Showing posts with label tragedy of the commons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tragedy of the commons. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Tragedy of the grading commons

Unless things have changed radically over the past few years, there's a simple way of determining which teachers are grading the hardest and/or assigning the most homework: just go to parent/teacher night and look for the longest line of concerned or angry parents.

This is not to say that there is no positive feedback; you will have parents who will thank you for keeping standards high and will offer their sincere support, but they will be the minority and more importantly, their per capita impact is less because of the nature of administrators.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are very few promotions available to teachers. Administrator is one of the few exceptions, but once you've made the jump into administration the situation changes radically.

Here is some context from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Education administrators advance through promotion to higher level administrative positions or by transferring to comparable positions at larger schools or systems. They also may become superintendents of school systems or presidents of educational institutions.
...

In May 2008, elementary and secondary school administrators had median annual wages of $83,880. The middle 50 percent earned between $68,360 and $102,830. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $55,580 and the highest 10 percent earned more than $124,250.

In May 2008, postsecondary school administrators had median annual wages of $80,670. The middle 50 percent earned between $58,940 and $113,860. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $45,050 and the highest 10 percent earned more than $160,500.
When I first decided to go into teaching I asked a retired superintendent I knew for advice. The first thing he told me was, "Never trust a superintendent; they'll lie to your face." I think he was being just a bit harsh but I understand his position. Administrators live in an intensely political world where the right move can double their incomes and the wrong one can get them demoted or fired. It tends to test character.

Under these circumstances, you can understand how frightening an angry parent can be. When a mother and father storm in and demand to talk to the principal, they bring considerable pressure to bear. Enough pressure that even a dedicated educator (and most administrators fall into that category) has to be tempted to cave.

These tense conferences are often the result of an A student receiving a B, and they, in turn, often result in an equally tense principal-teacher conference.

I have never heard of an angry conference caused by an A.

Like a well-maintained commons, high educational standard are in everyone's best interests. Unfortunately, just as it is in the best interest of the individual farmer to overuse common land, so it is in the best interest of individual parents to see their children's grades inflated.

I haven't seen any recent reform proposals that will address that problem; I have seen quite a few that will make it worse.