Why every tenth of a point really does matter

Today was another fabulous day. We reviewed with the kids again this morning for the first 45 minutes of class, and then they took the final exams. It was the same exam they took the first day of class and it took them less than an hour then. This time, they spent over an hour and a half – I couldn’t believe it! They were so much more invested this time and they had learned enough to work through the problems to find the right answer, instead of just guessing. There were some that needed a few pep talks during the test – they give up easily when they hit a problem they don’t know, so we had to get them over that hurdle. In the end, there were some scores that were less than stellar and no one got 100%, but the BEST news of the day…every single one of them passed!!

I think we had 4 A’s out of 15 students, a lot of B’s and a handful of C’s. C. and M., two of the students we were really worried about passing, made it literally by six tenths and eight tenths of a point – but they did it!! J is another boy who has struggled a lot in our class but who hasn’t taken advantage of any opportunity we gave him for extra help or to re-take assessments (before school, after school, on weekends). Talking to his parents didn’t help much either. His score was 1.5 points below passing. Some kids we would bump up because of their effort, but we were all comfortable failing him because of his noticeable lack of effort. We double-checked his IEP to make sure we were still in compliance, and realized we needed to talk to the Special Ed coordinator because grade modification was listed. We didn’t know what that meant, but she said that since he was so close, the district would pass him because of the IEP. So she gave us the option of changing his grades so he got a passing grade, or just giving him a Pass (like pass/fail) but no letter grade. We went with the second option – he didn’t deserve a passing letter grade, but the district wanted him to have the credit. It was a good compromise – and now we have 100% passing in our class!! Tomorrow we’re celebrating, these kids have worked so hard (well, with a few exceptions) and each truly deserve the grade they got. I am so proud of all of them, and I really wish I didn’t have to say goodbye to them tomorrow. I want to know what becomes of these kids – if A. becomes a nurse and if C. becomes a journalist, if my boy on probation stays out of trouble, how another’s daughter grows up and what kind of mother my student she will grow into. And of course I want to know what M. does with his life – he has been such a huge part of our summer I wish I didn’t have to send him, and all of them, onto new teachers who may not understand just how amazing and special each of my kids are. I wish I could be their math teacher for the rest of high school – make sure they are always this successful and study hard, ask for help, and actually turn in their homework and then see them graduate. I suppose that comes with being a teacher – sending your kids onto someone new each year and trusting someone else to care about them, push them, encourage them, and love them as much as you do.