Reply to Did your kid get an ES in reading? First or Second Grade?

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Reply to "Did your kid get an ES in reading? First or Second Grade?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

What??  That sounds terrible!  It's like saying to your kid who got a C in Algebra that he's just a C Student and there's no way to get the A or B.

Do you really think there is some innate magic that kids who get an ES have?  Are all the other kids simply just not capable of an ES?[/quote]

A kid who gets a C gets a C because they were unprepared for the assignment.  A kid who gets an ES gets an ES because they are working outside the boundaries of what the teacher is teaching.  It's not magic... rather raw intelligence.  That can't be taught or tutored.  There is no shame in all P's.  [/quote]

This is why I dislike the standards based grading used in elementary. With the letter grades, there is a clearcut objective standard, and it is obvious how grades are obtained -- by mastering X% of the material, the student earns Y grade. I think that makes it easier to see how to help a student improve their learning and work up to the next highest grade. With the new elementary grading style, it seems very ambiguous. Nobody is quite sure what specifically is required to earn each level of "grade", so it is more difficult to come up with a plan to help a student improve.

Previously, to go from a grade of B to A, the student would know that they needed to get X% more points from correct answers on assignments and tests. Now, it seems that even meeting or exceeding grade level standards for things like reading level or even getting over 90% of the problems on an assignment is insufficient for the highest grade but nobody is quite sure what would be sufficient to earn an ES. That seems quite discouraging and even slightly arbitrary. I don't think it's a very good system.[/quote]

It's elementary school.  There are so many concepts being taught.  I think the grading scale is sufficient for such a fluid curriculum.

N- Not grasping it yet - need work
I - In progress.. kid is putting the pieces together
P - Proficient... kid gets it.
ES - Kid is working beyond the subject matter - lets do something to keep the kid engaged.

I don't think we really need A's to F's to grade 6-10 year olds.  I think the current scale ensures that areas that need attention, get attention.[/quote]

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