments instead. Though she's unaware of the history teachers' newly instituted method of punishment, she has overheard some of her students discussing stocks and is surprised at their newfound interest in economics.
If this story were to continue, the science teachers would either ask the history teachers to dismantle the stocks or institute their own draconian punishments. A less extreme version of this choice confronts teachers all the time, especially at the secondary level. I have been approached by teachers who feel caught between competing forces when implementing changes to their grading methods. Many teachers would like to explore ways to motivate students without the threat of penalties, but fear that their students will then spend the bulk of their time on assignments for classes that do institute penalties. I have chosen the term interdepartmental cold war to describe this dilemma.
Of course, because students have a limited amount of time and energy, there will always be some form of competition among teachers. One way to mitigate this would be for all educators to avoid adopting punitive measures that reward compliance rather than evidence of learning.
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