As a parent, and especially as the parent of one student with special needs, I have paid minimal attention to grades and have only gotten involved once (daughter rec'd a zero because she was suspected of plagiarizing when she helped another student and their papers came out looking very similar). One really good reason is that I realize how little grades actually indicate and I am much more interested in the learning that is going on (or not).

But, while the opening mentioned the sense of entitlement of all parties (parents, students and teachers), it went on to deal only with two (parents and students). I wonder what it would take for teachers to move away from their sense of entitlement based on trying hard. I hear so much of it. Again, as a parent concerned with learning, I ask questions. What is the school doing to respond to very low scores in an area? So often (and I always feel like I am being patted on the head and sent back to the kitchen) the response that I get is that "we're working real hard" on it. Or "we're going to work" really hard on it.

Now, from where I sit, I have an opinion on many of the things that they seem not to be doing (identifying students at risk, making and following improvement plans, listening to parents, paying attention to some of the teachers that are in over their heads). Maybe you think that I am not "entitled" to an adult level conversation on these things. In fact I am generally redirected from the overall school situation to look only at what my own student is doing (and whether we have a dedicated time and place to do homework, and what time we go to bed and whether we watch too much TV--never whether homework comes home that the student doesn't understand and without any supportive explanations about how the parent might teach the material that the student doesn't understand).

So many teachers seem to be advocating exactly what they object to for students--which is to be judged by effort, not by learning, completion or following the directions.