Roberto Germán [00:00:01]:
Welcome to Our Classroom. In this space, we talk about education, which is inclusive of, but not limited to, what happens in schools. Education is taking place whenever and wherever we are willing to learn. I am your host, Roberto Germán, and Our Classroom is officially in session. Welcome back to our classroom. I want to start today with the situation that probably happens in school every single day. A student struggling academically, assignments aren't getting completed, grades are dropping, maybe there are zeros in the gradebook. Eventually, progress report or report card comes home and everybody realizes, ah, we have a problem.
Roberto Germán [00:00:51]:
And then the questions start. Why isn't the student doing the work? Why didn't the student tell somebody? Why didn't the teacher reach out? Why didn't the parent know? Is, is the work too difficult? Is the student being irresponsible? Is something else happening? And before long, everybody's trying to figure out who dropped the ball. But I think there's a more useful question. What is the grade actually telling us? Because sometimes a grade tells us what a student knows. Sometimes it tells us what a student completed. Sometimes it tells us whether they follow directions. Sometimes it reflects attendance, organization, circumstances we don't know about. Sometimes it's a combination of all of those things.
Roberto Germán [00:01:43]:
So today I wanna talk about what we do when the grade is telling us there's a problem, But not necessarily what the problem is. And the grade should start the conversation. By the way, we did an episode a while back. I don't remember what number episode that was, but it was with Sarah Zerwin. If you're not familiar with her work, you should get familiar because she digs into this. She got a couple books that unpacks this specifically. And again, I had her on the podcast in one of the episodes. We got it in.
Roberto Germán [00:02:18]:
But let's say a student receives an F. What do we actually know? We know that according to the school's grading system, the student hasn't demonstrated enough of whatever is being measured to earn a passing grade. That's important information, but it's incomplete information. An F doesn't automatically tell me this student doesn't understand the content. It doesn't necessarily tell me this student doesn't care. It doesn't necessarily tell me this teacher didn't teach. And it doesn't necessarily tell me the parents weren't involved. That's why I think we sometimes get into trouble.
Roberto Germán [00:02:55]:
We turn data into a diagnosis. The grade should make us curious. You hear me say this a lot. We need to lead with curiosity. What happened here? What does the student actually know? Right? Here's my first question. What, what does the student actually know and understand? And suppose a student has demonstrated that they understand fractions. I wasn't great at fractions, by the way, but nonetheless, let's say they understand fractions, but they didn't turn in 3 assignments on fractions. Those are 2 different problems.
Roberto Germán [00:03:39]:
One is an academic problem. I don't understand fractions. The other is a completion problem. I didn't complete the work that was supposed to demonstrate my understanding. Both need to be addressed. Let's— so I'm not saying that they don't, but they don't necessarily need the same intervention. You see what I'm saying? That's why I think we have to be careful when grades become a mixture of academic mastery, compliance, organization, behavior, and Work completion. Because eventually we may not know what the grade means anymore.
Roberto Germán [00:04:16]:
Do grades even mean anything? There's a debate. If I'm a parent looking at that grade, I want to know, what does my child understand? And what isn't my child doing? Those aren't interchangeable questions. And accountability still matters. Anybody who knows me knows that I'm big on accountability. So I wanna be clear about something. Getting curious about the reason behind missing work does not mean removing student accountability. All right, established. Those 2 ideas can coexist.
Roberto Germán [00:04:53]:
A student can be struggling and still need to take accountability. A student can need additional support and still need to complete work. A student can make a poor choice Often they do. And still deserve an opportunity to repair it. Sometimes I think education gets trapped in false choices. Either we're holding kids accountable or we're showing grace. Either we're maintaining rigor or we're providing support. I don't buy that.
Roberto Germán [00:05:24]:
We can say, you were responsible for completing this, and then ask, What prevented you from completing it? Lead them with curiosity here. And then after that, hey, what do you think needs to happen now? That's accountability with curiosity. We're not pretending the missing work doesn't matter. We're trying to understand it well enough to respond effectively. And the zero can close a case a little too quickly. And this is not me casting judgment 'cause I've been there before. I'm just sharing a perspective, sharing my thoughts. This is a reflection.
Roberto Germán [00:06:08]:
And again, as we're talking about zeros, a missing assignment is real. Teachers need a way to record that something hasn't been submitted. But I think we should ask ourselves what we ultimately want the consequence of missing work to accomplish. Now, if the goal is you didn't do it, so here's the zero, the transaction is finished. Capisce? But has the student learned the material? Has the work been completed? Has the underlying problem been addressed? Maybe not. That's why I'm much more interested in systems that communicate the work is missing and You are still responsible for the learning. That could mean a missing designation. It could mean intervention time.
Roberto Germán [00:06:58]:
It could mean reassessment. It could mean completing the assignment during another part of the day. It could mean a conversation with the family. Different schools have different policies. But the principle I'm interested in is the principle that I want us to lock in on Is the consequence shouldn't allow the student to escape the learning. Because ironically, sometimes a zero does exactly that. The student doesn't do the work, we give the zero, and everybody moves on, except the student still hasn't learned what we wanted them to learn. Then we, we need to question, right? And I think schools and families need to both ask, When did we know there was a problem? This is not an accusation.
Roberto Germán [00:07:47]:
Don't come for my neck. I'm just saying, as a systems question, if a student has been struggling for several weeks, when did the teacher notice? When did the student know? When did the family know? What happened after that? Because the progress report shouldn't always be the first intervention. If we're noticing a pattern, communication should begin before the pattern becomes a crisis. And parents have a role here too. Check the portal, ask the questions, respond to communication, talk with your child. But communication can't simply mean giving families access to an online gradebook and saying the information was there. Access to information and meaningful communication aren't always the same thing. Sometimes somebody needs to say, I'm concerned, here's what I'm seeing, Can we figure this out together? And then there's somebody I haven't talked enough about yet, and that's the student, right? Sometimes adults hold entire meetings about children without listening to the child.
Roberto Germán [00:08:57]:
Teacher has a theory, parent has a theory, administrator has a theory. Meanwhile, the student is sitting there With information none of us have. So ask. Not, why didn't you do your work? That can immediately sound accusatory. Try, walk me through what happened. Or, when were you given the assignment? What happened next? Where did you get stuck? Was there a point when you knew you were falling behind? What made it— what made it difficult? To ask for help. And then listen. Practice active listening.
Roberto Germán [00:09:35]:
Y'all heard me say that before too. The student may tell you something uncomfortable. They may also tell you something inaccurate. Kids are kids. Wanna acknowledge that. But listening to a student's perspective doesn't mean accepting every explanation as fact. It means their perspective becomes one piece of the information. We're gathering, and it's a simple framework.
Roberto Germán [00:10:02]:
So if you're an educator or a parent looking at a grade that concerns you, the framework you should use is not to begin with who is to blame. Begin with 4 questions. 1, what does the student know? Right? We separate academic understanding from work completion as much as possible. The second question, what's missing? Get specific. Assignments, skills, attendance, organization, participation. What exactly is missing here? Where is the gap? The next question, the third question, why is it happening? And this is where we investigate rather than assume. Suspend your assumptions. And the 4th one, what's the repair plan, right? 'Cause we need to repair this.
Roberto Germán [00:10:55]:
So it's not merely, hey, try harder. What is each person actually going to do next? Maybe the student completes the missing work. Maybe the teacher provides additional support. Maybe the family creates a homework routine. Maybe everyone agrees to check in again next Friday. Whatever it is, Make the next step concrete. Make the next step your best step. You know, I don't know, it just started rhyming, it was in me.
Roberto Germán [00:11:23]:
Anyways, here's what I hope we remember. A failing grade should create urgency, but urgency doesn't require judgment, and accountability doesn't require us to stop being curious. When a child is struggling, there may be student choices that need to change, There may be teaching practices we need to examine. There may be communication gaps between home and school. There may be academic needs we haven't identified yet. Often, more than one thing can be true. So instead of using the grade as the end of the conversation, use it as the beginning. Ask, what does this child know? What's getting in the way? What responsibility belongs to the student? What responsibility belongs to the adults? And most importantly, what are we going to do now? Because ultimately the goal isn't to produce a more accurate F.
Roberto Germán [00:12:27]:
The goal is to help the student learn. You must learn. If you know, you know. Listen, this is Our Classroom. Here we teaching truth and we lead with courage, and we belong to a community that gets it, and hopefully that includes you. As always, your engagement in Our Classroom is greatly appreciated. Be sure to subscribe, rate the show, and write a review. Finally, for resources to help you understand the inner section of race, bias, education, and society, go to multiculturalclassroom.com.
Roberto Germán [00:13:09]:
Peace and love from your host, Roberto Germán.
