[etni] Module E grades

It's funny - I was just in school this morning and took a good look at ALL the 
Bagrut grades for all the students in the school (it's a small school, so that 
didn't take too long). I also noticed the really low marks EVERYONE got on E - 
in most cases, the gap between the Magen grade and the actual Bagrut grade was 
between 20 and 30 points. 
   
  Now, a few points:
   
  1) We give Magen grades according to Ministry specifications, i.e., we 
include literature, projects, and extensive reading, so we are "covered" 
regarding those grades. However:
   
  2) Our Magen grades are usually very similar to the grades the students 
actually get on the Bagrut, because surprise, surprise, we've discovered that 
students who do the literature, project, etc. and work in class, etc. - do end 
up justifying their higher Magen grades. We've never had such a high overall 
gap - and this was true for two different teachers, two very different classes. 
   
  3) Even students who should have done REALLY well on E didn't. A few students 
took E, F, and G together - some did much better on F and G (especially G, 
where students generally did better than F) than on E.
   
  4) We were not penalized in any way for the large gaps between the Magen 
grade and the actual Bagrut grade. Two years ago, I heard Judy Steiner's 
explanation on how the Ministry figures out the average nationwide discrepancy 
and then checks to see which schools have bigger gaps than that. Only those 
schools are penalized. If we were not penalized for our huge discrepancies, 
that's a sign that there were gaps EVERYWHERE.
   
  5) Yes, the graphic organizer (at least the first part) is probably part of 
the reason students didn't do well on the test. I guess that means that we 
should be teaching more graphic organizers... 
   
  All the best,
  Rivka

       
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