Friday, August 14, 2009 9:57 PM CDT
Schools look to change grading system
at elementary level
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
CHARLESTON — If a grade school student gets a “C” in reading, exactly what happened to keep him from getting an “A” or a “B”?
If it’s because the student actually has trouble reading or if it’s something else, perhaps problems understanding how a writer uses techniques to tell a story, the “C” grade doesn’t show it. Charleston school district officials say that’s the thinking behind a change in elementary school report cards they’re planning for the 2010-11 school year.
The proposed change would be to what’s called a “standards-based progress report.” Instead of having a single letter grade in each subject, learning topics in each subject would be assigned numbers to show how much progress a student is making.
“An ‘A’ to me isn’t necessarily an ‘A’ to another teacher,” said Alyson Davis, a third-grade teacher at Carl Sandburg Elementary School who’s on a committee working on the proposal. Now, not turning in homework could count against a student in one teacher’s class but perhaps not another’s, she said as an example.
Assistant Superintendent Todd Vilardo said he likes using the name “progress reports” instead of “report cards” with the new system. He said it would describe students’ achievement levels based on state learning standards.
“We want to report student achievement levels in our curriculum,” he said.
A sample that Vilardo used to help explain the system showed reading divided into categories such as using knowledge of words to comprehend reading selections and understanding how authors use elements and techniques.
Each of those areas were assigned a number to show student progress, ranging from a 4 for “exceeds expectations” to a 1 for “below expectations.”
Davis, who’s in her 13th year of teaching, said she thinks the system is a “huge advantage” because it shows where student strengths and weaknesses are and what specific areas on which a student needs to work.
“It’s a great way to show growth compared to how we’re doing it,” she said.
Vilardo agreed that the system’s biggest advantage would be to show exactly what areas on which a student needs to work. Parents and teachers can talk in a “common language” about a student’s progress and parents will know more about how they can help their children at home, he said.
“If I’m a parent and you’re my child, the things I’m helping you with at home may not be targeted to what your needs are,” he said.
Vilardo said the district is taking the school year before possibly implementing the system to get more input from teachers as well as parents and students. The timeline calls for a school board vote in March so the new system can start to be used for the next school year.
If put in place, the new method would show up on progress reports that grade school students get after the first quarter of the 2010-11 school year.
“We want parents to understand what these are and how to use them,” Vilardo said.
The district already uses a similar system for kindergarten progress reports. But that’s being reviewed for possible changes to go along with the proposed method for first through sixth grade, Vilardo said.
The system’s only being considered for elementary school, he also said. That’s because letter grades are needed in middle school for prerequisites and placement when students reach high school, and colleges and universities want letter grades on high school transcripts when looking at admission applications, he explained.
During the current school year, the system will continue to be developed and refined during faculty workshops, forums and parent-teacher conferences, and by surveys of teachers and parents, Vilardo said. He and Davis both said teacher input will be beneficial because the new system is going to change how they do their jobs.
“It’s a whole other mindset,” Davis said. She said she likes that the district is taking the school year to work on the proposal because “with more exposure, tension will ease.”
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.
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kamfong wrote on Aug 14, 2009 6:35 PM: