APS standards grading

[Anonymous]

There's a new grading system at my kid's APS elementary school this year: the standards remain the same for the entire year (written at end of grade level standards), and it's possible to get a 4 for "extending" the standard. Last year, the standards changed each quarter, and grades topped out at 3.

For those of you with high-performing kids, what do you expect and what do you reward under this new system? My kid got some 2s and 3s, no 4s, for first quarter. What would be the equivalent of getting straight A's (which was my goal as a kid)?

[Anonymous]

I don't reward my kids for learning. We've had standards based grading since K. It's a joke.

[Anonymous]

My 3rd grader got 2s for every special (art, music, PE). I expect these are standard scores given to nearly everyone and will increase as the year goes on to show growth and my kid is on grade level in all of these.

She did get 4s in math, which is usually her best subject. In other areas she got 2s in categories where perpetual growth is possible (e.g., spelling, paragraph construction, etc), but 3s for categories where it's a fixed skill. There is a comment that the teacher expects that she'll be working above grade level and completing extension activities as the year progresses, so I think those 2s will progress to 4s by the end of the year. I have no reason to think that she's below grade level in spelling or writing, just that she has room to grow over the year.

I sort of wish they'd just give 3s if the student is on target for that quarter, but I suppose they want to show growth towards the end of year standard? It's a bit annoying because you can't really tell if they're really behind or just not ahead. I'm also very suspicious that every teacher is grading a bit differently at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't reward my kids for learning. We've had standards based grading since K. It's a joke.

The format is better this year. It was a complete joke and 100% useless. This is somewhat better.

[Anonymous]

As always, the useful information is in the comments and parent teacher conferences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As always, the useful information is in the comments and parent teacher conferences.

Parent teacher conferences are only with one of several teachers so you only get information on certain subjects.

Teacher comments really vary. Last year my child didn't get any comments specific to her all year. They were all general, e.g, "This quarter the class studied food chains..."

[Anonymous]

Standards based report cards are garbage. They provide no meaningful information.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a new grading system at my kid's APS elementary school this year: the standards remain the same for the entire year (written at end of grade level standards), and it's possible to get a 4 for "extending" the standard. Last year, the standards changed each quarter, and grades topped out at 3.

For those of you with high-performing kids, what do you expect and what do you reward under this new system? My kid got some 2s and 3s, no 4s, for first quarter. What would be the equivalent of getting straight A's (which was my goal as a kid)?

Please do not reward your kids for progress reports with standards based grading. The entire system is meant to work toward the goal of mastery by the time the end of the year comes, which is very different than earning an A, B, C...

It can be expected that there are limited 3s and 4s being given in the first quarter because in many cases, the entire standard that is listed on the progress report has not been taught.

[Anonymous]

This is the most useless report card I have ever gotten. Did my child learn what they were supposed to this quarter? Guess I better ask the teacher because a bunch of 2s telling me she’s on track for the end of the year does absolutely nothing for me. What is going to happen to these children when they start receiving actual grades?

The soft bigotry of low expectations. Thanks APS 🙄

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the most useless report card I have ever gotten. Did my child learn what they were supposed to this quarter? Guess I better ask the teacher because a bunch of 2s telling me she’s on track for the end of the year does absolutely nothing for me. What is going to happen to these children when they start receiving actual grades?

The soft bigotry of low expectations. Thanks APS 🙄

You must have a kindergarten or 1st grader. The standards based report cards last year were far, far worse. These aren't great, but are an improvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's a new grading system at my kid's APS elementary school this year: the standards remain the same for the entire year (written at end of grade level standards), and it's possible to get a 4 for "extending" the standard. Last year, the standards changed each quarter, and grades topped out at 3.

For those of you with high-performing kids, what do you expect and what do you reward under this new system? My kid got some 2s and 3s, no 4s, for first quarter. What would be the equivalent of getting straight A's (which was my goal as a kid)?

My 2nd grader got mostly 2s in and few 3s. He is pretty advanced (99% percentile in national and county from all of the tests that provide such information throughout her 1st and 2nd grade up to so far), so not sure what to make of this report card.

[Anonymous]

For emerging skills it's strange that kids are being graded for skills they aren't supposed to have mastered yet. Under traditional grading students are only assessed based on what they're supposed to know at that point in the year--they test Q1 expectations in Q1. It's really strange to get a Q1 report card based on end of year expectations.

I think that's going to make lots of parents uncomfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's a new grading system at my kid's APS elementary school this year: the standards remain the same for the entire year (written at end of grade level standards), and it's possible to get a 4 for "extending" the standard. Last year, the standards changed each quarter, and grades topped out at 3.

For those of you with high-performing kids, what do you expect and what do you reward under this new system? My kid got some 2s and 3s, no 4s, for first quarter. What would be the equivalent of getting straight A's (which was my goal as a kid)?

My 2nd grader got mostly 2s in and few 3s. He is pretty advanced (99% percentile in national and county from all of the tests that provide such information throughout her 1st and 2nd grade up to so far), so not sure what to make of this report card.

Make nothing of it. It means absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For emerging skills it's strange that kids are being graded for skills they aren't supposed to have mastered yet. Under traditional grading students are only assessed based on what they're supposed to know at that point in the year--they test Q1 expectations in Q1. It's really strange to get a Q1 report card based on end of year expectations.

I think that's going to make lots of parents uncomfortable.

Last year's report cards only had specific sub-standards that were supposed to be covered that quarter. After that you didn't see that sub-standard again, even if the kid was marked as Developing. I do think it's an improvement from last year to show how the kid is progressing on the overall standards they are supposed to meet by the end of the year instead of very specific sub-standards. Would I prefer an ABC type grading scale? Maybe... but for elementary those are mostly vibes based anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For emerging skills it's strange that kids are being graded for skills they aren't supposed to have mastered yet. Under traditional grading students are only assessed based on what they're supposed to know at that point in the year--they test Q1 expectations in Q1. It's really strange to get a Q1 report card based on end of year expectations.

I think that's going to make lots of parents uncomfortable.

Last year's report cards only had specific sub-standards that were supposed to be covered that quarter. After that you didn't see that sub-standard again, even if the kid was marked as Developing. I do think it's an improvement from last year to show how the kid is progressing on the overall standards they are supposed to meet by the end of the year instead of very specific sub-standards. Would I prefer an ABC type grading scale? Maybe... but for elementary those are mostly vibes based anyway.

Totally agree that this year is an improvement. The standards that seem strange are the ones that say things like "Spells grade level words correctly.". It seems like that should be measured each quarter based on the expectations for that quarter instead of the end of year goal.