I teach a "specials" class and have to give grades. My question concerns 4th and 5th grade multiage classes. These kids are difficult to manage to say the least. Some students refuse to do any work in class and, even though I am all over them, I only see them once a week so it can be difficult to stay on top of the situation. Usually they are the same kids who refuse to do much in their regular classroom as well. Anyway, I was looking over grades and I see that, for each class of 25, about 3 or 4 students are earning negative grades. I plan on sending home progress reports so hopefully some of those grades will improve with parental pressure. Does a fail rate of 14 percent seem high to you? It does to me, but in my last teaching environment I saw kids every single day, so it was easier to get work out of them.
I don't think so. 14 % is about 3 kids out of 20, that's not a lot in my opinion. What's more important is the reason they're failing. It's not because you're not teaching at a level that's accessible to them, it's because they refuse to work. There's only so much you can do. If it was 25 % or higher, there would be a concern, but not with 14 %.
