Reply to Madison H.S. Parents - Principal Survey and Skills-Based Grading

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[quote=Anonymous]Parents of students at Madison H.S., please fill out this survey. The administration at Madison is implementing skills-based grading, and it's a disaster. Everything was fine before; there is no need for this. Ask your kid what class was like back when classwork counted. Ask your kid if they think their grade gives them meaningful feedback to how they are doing in class. Then ask their teachers what they think about this or ask your kids what their teachers have said about skills-based grading during class.

I think the point of skills-based grading is ultimately to inflate the grades at the end of the year and show the administration's much touted "upward trend" for all students. It makes the administration look like it is achieving equity for all students, but equity is not achieved by inflating grades and saying things like "content doesn't matter; it's about what you know." In reality, skills-based grading is confusing and incentivizes students to do the least amount of work possible. The only thing that matters are the assessments, test anxiety increases, then the grades that are dropped lead to frustration and depression.

I was really happy at Madison before this happened and it pains me to see the quality of my children's education eroded by what appears to be a self-serving agenda by the administration. The decision to implement skills-based grading was made by Madison's administration, not FCPS or VDOE. Calvert says this year was a disaster, everything will be better next year, however, the truth is this system is not going to work for all subjects and there will be ongoing experimentation to try to make it work.

This survey, as well as one called "High School Assessment and Grading Survey" is an opportunity to give feedback - Reid could shut all this down by implementing the same grading policy for all schools.

The Madison principal survey is due on 3/24.[/quote]

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