[etni] Re: The unfairness of logs - Rivka is right
- From: Judith Astary <judyastary@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "rlewen@xxxxxxxxx" <rlewen@xxxxxxxxx>, "davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx" <davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 May 2013 06:07:50 -0700 (PDT)
Rivka reaffirms what I originally wrote in response to David. She neatly sums
up the situation which is that there will always be those that inflate grades,
cut corners and do not follow the guidlines to the letter. What will kill the
LOG in my view, eventually, is the inordinate amount of work involved in it
for teachers, regardless of whether they inflate grades or not AND the lack of
remuneration there for!!!.
To date, most classes doing the LOG are definitely benefiting! English is
nolonger a subject "you don't have to work at to get good grades"! We are all
working much harder!
Judith Astary
________________________________
From: Rivka Lewenstein <rlewen@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx" <davidzalman@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2013 11:52 AM
Subject: [etni] Re: The unfairness of logs
David,
In Jerusalem, at least, I know that the logs are assessed by the Inspectorate
not only for quantity but for quality as well - Pat and Judie go through each
log and then send letters to the schools / teachers letting them know what was
or wasn't good in their logs. So while they have both said that students would
not get penalized if their teacher didn't do the log correctly, they've also
made it very clear that teachers / schools that didn't do the log correctly
would be under close scrutiny the following year(s). This includes following
the table of specifications for writing a summative assessment (much harder
than the lit tests I used to give, and the students' grades reflect that) and
using a rubric for assessing post-reading tasks.
Now, that is not to say that there still aren't different standards amongst the
teachers. I can spend 2-3 months teaching one short story, and I demand quite a
bit from my students. I'm sure that there are teachers who spend much less time
on each unit, and may not give as many basic understanding or analysis
questions. But
I do think that you're overestimating the impact that that has on students'
Bagrut grades. Take into account that even with students taking the literature
exam, 50% of their grade is their teacher's assessment, and we all know that
many, many teachers are NOT giving school (Magen) grades according to Ministry
specifications, but giving the highest grade that they think they can get away
with so as to help their students. There is no way for the Ministry to track
that. So even assuming that some log teachers are getting away by doing the
minimum, they are still doing that minimum, and since they know that some logs
will be taken for random sampling, they can't ridiculously inflate the grades.
And honestly, I personally don't know of any log teacher who does that - in my
classes this year, grades ranged from 63 to 95, with most grades in the
70s-80s, and believe me that they worked very hard to achieve those grades,
much harder than they would have worked
had they taken the exam. My feeling is that the teachers who do play around
with the grades are in the minority because, as I said, they know that their
logs will be inspected. So I think that it would be correct to say that my
students, who are doing the log according to the Ministry requirements and get
school (Magen) grades according to the Ministry specifications, have Bagrut
grades that are much more accurate than those students who are doing the exam
but have inflated school grades.
In other words, even if everyone were to do the exam, the current Bagrut system
simply cannot ensure fair and accurate grades for all the students. So why try
to do away with the logs, specifically, when that is the one thing that I think
is probably being done most fairly by the majority of teachers?
All the best,
Rivka
David wrote:
I was very pleased to read the number of reactions to the long missive that
I wrote last week. It made all the time that I spent on it worthwhile.
However, I donæ° understand why there are teachers who will reply to me
personally not contribute to the general discussion on the ETNI list
(although one did proffer an explanation.) This, by the way, is not the
first time that I have received a number of replies offlist and leads me to
wonder whether people are afraid to express themselves in public.
Anyway, I feel that I must respond to those who wrote defending the log
claiming that because a number are randomly checked by representatives of
the Inspectorate, it is an objective and fair method of assessment. I would
like to point out that, as far as I know, the logs are checked for QUANTITY
not QUALITY. In other words, they are checked to see if all of the
components have been done for each piece, not how they were done or on what
they were based. Even if pupils from different schools do the whole log
properly, their grades will still not be commensurate with the amount or
the level of work that they have done if their teachers are allowed a free
rein with the pieces they teach and the assignments that they set.
The log remains, therefore, an unfair method of assessment and the fact
that it is worth so much in the final Bagrut grade means that the whole
Bagrut exam itself has ceased to be an accurate measure of the pupilæ¯
knowledge of English. In fact, I have heard that this salient point has
reached the Israeli academia, which is now seriously reconsidering the
value of the English Bagrut exam in university acceptance procedure.
David Graniewitz
Jerusalem
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