What should the teacher do if 50% of the students failed the test?

Question

The situation is that it was a long unit, that required a lot of work. But when the students took the test, the majority of them failed. The school calendar is very tight, and teachers should cover the new topic. What should she do? move forward or reteach the topic they failed, or what?

Answer 1

This happens a lot with the math curriculum that we have. It is simply too hard for our students. More often than not I have to review a unit and test again. It seems to be a different unit each year, so there's no way to predict where it's going to happen. So, I would simply review the material with your students and retest them. You can also group your students by ability and just review the material for the students who didn't pass the test while having the rest of the class do enrichment.

Answer 2

Maybe reevaluate her teaching methods, She may have to change her teaching style to get the kids to be able to follow. It depends on the subject whether or not she should move on. If they need to know it to move forward then she will need to reteach it a different way. Maybe omit the things that arent relevant or find a style to make it stick in their heads. I always had a hard time with math so my dad taught me different ways until one hit home. There a dozen different ways to teach a subject and I think she needs to find a different style or it will keep happening.

Answer 3

First of all, the test needs to be evaluated.  The people involved with this situation need to figure out if there were any problems with the test.  Perhaps some students received the wrong test.

Secondly, the teacher needs to evaluate herself.  Whenever even one student fails, the teacher needs to evaluate why the failure occurred.  Perhaps she was not catering to their learning styles.  Usually, when a large number of students fail, the teacher is to blame.

Third, I can see how you are wondering how she can help them now that they failed and she needs to move on.  She is not in a situation where she has to either move on to reteach the topic.  Can't she do both at the same time? Unless she is in some odd content area, most subjects are taught so that one unit feeds into another.  She needs to look at the test for common problems that the students missed.  She needs to figure out exactly what it was that they didn't get and go over that.  She can do a short review on what they missed every day for 10-15 minutes.  Then, after that, she can go into the new topic.

The problem here is that she needs to figure out WHY they failed before she worries about reviewing or moving on.   If she moves on, they could encounter the same problem all over again.

Answer 4

if ur talking about yourself..i am happy that u cared..because when we have a test and most of us fail...our teachers dont even feel it was because of how they taught us, leave alone reteaching us.

we hav such S****y faculty at our school..>.<

i think the teacher should ask this to her students...may be they understood the topic but they found the test to be difficult..may be they didnt know how to answer the questions though they knew everything..??

u can have a doubt clearification session..u can make them stay back after school if it isn't possible during the school hours.

but yeah..don't even think of moving forward without knowing what and how the students feel about the topic

hope this helped

*=)*

Answer 5

First you need to find out why they did so bad.  Was it the format of the test (e.g. the choices for multiple choice were too similar)?  Did they not comprehend the material?  Or did they just not study?

If the format is difficult, retest them on the same material in a different format.

If comprehension was the issue, reteach the important parts.  Not everything, just the most critical issues.

If they didn't study, then chalk it up and move on.  It is not always possible to pamper children.

Best of luck!

Answer 6

well you must be a pretty crappy teacher. and asking people who have no teaching experience is pretty dum. Learn to connect with your studnts better

Answer 7

I had a teacher last year where almost all the students failed the tests, and we had to move on to the next class. I almost wish she would have retaught us everything, or maybe given us materials over the summer.

Answer 8

Even if the calendar is very tight the teacher needs to reteach the topic and rethink the test before giving it again. Word the test differently and ask questions that spark the memory, why make things more difficult than they need to be!?!

Answer 9

If the teacher  feels he has fully prepared the class for the test, there is no reason so many students failed other than their lack of effort. The grades should stay as is, or be curved. The students who worked hard and studied should be rewarded for their work.

Answer 10

I think it's interesting that everyone seems to think the teacher's methods and the test need to be re-evaluated but not the students' ability to sit in class, pay attention, take good notes, and study for the test.  I taught drama and gave tests that honor students had a difficult time with, but it was not because they were dumb -- they were honor students.  And it was not the test or my teaching; I simply asked them to be honest -- how many of them studied for the exam?  One or two raised their hands -- the ones with the highest scores.  Once they wrapped their brains around the fact that even though it was a drama class, they had to take notes and study, then grades improved while my teaching and exams remained the same.

If the next unit depends on mastery of the previous unit, then then material should be revisited even if the school year is tight.  If a bunch of students fail a test on addition, then they're probably not going to do well on the next unit on subtraction.  And if the next unit is not dependent on the previous one, a short amount of time should be taken on the teacher's part to emphasize that he or she can't do it all for them; it takes the teacher teaching, the students learning, and parents helping by overseeing homework.  A brief review on how to take notes on the important material would be enough to continue to the next subject.

Answer 11

Did the students fail to learn or did the teacher fail to teach?  That's a question we always have to ask ourselves.  Perhaps the test was too challenging... or perhaps the learning material was not age appropriate.  Regardless, I think it's wise to press on... you are correct: there simply is not time to reteach every single topic when you need to cover the curriculum by the end of the year.  What would I do personally about all those failing grades?  I'd add up all the percentages for every single student and calculate my average test score.  If they averaged 50%, I'd curve ALL the grades 25% to bring my average up to 75% (a solid C at my school).  Sure, your kids who scored 95% now have at 120% on that test... it's still an A.  Those who scored 20% now have 45%... it's still an F.  But you'll help a lot of students pass... probably students who have an average understanding of the topic anyway but somehow still managed to fail the test.  Another option: Tell anyone who wants to raise their test grade to write an essay on the topic for extra credit.

Answer 12

Depends on the importance of the topic before