Reading results out in class, AIBU?

[Supercala123]

My 15 year old dreads lessons where they read test results out in class, to the point where she almost refuses to go in on days when she knows this is happening.
For balance my daughter gets very low results in some subjects and top results in others but she equally dreads this happening in all lessons. She says people laugh at her if it’s a low result and she feels embarrassed if it’s a good result. She says she just wants to get on and doesn’t understand why this has to happen in school.
Am I being ‘that parent’ if I gently raise this to School??

It is a savage practice. It should never be done. Results are nobody's business but the individual student's and his or her parents.

It was never done here (US) in either of the schools my DCs attend/ed.

It's archaic. For a long time studies have shown focusing on praising work and effort has more impact on student improvement than test outcomes. That teaching practice was for the scrapheap in the 70's.

I don't recall it being done at school but I do recall being told not to compare results as they were private by some teachers.
In uni though I recall some results being read out. I guess to force us to pull our socks up.

Never happened in my Australian school life either. Nor my son's Finnish or Australian schooling either.

It is demeaning I think. What a way to mess with students' self esteem.

I remember everyone's O'level results going up on the school notice board so you could see what everyone else did or didn't get.

But it was 1982.

This is unacceptable.

I wish they wouldn't do this. It's humiliating and encourages bullying for kids who struggle things, for various reasons. It also highlights who the super-brains are which makes others feel inferior. Now to be clear, I absolutely think that all kids should be praised for their achievements, but to routinely flaunt that stuff in front of others who might not be doing so well? It's really cruel and archaic.

It is hideous. It works as nothing more than a punishment for kids who don´t get good marks. My daughter is not in a UK school, so studying is a second language. She works so damn hard and gets good results in some subjects. Others she works just as hard but struggles.

It is utterly demotivating and she dreads it. Or dreaded it as I think the teacher has stopped now thank god.

In 10 years of teaching, I have never ever done this. Horrible horrible practice that can be detrimental to a child confidence in more ways than just academic.

Is it just one teacher in the school or is it common practice across the school?

be "That Parent!" i did and i am
one of my daughters teachers had her year 11 cooking a class mark all the year 11 cooking b class exams ( a and b because they had too many children so had to make it two classes) and a few students got low marks and a discussion happened and the teacher informed the class that my DC had a learning disability and needed more help, naturally telling a class room of 15 to 16 year olds some one has a learning disability is a very stupid thing to do....
they all came out and she was told "mrs xyz thinks you are a retard", she came home in tears because now everyone thinks she is stupid,
i spoke to a couple of girls and they confirmed it actually happened, so i called the school and spoke to the deputy head and made a complaint,
he told the teacher, so she bailed up one of the girls and again informed her my daughter "has a learning disability, its in her file!"
so again i called the school and this time i did my nut and demanded a meeting,
finely after a month i got my meeting, the teacher was smug and extremely disrespectful and got quite annoyed when i suggested a apology was in order,
revealing someones student file is a violation of privacy and doing it twice is gross misconduct and giving bullies ammunition is not on at all...
another month goes by and we receive a typed on plain copy paper apology ( not school letterhead just plain) starting with the words "as requested" and 4 lines long....,
my daughter called me and told me she got a "fuck you sorry not sorry" apology,
so i got into my car and drove the 40 mins to the school,
got the 4 lined apology and yes it was a " fuck you sorry not sorry" i marched into the office and demanded the principles, board of trusties and teachers council email address's so that i might make a formal complaint!
i sent a complaint to all the above....
the principle called me that very afternoon and asked my husband and i to come in,
told him everything that had happened and showed him the apology.... he went right out to copy it and came back in apologizing saying this wasnt even on school letterhead and explained that by telling anyone what was in our daughters file that she had actually violated her employment agreement,
that the test marking thing was not on at all and would be stopped immediately ,
he said he did need to do some investigating and would get back to us,

one week later he came to our home with a proper apology ( although he did admit he didnt think she really wrote it herself) and told us what the outcome was....
basically she had to have a classroom supervisor with her for 6 months a few sanctions and a note in HER permanent file ,
and my daughter didnt have to take a class with her again, she could go to the library during that hour and work on other class work ...
my daughter was humiliated but she felt better once she knew i was going to the wall for her
(and once a few of the other "retards" ( its what the popular kids called the low test score kids) heard and even some form other year groups lots of stories came out about the woman and her extreme nastiness)
I was thanked by a few mothers whose children had left the school and had suffered under that woman but were too scared of retaliation to make a complaint.... i said i would have come to every fucken cooking class and sat in there with my daughter if i had too!

sorry that was so long

They do this on my DDs primary for spelling tests. Dd has dyslexia and at one point was getting 0-3 right out of 15 spellings on a regular basis. It was awful for her to read out her mark, knowing that she would have the lowest score by far. Added to that, they had already switched papers to mark each other's tests, so it was a double whammy for her to feel humiliated each week. After speaking with her teacher, they decided that she could just whisper the mark to them, rather than shout it out, but the damage was done and all the other children knew why she was whispering her results, so didn't make her feel any better really. It's great if you are one of the children who get top marks, but awful for those who struggle.

Could she not ask the teacher to not read hers out? I 100% agree it is not an ideal way to get results out but sometimes it is physically the only way .... We have crazy assessment calendars with grade must be given back at this point with students completing reflection sheet and own grade analysis before teacher takes back to add reflection question and so it goes on. You normally only have about twenty mins to do this with a class of thirty so reading out is most practical. I always ask if anyone is not happy for me to read it to let me know (I explain to class that reading them out means we get through the very meaningful, yet to them tediously boring, feedback in twenty mins rather than three lessons). Usually there will be two or three who want the grade privately, which is totally fine by me. I normally find the others are too busy focusing on their own grade and writing it down accurately in the three different places required to compare with others (so that should the ofsted inspector stop them in the corridor at lunch they will be able to find their Spanish grades for the past three years assessments while giving their reflection of this compared to their target grade, they can do).
Sorry, I digress. Just ask her to say quietly to her teacher on the way in 'please can I get my grade privately?' The teacher really won't mind 😊

@Allthetuppences

That isn't quite true. In fact, simply praising the work is considered bad practice having been proven by many studies as detrimental as when a child's work isn't praised, they're more likely to give up.

Praising effort over achievement is much more beneficial and leads to children trying hard when they aren't good at something.

It's also a lot to do with creating an atmosphere of acceptance. Supporting others in their weak areas and feeling able to ask for help when you are struggling. Children know which children are good at some things and not others.

I think that reading out results is divisive but I'd also never treat them as secret. That leads to a sense of shame.

My last class knew that Brontosaurus group were less able readers and that Stegosaurus were more able but even in Y2, they loved and understood my class motto.

For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack

? This was about students calling out their results?

Interesting.

This is usually the basis of my argument when I want to keep my ds out of sports day. He hates the fact that he comes last every time and it is showcased not just like this in front of the one class but the whole school and all their families.

I’m always told IABU.

We had this all the way through senior school...great when you did well...not so much when you didn't...

Navygold - yes it seems to be common practice in at least half of my daughters classes. Only one teacher has said she refuses to do this.

I think I will say something to the School about it. Thankyou everyone.

(That was to shaking)

As long as you give kids the option to tell you privately at the end, it’s not a problem. If they don’t mind they say it and if they do they tell you quietly at the end. The issue isn’t calling out results, the issue is an ethos where students feel they can make unpleasant comments to others.
Calling out results = 20 seconds.
The teacher going through each book and finding the result and transferring it to the markbook = 10 minutes

In my school the results were always published- as in, pinned to the board in the class. Anyone can see the results and no one cared. If someone did exceptionally well, they were prasied by the teacher. None of us are scarred for this. I don't think reading the scores matter.

We also had our swimming times for all strokes (every girl had to be timed) up on the sports board the whole year for all to see😳 and we were weighed and measured and the "results" read out aloud...this was over 20 years ago though....

That's brutal. In our DC's schools test papers are given back face down so that nobody else can see the result. Or kids are taken to one side and spoken to privately if feedback need to be communicated verbally. The kids are told again and again that, if they do their best and work hard, marks are irrelevant and nobody else's business. There's also a culture of kids not discussing their marks with one another, which I like.

I would say something. It's demotivating and unnecessary.

TBH, my children all know what other children did get at the test. Not just the ones just sat next to them.

So what will be the difference for your dd?
Not saying that it’s a good practice btw. Just wondering how she will cope knowing that people will, still be aware of her marks, good or bad.

Also if she is embarrassed about getting good results and ashamed at getting bad results, I think you need to do some work with her in self esteem. Regardless of whether the school carries in saying results out loud.

When I was at school all results, including public exams, were put up on the notice boards. I walked into school into results day to the sound of the class bully mocking me.

Monsti that’s still the case at our swimming club.you have everyone’s time on display all year round.
Children are careful studying them but usually because they want to know how well they have done and if they have done better than before.

Happened to my dyslexic DS this term too - he got one out of twenty. Not only that (in the spirit of praise effort not results) it happened after a weekend when he had voluntarily spent an hour practising his spellings without me having to nag him, and even been enthusiastic to the point of explaining the method for practicing that his year 3 teacher - the last decent teacher he's had - showed him).

It's crap for the able pupils too, btw. Getting your good marks announced with great fanfare week after week - the teachers might as well stick a "kick me " label on your back for the school bullies.