Reply to More skills based grading at madison hs

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't know..I have posted on here a few times in favor of the system. Tried to explain the upsides and was shouted down. I am not the principal. I have a junior in APs in Madison and so far, the kids seem to understand the system fine and do well.

I can see why some of you don't care for it, but it is beyond willfully ignorant to yell that those of who do are shills or don't have kids or whatever.

And insisting that ALL or even most JMHS parents are frothing mad is wrong

[/quote]

There's more than one person on this thread who thinks the negative reactions to SBG are over-stated; or at least not representative of everyone.  The posters who hate SBG are unwilling to consider that possibility.

Plenty of kids are able to adjust to it.  Also, as a parent, I don't get involved in knowing what the rubric is for each assignment.  That's my kids' job.  I give teachers enough respect to allow them to do their job (teaching and assessing), and I don't feel the need to micromanage what the teacher is doing or what my kids are getting for grades.  We are o.k. with the outcomes.  Grades are not controlling our household or mental health.  It's freeing, really.  [/quote]
But why make this change at all?[/quote]

Based on what the HS has put out, the goal is to emphasize the progressive nature of learning, and de-emphasize the impact of one-and-done learning and grades.  The message of the old grading system is that you are assessed on a skill/concept once and then you either get feedback (grade) that you learned it or you didn't, and the class moves on to the next topic.  The message that teens get if they didn't do well on that test is that it's behind them and they missed their chance to learn it or show it, so just move on.

SBG's big picture is that students should have more than one chance to show that they learned something, and schools should incentivize continuing to try to master a skill/concept.  Therefore, if they do show improvement on a skill at a later test, that effort and accomplishment should be rewarded (with the later grade being used to replace one earlier grade on the same skill).

I'm sure there will be someone who says "this isn't how it works irl" or "it's not fair to someone who learned it well the first time..."  Etc.

I'm just answering the question of "why" a change was made (based on the materials the HS has provided).[/quote]

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