I've been trying to step back & pull down the proverbial scaffolding for the last couple of years, encouraging self-advocacy more & more. I think this issue gets a bit too far into the weeds for him to tackle, though, and it looks like raising the concern might really put the teacher into a defensive posture if not handled just right.
And, yes, this is a quarter grade in H.S., so it doesn't "count" like the semester grade. If the trend continues, however, the disparity continues to grow to the point that just a handful of points in the 30% category can override an awful lot of hard work in the other categories.
And, yes again... this is a system similar to Powerschool. The district brought it into the middle school right as he was starting. My reaction then was that it sure seemed like teachers were fascinated with the weighted assignment categories and decided they needed to utilize the feature just because it was there. (Only his Algebra teacher employed common-sensical categories and weights...at least IMHO.)
"Then they become wedded to the numbers, because we're all prone to giving more credence to a number, and lose track of the meaning."
Yuppers... I'm guilty of that myself.
I think the simple math approach you suggest can keep the conversation simpler in contrast to me asking, "What the heck were you thinking?" But I still am hoping to find more details on how a teacher might set up the categories. Pretty much all I'm finding are the software manuals that give the technical how-to without discussing the why.
Thank you!
Dandy
