Health Alert Children who carry all of their books throughout the school day can be deleterious to their posture and cause back pain. It is not uncommon to see students in grades 5-8 carrying their text books from class to class and placing them in their backpacks from school to home and back again. The Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends that the weight of backpacks not exceed 15% of the child’s body weight. Carrying books in front of the body places an even greater stress on the lumbar region. The prevalence of reported back pain in children has increased at an alarming rate causing the American Physical Therapy Association and the American Chiropractic Association to support the recommendation that 10% of body weight be the cut off to avoid injury and possible long term effects on body posture and alignment. To stay within the 10% to 15% range, a seventy pound student should not be lugging around text books that weigh more than seven to ten pounds. School personnel should assess whether or not carrying excessive weight by students is an issue in their school. When appropriate, teachers should explore other alternatives to minimize or eliminate this health danger. NEW FranCenter Publications NEW in 2011 Developing a Better Brain for children 3-7 years old Publication Date: March, 2011 2010 Cleveland-Dodge College Scholarship Awards Six Illinois High School Seniors Awarded FranCenter Scholarships continued on page 2 Neil Anderson/Sycamore H.S. Neil is an outdoor enthusiast who loves camping, hiking, fishing, kayaking and other outdoor sports. After attending the Univer- sity of Wisconsin, he would like to attain a position in the National Park Service con- centrating on a career in the conservation and preservation of our natural resources. Megan Culbertson/Oswego H.S. Megan is a graduate of Oswego H.S. and plans to attend Aurora University to achieve her degree in elementary education. Megan enjoys sports and is a part of the Panther Soccer Traveling Club in Oswego. She is also involved in charity work and loves to make jewelry for her family. Melissa Culbertson/Oswego H.S. Melissa is very active in sports, various volunteer activities and enjoys art clubs which include, Horticulture Club, Drama Club and the floral team. She is currently working at Kid’s Connection, a community center in Oswego. Melissa will attend Aurora University to pursue a nursing degree which was a childhood dream. “F” Kids: Parents of students who consistently receive “F’s can become frustrated, angry, defensive and confused. These parents often place their own label on their child as a result of the poor letter grades receive in school: lazy, bad, unmotivated. “C” Kids: Parents of students who receive “C’s” do perceive their children to be average. Not great. Not poor. Just average! “Most people are average aren’t they?” said one parent. This attitude can be very destructive. History has recorded few individuals who were perceived as ordinary but excelled to extraordinary achievement when they changed their own self-perception and the demoralizing perception (label) placed upon them by others. As we restructure education by changing current school practices, grading will come to be viewed as obsolete. Teachers who have been trained in RTI, whole language, multiple intelligences, cooperative learning, learning styles, non-graded education, creative and critical thinking, global education and other approaches associated with school reform find the over emphasis on grading incompatible with the underlying philosophies of each of these approaches. Unless grading practices change, these approaches, associated with curriculum reform, may not withstand the test of time. Regardless of where a school district is in the process of school improvement, the best thing a district can do is to focus attention on putting an end to the misguided emphasis on competitive letter grades. Some schools have trained their teachers in portfolio assessment to record and report student progress.(2) Portfolio assessment is but one of many ways to begin to reduce the over reliance parents and teachers have placed upon letter grades. Grading has always been viewed as one part of the evaluation process. Unfortunately it has dominated the way parents and teachers view evaluation. Levels of Evaluation • Diagnostic Assessment • Instructional Feedback • Evaluation • Grading • Reporting • Recording With the implementation of RTI, emphasis is being place upon diagnostic assessment, instructional feedback and formative evaluation. “Here are the things Johnny can do now. He appears to learn best when he. . .” Here’s what we need to work on for Johnny to continue to show growth and improvement.” This approach to evaluation stresses self-referenced and criteria referenced assessment rather than competitive norm-referenced evaluation or “grading on the curve.” By definition, a competitive environment requires your failure for my success. According to Alfie Kohn in his book “No Contest: The Case Against Competition research demonstrates that: 1.) “Competition undermines self-esteem, making one’s value contingent on how many people one has beaten. Losing feels awful, but even winning ultimately fails to meet children’s underlying psychological needs.” 2.) “Competition disrupts relation-ships because its central message is that other people are potential obstacles to one’s own success, completion breeds envy, contempt, hostility and suspicion.” (Team competition, meanwhile teaches that cooperation is just a means to victory.) 3.) “Competition actually undermines achievement. Excellence is a fine goal, but let’s not confuse it with the desperate race to beat people. Students learn most effectively when they can see their peers as collaborators rather than rivals.” (3) The October, 1994 issue of Educational Leadership , the Journal of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, was devoted to innovative ways of reporting what students learn. The issue provided “descriptions of better ways to evaluate, record, and describe what students have learned.”(4) However, grading has become so entrenched within the school culture that here we are in a new century with no appreciable change in the way we report student progress. In fact, because of Federal legislation and state mandates regarding standards and testing, grading has taken on even greater significance. It will take leadership and considerable effort to retrain our thinking. Staff development and parent education must help parents and teachers develop a new perspective regarding the evaluation and reporting of student progress rooted in the individual dignity of each learner. Learning is a life-long process. There is intrinsic value in learning and students need to participate more fully in establishing goals and assessing their own individual progress towards achieving those goals. ..................................................................... (1) Archdiocese of Chicago Task Force on Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting of Student Progress, 1979. (2) Learning Portfolios, Robert E. Marciante, 1996 (3) ASCD Update. Vol. 35, No. 8., Oct. 1993 (4) Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (1993/94) “Themes for 1994- 95” Educational Leadership 51, 4:72. Dr. Robert E. Marciante served as Chairman of the Task Force on Assessment, Evaluation & Reporting of Student Progress for the Archdiocese of Chicago Office of Catholic Education. Currently Dr. Marciante is CEO of FranCenter and consultant to schools in the areas of curriculum, human development, and learning process reform. FranCenter 1510 PLAINFIELD RD. • SUITE 1 DARIEN, IL 60561 PHONE: 630.541.8162 • FAX: (630) 541-6543 www.francenter.com 1510 PLAINFIELD RD. • SUITE 1• DARIEN, IL 60561 • PHONE: 630.541.8162 • FAX: (630) 541-6543 • www.francenter.com
Transcript
Health AlertChildren who carry all of their books throughout theschool day can be deleterious to their posture andcause back pain.
It is not uncommon to see students in grades 5-8 carrying
their text books from class to class and placing them in
their backpacks from school to home and back again.
The Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons recommends that
the weight of backpacks not exceed 15% of the child’s body weight. Carrying
books in front of the body places an even greater stress on the lumbar region.
The prevalence of reported back pain in children has increased at an alarming
rate causing the American Physical Therapy Association and the American
Chiropractic Association to support the recommendation that 10% of body
weight be the cut off to avoid injury and possible long term effects on body
posture and alignment. To stay within the 10% to 15% range, a seventy
pound student should not be lugging around text books that weigh more than
seven to ten pounds. School personnel should assess whether or not carrying
excessive weight by students is an issue in their school. When appropriate,
teachers should explore other alternatives to minimize or eliminate this health
danger.
NEWFranCenter Publications
NEW in 2011Developing a Better Brain
for children 3-7 years oldPublication Date: March, 2011
2010 Cleveland-Dodge College Scholarship AwardsSix Illinois High School Seniors Awarded FranCenter Scholarships
Dr. Robert E. Marciante served asChairman of the Task Force on Assessment,Evaluation & Reporting of StudentProgress for the Archdiocese of ChicagoOffice of Catholic Education. CurrentlyDr. Marciante is CEO of FranCenter andconsultant to schools in the areas ofcurriculum, human development, andlearning process reform.
FranCenter1510 PLAINFIELD RD. • SUITE 1
DARIEN, IL 60561PHONE: 630.541.8162 • FAX: (630) 541-6543
www.francenter.com
1510 PLAINFIELD RD. • SUITE 1• DARIEN, IL 60561 • PHONE: 630.541.8162 • FAX: (630) 541-6543 • www.francenter.com
Pros and Cons of Gradingby Dr. Robert E. Marciante
Pro Response: Letter gradesprovide an objectiveassessment of progress,motivate students to do better,and are an essential part of astudent’s cumulative file.
Grading is important. Grades provide
parents with an objective report of their
child’s progress on a regular basis –
quarterly in most schools. In practice,
either letter or numerical grading is the
single most important method used to
communicate student progress to parents.
Grades serve as a motivator for students to
do better and they help parents decide if
their child is college material. At the
elementary level, grades are an accurate
record of progress from year to year and are
an integral part of an individual student’s
cumulative file. At the high school level,
cumulative grades provide the grade point
averages colleges use in evaluating the
student’s eligibility for entrance.
Con Response: Grading isdetrimental. Letter gradesare not objective, they domotivate students to achieveand grades themselves oftenbecome self-perpetuating.
Grading is detrimental not only to low
performing students but to other students as
well. Attempting to summarize a student’s
performance and to evaluate subject matter
mastery over a given period of time, with a
single composite grade, is an indefensible
practice. In light of what we now know
about human growth and development and
the learning process, grading should be
abolished. Letter grades do not achieve the
laudable goals for which they are intended.
They do not communicate anything of
importance to parents. Grades do not
motivate the majority of students to do
better work. They are not objective. They
are, however, a convenient way of
categorizing students and subconsciously
influencing teacher expectations. Letter
grades tend to be self-perpetuating.
Discussion: I suspect a majority of parents
and teachers may side with the pro
response. This is understandable when we
realize that adults are well indoctrinated
into believing that grading is indispensable.
After all, they grew up with it! However,
when we assess attitudes, parents and
teachers often defend grading not because
grading is such a wonderful thing but
because they cannot think of a viable
alternative to the practice of quarterly letter
grades and the ten-minute Parent-Teacher
conferences generally allocated to
discussing them. (1)
Well I’m going to side with the Con
response. Grading is detrimental! Grades
do not serve as an objective measure of
student progress and performance. A
considerable amount of subjectivity is
involved. There have been studies, for
example, demonstrating gross discrepancies
ranging from letter grades of “A” to “F”
among teachers grading the same student’s
work in the same subject areas. In other
words, a student producing identical work
for two teachers received an “A” from one
and “F” from the other. Furthermore,
during any given marking period, grades do
not communicate which skills and concepts
were mastered by the students and which
were not. Grades do not convey anything
to parents regarding their child’s strengths
and weaknesses. Nor do grades convey
how a student learns best. For example, the
parents cannot tell from the grade whether
their child is a visual or auditory learner or
processes information using tactile-
kinesthetic modalities. Parents do not know
whether their child is holistic in the way
he/she approaches tasks or a step-by-step
sequential learner. Parents cannot determine
from a letter grade if their child learns best
in small cooperative learning groups, as part
of larger groups or independently.
Nothing in the conventional report card
conveys this information in any useful
manner. Regarding performance in a
specific subject like reading for example,
does an “A” mean the student is above
grade level? Performs equally well in oral
and silent reading? Is equally proficient in
literal and inferential comprehension?
Once a child has established his/her label in
school, “I’m an ‘A’ student”, “I’m a ‘D’
student”, the label itself becomes a self-
fulfilling prophecy. The student, works up
to his/her own perceived level of
expectation. Often teachers unknowingly
contribute to the problems associated with
grading by, for example, doling out grades
based upon the perceived label of the
student, rather than upon actual
objective evaluation criteria for the
particular assignment. There are many
more negative consequences to grading that
directly affect all children.
“A” Kids: Parents of students who
consistently receive “A’s” can become
complacent, developing a false sense of
security. “My child is the best, scores
higher than anyone else.” This judgment
can be false as often as it may be partially
true. It is a very common occurrence in the
U.S. for example, to find a student labeled
as “gifted” in one district, and no longer
“gifted” when moving to another school
district, or a student considered superior in
high school only to be viewed as average or
below when entering college.
The Cleveland-Dodge Annual Scholarship Program was initiated in 1994. The following Illinois High Schoolshave had seniors awarded FranCenter Scholarships:
St. Anthony H.S.
Von Steuben MSC
Mother Guerin H.S. (2)*
Yorkville H. S. (2)*
Weber H.S
Regina Dominican H. S.
Fenwick H.S.
Limestone Community H.S.
Marian Catholic H.S.
Argo H.S.
Princeville H.S.
Sycamore H.S. (2)*
Notre Dame H.S.
Bureau Valley H.S.
John Hersey H.S.
Urbana H. S.
St. Viator H.S.
West Leyden H S.
St. Ignatius College Prep
Oswego H.S. (3)**
Galesburg H.S
Victor J. Andrew H.S.
Benito Juarez H.S.
York Community H.S.
Hinsdale Central H. S.
Clinton H. S.
Lincoln Park, H.S.
Ridgeview H.S.
Lisle H.S.
St. Viator H.S.
Lincoln-Way Central H.S.
Plainfield South H.S.
Peoria Notre Dame H.S. (2)*
St. Francis H.S.
Streator H.S.
Newman H.S.
*Two High School seniors have received scholarships. **Three High School seniors have received scholarships.
FranCenter is proud to have awarded scholarships to the outstanding young men and women from high schools listed above. Our only disap-
pointment is that we are unable to provide scholarships to each of the hundreds of applicants who apply each year.
Applications for the Cleveland-Dodge Scholarship Awards Program are available from FranCenter. FranCenter mails applications to all directors
of special education in the State of Illinois and non-public schools in February. Scholarship recipients are announced in July of each year.
The FranCenter Clinic of Darien, Illinois is celebrating its 33rd year of providing psychological, educational, counseling, academic therapy and
tutoring services to individuals, families and school systems. The Center conducts staff development and parent education workshops throughout
the United States for individual schools and districts and at regional and national conferences.
For more information regarding FranCenter programs and services contact:
Dr. Bob Marciante at Ph: 630-541-8162 • Fax: 630-541-6543 • E-mail: [email protected]
2010 Cleveland-Dodge College Scholarship AwardsSix Illinois High School Seniors Awarded FranCenter Scholarships
continued from page 1
Stephanie Feczko/Sycamore H.S.
Stephanie participated in choir and dance ac-tivities as well as competing in the girls swim-ming program. She received recognition inthe Standards of Excellence and Spartan Award at Sycamore H.S. Stephanieis pursuing a Nurse’s Assistant Certificationat Kishwaukee College so she can work inthe Health Care Field while ultimately becoming a nursing professional.
Temple Holmes/York Comm. H.S.
Temple graduated from York CommunityH.S. Temple was an active member of theboy’s basketball team and later became thevarsity basketball manager. He also receivedawards such as the National Honor Society,Student of the Month, and Sons of the Amer-ican Revolution Citizenship Award. He willbe working toward a degree in education anda certification in Special Education.
