What grade does your private elementary start giving grades?

[Anonymous]

Why? At two different schools, the report cards that our kids received containing no letter or numerical grades have usually been somewhere between 8 and 10 pages long, with so much detail about their performance across dozens of specific skills or standards related to study habits/behavior, reading, writing, math, and other subjects.

We get a way fuller picture than what a simple letter grade would convey. It's a ton of work for the teachers to prepare thoughtful narratives, and we really appreciate that they do.

[Anonymous]

No grades ever. Too elitist and racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No grades ever. Too elitist and racist.

Ma'am, this is an Arby's.

[Anonymous]

Sixth and I love it. They have so many years to get caught up in grading. Read Alfie Kohn's "The Case Against Grading" and see what you think.

[Anonymous]

Our MoCo Catholic starts letter grades in 4th. The bands are also more restrictive/old school:

A - 93-100%
B - 85-92%
C - 77-84%
D - 70-76%
F - Below 70%

[Anonymous]

6th grade is when grades begin but there was a clear rubric and explanation of where our child was developmentally prior to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why? At two different schools, the report cards that our kids received containing no letter or numerical grades have usually been somewhere between 8 and 10 pages long, with so much detail about their performance across dozens of specific skills or standards related to study habits/behavior, reading, writing, math, and other subjects.

We get a way fuller picture than what a simple letter grade would convey. It's a ton of work for the teachers to prepare thoughtful narratives, and we really appreciate that they do.

It’s all just smoke up your ass to make you feel better writing that $45k check.

I trust the ERB report with IN norms more than some ten page report of platitudes any day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think our k-8 started with formal grades on report cards in 5th grade.

However, I believe they started giving grades on assignments in 4th grade. The report card was still all narrative and they didn't accumulate grades over assignments during the quarter/semester - but they would start to see how points were being assigned to how well they did on the assigned material.

For those concerned with standards - before 5th there were also levels indicated on report card (in addition to narrative) to indicate performance relative to a set of expectations (at/exceeding etc.) and a set of expectations were listed as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exceeds expectations = A
Meets expectations = B
With Support = C
Does not meet = D
It's not hard to translate the 1-4s to letters if it matters to you.

A lot of the K-8s start in 6th because high schools look at grades and 7th & 8th, so you essentially get a practice year and then it counts.

Not at our school.

EE/ME/AE/BE - assigned until 2nd grade in addition to a write up from the teachers.
In 3rd grade a letter grade A/B/C/D is assigned for each subject in addition to a percentage. EE/ME/AE/BE are also given for defined criteria within each subject. So in 3rd grade they get 3 different types of grades are given.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? At two different schools, the report cards that our kids received containing no letter or numerical grades have usually been somewhere between 8 and 10 pages long, with so much detail about their performance across dozens of specific skills or standards related to study habits/behavior, reading, writing, math, and other subjects.

We get a way fuller picture than what a simple letter grade would convey. It's a ton of work for the teachers to prepare thoughtful narratives, and we really appreciate that they do.

It’s all just smoke up your ass to make you feel better writing that $45k check.

I trust the ERB report with IN norms more than some ten page report of platitudes any day.

WTF are you talking about? Our report cards have only one page of narrative, and I assure you very little of it is platitudinous. They clearly know our kids well. The other pages are reporting whether a student is at/above/working towards grade level in several dozen areas. We're smart enough to read between the lines and figure out what kind of "letter grade" that would be, if our school did assessments that way.

Also, one of our kids takes the MAP so we have plenty of data there in addition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Our MoCo Catholic starts letter grades in 4th. The bands are also more restrictive/old school:

A - 93-100%
B - 85-92%
C - 77-84%
D - 70-76%
F - Below 70%

Bands are meaningless unless you fit the population to those bands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why? At two different schools, the report cards that our kids received containing no letter or numerical grades have usually been somewhere between 8 and 10 pages long, with so much detail about their performance across dozens of specific skills or standards related to study habits/behavior, reading, writing, math, and other subjects.

We get a way fuller picture than what a simple letter grade would convey. It's a ton of work for the teachers to prepare thoughtful narratives, and we really appreciate that they do.

Same.

But numeric grades start in 3rd at ours and the report cards shrink down to 3 pages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why? At two different schools, the report cards that our kids received containing no letter or numerical grades have usually been somewhere between 8 and 10 pages long, with so much detail about their performance across dozens of specific skills or standards related to study habits/behavior, reading, writing, math, and other subjects.

We get a way fuller picture than what a simple letter grade would convey. It's a ton of work for the teachers to prepare thoughtful narratives, and we really appreciate that they do.

It’s all just smoke up your ass to make you feel better writing that $45k check.

I trust the ERB report with IN norms more than some ten page report of platitudes any day.

Me too, but they also don’t start the ERBs until 3rd grade. So if you want to know how well your kindergartener is reading or doing math or playing with friends, these longer report cards are much more informative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our starts in sixth. Before that, they get "meeting expectations" or "exhibiting strength" etc. we like the system. I don't see why they need grades earlier than that.

Right. Keep infantilizing the 10 year olds. We would hate for anyone to get upset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just because a certain school's report cards don't have "grades," doesn't mean they aren't useful or descriptive about where a student stands academically.

So why not have grades?