Reply to WaPo article on new grading system

Forum Index » Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)

Reply to "WaPo article on new grading system"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

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?

[/quote]

It's important to note that the O/S/I/N system was only in place for K-2.  I no longer have children this young, but if the C2.0 report card has supplanted this system, it doesn't matter so much because the two are essentially the same.

The real problem is that the C2.0 report card system of ES/P/I/N has now supplanted the former A/B/C/D/E system that used to be in place from grade 3 to 5.  This is a critical stage where kids are increasingly expected to acquire academic skills, which if they are not acquired will mean that the student perpetually becomes consigned to being behind grade level.  Formerly, an A meant that on a test or group of tests you demonstrated an ability to answer 90% or more of the questions, B/80%, etc.  Parents could see the tests and could understand what material the student was missing.  This no longer happens in C2.0.  Now in many schools kids are not being given a clear opportunity to earn an ES, so the whole grading system has essentially become pass/fail, except that they are calling "fail" "in progress" until the very last opportunity that a child can demonstrate "proficiency" and then if at the end of the year the child has not become proficient the "fail" is called "Not proficient".

This is the same smoke and mirrors grading that exists for the MSA, where "basic" appears to not be negative to parents when instead it really means that a child did not acquire expected grade level skills. And, where there is no motivation for the school to get kids to anything more than 1 point above "basic" cut scores.

ITA with other posters who say that the new grading system is extremely dangerous for the special education population, because schools often use the phrase "achieving at grade level" to deny services.  Many parents rely on more granular grade reports to show during the IEP process that their child is not responding to instruction and needs special instruction.  This is now almost impossible to show for many, many kids.  It's bad for kids, but will save a lot of money!  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics