Job Discussion Forums

[mister_kot]

At my university I teach non-English major grad students. They have a Chinese English teacher and me. Our two classes count as one grade on their report card. My class is 30% and the CT's is 70%.

I don't know which is more degrading: being the foreigner whose work is counted as 30% that of a normal teacher, or the highly trained CT whose work is only 70%.

Suffice it to say, most of the students who showed up to class got 30/30 for the term.

I turned in my grades to the CT who does my classes in order for her to add my 30 points to her final score. Who knows what really happens?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

[igorG]

[Cyberkada]

I have students "taking leave" from class with permission to work on the IELTS since November. Haven't seen them. But I guarantee they will get a passing score in the academic subjects with that good-ole Chinese grading magic. The final exam is next week... I have a pretty good idea why the head teacher wanted copies of the exams - and the key - well before the exam dates. Its soon red envelope time for them...

[igorG]

They've copied the IELTS too and i doubt the BC doesn't know it

[Gtomas]

I individually tested about 100 students at a private school I currently work for. After asking them certain questions and scoring the answers, I added a yellow sticky note so I wouldn't get the students confused and I could write them little notes like I was requested to do.

It was the Chinese teachers job to translate the notes. Four out of five Chinese teachers changed my scores. The reason? "The score was too low" and "All his friends did better than him, so we need to give him a higher score."

Of course none of the Chinese teachers told me about this and only acknowledged it when I approached them. They couldn't understand why I would care.

One Chinese teacher even went so far as rewriting my English note for a child who had attacked another child with a mop from the bathroom. "Frank is good when he is focused, but otherwise has some serious problems with behavior" changed to "Frank is good." Frank's score of 75 changed to 90. Changing the score bothered me more than changing the English.

I told her that next time she could do the testing without me. Fortunately there won't be a next time.

It's very demoralizing to invest energy and patience--while following the school's rules of "giving generous scores"--only to have your work thrown away.

They don't want an honest evaluation, they just want money. In the West a school could earn a reputation for these things, but in China the media (and people?) self-censor so much that the word never gets out.

More and more I think the endemic problems in this country could be solved with freedom of speech. Of course some of the people at the top would be the first casualties...

[Cyberkada]

ah red envelope time... The reason why we walk or take a bus and they drive a new Audi or BMW...

[roadwalker]

Your failing grade for a student may stick...for this semester. At the beginning of next semester they will merely take another exam to pass your course. I was even (provisionally- provided my schedule corresponds) granted permission to attend the re-testing of my failed students. Granted, I failed more than I intended, since the school counts the exam at 70% whereas I tried to avoid headaches by lowering the percentage. (I also think it's ridiculous to give a weight of 70% to a final exam- maybe for math or similar cut and dried subjects...) I want to monitor the re-take of my EASY exam that some students headed overseas in a few years utterly failed. I'm more worried that the Chinese teachers will allow an open book/phone/crib note exam than I am that the teacher will be able to help them with the English.

[igorG]

Speaking of the retakes, a few of my students failed them, but the school had to offer multiple retakes afterwards. Why do they do it? Simple. They guarantee the graduation for 100 000 Yuan per year.

[Lobster]

I'm expected to give grades to each of the 400+ students in my oral English class even though I only see them for 45 minutes every 2 weeks. What do they do with them? I don't give a rodent's posterior. Throw them out, change them around, sell them to the highest bidder or use them to wipe their bums. Numbers are their obsession, not mine.

RED

[Cyberkada]

Finals are coming up, so we had to submit our exam papers for duplication to one of the CTs by last week That's fine, until I seen one of my students (today) standing at the CTs desk reading a copy of the exam that was scheduled to be given out on Wednesday morning. The same CT requested the answer key along with the test, that I did not provide. Why? I guess Red Envelope time is coming up.

I do care how my students do on an exam as I do spend a lot of time developing course materials and writing exams. Writing proper academically-valid 40 question multiple-choice exams for Math tends to be very time consuming. In addition, by giving a fair exam, it allows me to adjust the course the next time the course is taught. Since the test is known to be compromised, I can't use the scores for the exam to test the students knowledge of the material or as a quality control device for my teaching effectiveness.

[Timer]

I'm guessing the grades I gave matter because I've had students complaining to me about them. There is some sort of website they can check them on so I guess it's final. No idea what will happen when their parents find out.

I've heard stories of grades being changed and all that, but I'm still going to put effort into grading the students. I figure if a student sees they got a shit score they might put some effort into improving their study habits, regardless of if their daddy pays to get the score changed or not.

[igorG]

[igorG]

[Opiate]