The Futility of Average

My two highest level math students complete their class online with a teacher outside of our district. At the same time, everyday, the students log on for a live interactive instruction complete with a live audio and video feed from the North Pole. The technology that is used for these meetings vacillates from mediocre to completely worthless. The district provides this option to students working beyond graduation requirements, so the site teacher (me) may spend her time working to get everyone else through their required math standards. The district’s intention behind offering the online course is excellent.

However, I am continuously finding that my online students are not getting the support they need to be successful in their class. This has created an interesting situation for me. On one hand, I am not teaching the course, so I do not have any idea what and how they are being taught because I am busy teaching my other students. It was not until my students’ test scores were consistently being scored at below proficiency that this teacher reciprocated my communication attempts. (I actually had to raise an issue out of it with the people at District Office, but that is a whole different story in itself.) Now, I spend the last forty-five minutes of my day reviewing with the students what was taught, and going over their homework assignments.

To make the situation even more fun, I do not have a book or teacher’s manual for this class. Furthermore, this “beyond graduation requirements course” is Alegbra I, which I have not had in about ten years. (Most of the math that I had at the college level has yet to appear?) Needless to say, sometimes, it takes me longer than it should to figure out what is going on. [I am a very lucky girl to have a best friend who not only has a degree in math, but is so well-versed in ‘Amanda’ that he can teach me the especially confusing concepts over the phone.]

I abhor it when my students do poorly on assessments. I take it personally because #1. I am in this profession for the students. It is my job to give them the tools they will need to be successful in life. #2 I believe student understanding of concepts are directly related to the quality of classroom instruction, and reflect my ability to decipher and meet each student’s individual needs. Before my students have to take a Chapter Test, we spend the majority of the week reviewing the information they will need to do well on the tests. At least once a week, I hold evening math study sessions. Sometimes, I spend my time creating practice supplemental worksheets that put the problems/concepts into terms that they would see in their everyday lives. I even created an Algebra Bulletin Board for these students that I literally update every other day! One would think that all this extra effort would lead to increased scores, but this is not the case… These two students still are not producing proficient work!

According to the Standards Based System, a student needs to have completed the majority of the course work at an 80% or better to be considered proficient. In theory, this is an awesome concept. Students will not move on to the next level unless they have a median grade of a B… I hate to even entertain the notion, but I cannot help but wonder if some students in some subject areas are not capable of work that is above average.