Reply to WaPo article on new grading system

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Reply to "WaPo article on new grading system"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
It sounds like you have quite a bias here.  You seem to think that the reason a parent would want their child to get good grades is to "preen."  I disagree.  Parents want (and deserve) to be able to see data that demonstrates what information the student has learned.  This information used to be readily accessible in MCPS schools.  Under the new reporting structure and report cards, it isn't accessible at all.  Sure, a teacher can claim that all students have earned a 'P" but what, really does this mean.  Does it mean that the student learned 70% of the material, 80%, 90%?  Sure, one could argue that somewhere between 70-90% is proficient, but as a parent, I want to know whether it is the former or the latter.  The is quite a difference between 70% and 90% and when the schools want to put the vast majority of kids into the "P" category, it means that kids who are actually earning on the lower end will look like stronger students and, perhaps, will not get the extra help they need.
Time to stop vilifying the motives of parents and time to examine why a large school system would want to artificially make it appear that most of the kids are performing at exactly the same level.[/quote]ason.

First, ONE of the reasons a parent would want their child to get good grades is to preen. Not the only reason. But definitely one of them.

Second, the O/S/I and letter grade reporting structure did not demonstrate what information the student learned any more than the current grading structure does. An  A in social studies (for example) tells you that the teacher thinks the child did well. But what did the child learn?  And did the A demonstrate that the child learned 90%+ of the material? And was this child who got an A performing at the same level as that child who got an A? And what if most of the class got an A?

Third, a P does not mean, and is not supposed to mean, that this child who got a P is performing at exactly the same level as that child who got a P. What the P means is that the child learned what the child was supposed to learn (I am assuming 100% of it, but I don't know that for a fact). It doesn't mean that the child learned what it was supposed to learn and only that, nothing more.

Fourth, I actually agree that the grading system is not perfect. If it were me, I would get rid of report cards in elementary school altogether, and only have written teacher comments.

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