{"id":13800,"date":"2016-03-22T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T13:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=13800"},"modified":"2016-03-22T09:05:06","modified_gmt":"2016-03-22T13:05:06","slug":"ucf-should-end-decile-ranking-period","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=13800","title":{"rendered":"UCF should end decile ranking, period"},"content":{"rendered":"

So-called ‘compromise’ isn’t \u2014 it’s no change at all<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/span><\/strong>, Editor, the Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"UTMikeColLogo<\/a>Less than a week from now, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Board of Education is slated to vote on revising a policy about ranking Unionville High School students by decile \u2014 slices of 10% based on grade point average (GPA).<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue that\u2019s generated a lot of passion and debate in the greater community (although turn out for last week\u2019s board work session, a handful of parents and only one media member actually at the meeting, might suggest otherwise). The board seems poised to embrace a compromise by eliminating decile and replacing it with GPA distribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally speaking, I\u2019m in favor of compromise \u2014 but this isn\u2019t compromise, it\u2019s a surrender wrapped inside a horse manure rebranding.<\/span><\/p>\n

To be honest, anyone with half a brain can take the GPA distribution data and figure out where a given student falls within a specific decile. So other than a feel-good for doing \u201csomething\u201d it basically amounts to nothing. Worse, it is intellectually and morally corrupt while also teaching poor lessons to students, essentially that life is one big political campaign, where the truth can be rebranded to avoid really dealing with an issue. <\/span><\/p>\n

By rebranding something unpalatable as something else, yet with the same basic core, one can do wonders. Like, say, I dunno, \u201cracist\u201d becomes \u201cethnically selective.\u201d Political operatives have been doing this for years now, but one would hope our local school board members would be better than this.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, in review: from a functional standpoint, decile ranking = GPA distribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which takes us back to the basic argument: does decile reporting hurt more students than it helps?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, simple math suggests so. Assuming that roughly 35 students will make up the top decile, and the second, third and fourth deciles (and arguably more) are probably hurt at Unionville. That\u2019s a minor, theoretical benefit for 35 kids with a more likely disadvantage for more than 100. The truth of the matter is that decile is a silly way to rank students \u2014 a fourth decile student at Unionville might just be better than first decile students at high schools just a few miles away. With the decile system foolishly driving college admissions (itself a corrupt and horrific process less about educating students than generating revenue) those lower decile but arguably better students suffer.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGee, kid, you have a 3.3 GPA at one of the best high schools in America and 1,200 on the SATs \u2014 looks like you should go to trade school,\u201d is what this says. Which is, of course, utter insanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Worse, it further underlines two continuing points of crisis in the UCF School District: first, that while elite and special needs students continue to get exceptional focus, average students are largely left under the radar, frozen out and basically told they lack worth; second, it perpetuates a seriously unhealthy culture within the schools with students and in the greater community among parents.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the first point, I can\u2019t tell you how many times the point has been made about how UCF \u201cis amazing with gifted students, amazing with special needs students, but tends to forget the rest of the students in the middle.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

While I don\u2019t think this is the intent of the board or the administration, it is often the outcome. <\/span><\/p>\n

Those students not among the elite, are left to feel unimportant or with a less than bright future \u2014 even if they have skills, talents and abilities not well reflected by GPAs. Eliminating decile rankings entirely \u2014 as the administration wants \u2014 is a good first step to helping Unionville\u2019s average students (who might well be considered exceptional elsewhere) to aspire to the right college or university for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the second issue: As great a school as Unionville High School is and a as great community as Unionville is, the unhealthy, excessive focus on academic achievement is a problem. We all want our kids to do well, to learn and to grow. But it shouldn\u2019t become a blood sport.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then you hear stories of students getting a C in a single class as a freshman and deciding their life is over is over at age 15 because their GPA has taken a fatal hit. And you hear about kids bursting into tears when they get an 89 on a test. And you hear about kids are doing three to four hours of homework and studying a night to maintain nosebleed GPAs. These are symptoms of a serious problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

All too often, pressure is placed on kids to achieve more as a boasting point for parents, as a validation of their exceptional parenting. <\/span><\/p>\n

Unionville is one of the few high schools where a student (and his parents) might feel shame for a 3.5 GPA \u2014 which to be blunt, is nuts.<\/span><\/p>\n

And lastly, some of these mind-boggling GPAs come from either parental micromanagement of students, or worse, the parents actually doing some of the school work, rationalizing it as helping their kids get along.<\/span><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t allow our kids to fail \u2014 they don\u2019t learn from adversity and fight their way back, a crucial life skill. We create gorgeous student records and college applications for kids woefully unprepared for the realities of life.<\/span><\/p>\n

As one sports team coach told me some years back, \u201cthese kids don\u2019t know how to cope with failure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Like it or not, it is failure that defines us \u2014 and how we learn and recover from that failure \u2014 not success. When we create a system that makes failure of any kind \u2014 heck, a B grade for the year \u2014 unacceptable, we do a terrible disservice to our kids.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ending the decile reporting and not offering a GPA distribution is one step toward creating a healthier school and community.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s long overdue.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So-called ‘compromise’ isn’t \u2014 it’s no change at all By Mike McGann, Editor, the Times Less than a week from now, the Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Board of Education is slated to vote on revising a policy about ranking Unionville High School students by decile \u2014 slices of 10% based on grade point average (GPA). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[7106,7107,615],"class_list":["post-13800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-featured","tag-decile-ranking","tag-education-college-admission","tag-unionville-chadds-ford-school-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13800"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13803,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13800\/revisions\/13803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}