REGENTS SCORING DAY 9: ARE WE DONE YET?

Two days of reading Regents exams in Global History and US History over the weekend were not enough to complete the scoring so last evening the Department of Education sent emails to many teachers directing us to go back to scoring schools again today to grade exams.

Since school was back in session today, students had to be moved from computer rooms at Cardozo High School, where I was sent again.  We were joined by many teachers who were not at Cardozo last week as another center was closed.  It did not feel very good to watch as students were told to leave a room in the middle of a period to let the teachers mark exams.

In prior years, the entire grading process was done in two or three days back when we could grade at our own schools by hand instead of electronically.

We started the process for grading Regents at Cardozo High School, and other centers around the city, back on Friday, June 14.  Today is June 24 and it is not yet done.

This afternoon a few people stayed behind at Cardozo and they will be grading until nightfall for overtime (per session) pay.

Will this be enough to finish the job or will we be spending yet another day doing this tomorrow?  I have no idea but according to Gotham Schools, it should be done by Tuesday. (Nice to see our friend Mike Shirtzer quoted extensively.)

I made an appearance at Jamaica High School, my home school, this morning since I don't check my Department of Education email on the weekends. I had to check today if they had finished the scoring over the weekend. When I arrived at school, I read the email directing me back to Cardozo and had students ask me questions that I really could not adequately respond to because I had to leave. I also am having a very difficult time servicing UFT members as I'm not in the building to fulfill most of my chapter leader responsibilities.

The DOE didn't care that students were returning to school today so we couldn't provide them with any instruction.

The DOE also didn't bother to remember that teachers have other duties in the schools that we have to take care of such as helping students and parents with concerns that come up at the end of the year.

The DOE certainly didn't care about the pupils who are waiting around to find out if they graduated.

Here is a question to consider: How did we manage to grade the exams in less than half the time when we stayed at our own schools in prior years?

Even when we piloted a program last year where a number of Queens High schools graded together by hand (not electronically) at Forest Hills High School, how did we manage to finish the process in about the same time that it took us when we were at our own schools?

McCraw-Hill needs to hire some efficiency experts or better still let us grade the papers as we did in the past.  We were doing just fine.  Hopefully, a new mayor will cancel the McGraw-Hill contract.