Reply to Equity-grading/ SBG - all FCPS high schools? (or only some)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For a parent with a rising 9th grader, what is SBG? I've read through this thread and there are puzzle pieces missing. 
[/quote]

At the most basic level it is grading by core skills to learn throughout the year and not by assignment. Think those skills you see on the elementary report cards that measure your child's skill growth across the year as in "computes numbers fluently and makes accurate assessments" instead of a singular grade for the Unit 5 algebra test. It's a little complex to compare this too because the Unit 5 test before SBG used to also be divided up into several sections if not by skills. A Unit 5 math test both before and after would have been and still is divided up into several grades, just now they are broken up by skill rather than type of problem such as short answer or essay or Unit 5.1 and 5.2 questions.

Because FCPS really made this change not to just better measure skill growth related to SOL passing, but also or instead to bring grades to a middle and reduce the achievement gap, there are a lot of other changes that were implemented and are now part of the SBG change but are peripheral to the main purpose of grading by skills rather than project or test. Homework is no longer assessed, or feedback given. This greatly changes the motivation of students if you have a child who needs regular feedback and who needs more carrots to complete practice work. Now many students come completely unprepared for class because they are only assessed on the summatives. Retakes are now teacher dependent rather than a guideline for the school to follow where any summative grade below an 80 can be retaken to achieve an 80, so if there is a type of problem in Unit 5.2 that your child doesn't understand related to a skill such as "computing numbers fluently" and they get a C on that skill for the Unit 5 summative, rather than retaking the unit 5 test to get an 80 and understand the content better, they will now have to wait until the Unit 6 test and try to compute better on that test and then if they do well on this test and get a B on that skill for unit 6, the old grade for that skill from Unit 5 will be replaced with a B despite never doing another Unit 5 problem. If it's a D on the Unit 6 test, then the C from the last test will just remain. Quizzes are optional grading measurements for teachers depending on the school, class and teacher. Some classes, kids are only assessed on the unit summative tests and no other work for the year. So, in addition to having changing summative grades, they only get graded on one summative test every month or so. Grades come in late for summatives because they are large tests, and you can be finding out that the grade for the summative completely changed your GPA with little time to correct or relearn information you didn't realize you didn't know from the old unit.

All of this helps to provide less work to the teacher. Oh, they say they have to enter more grades for each test and it's true they may now have five "skill" grades rather than 2 or 3 in the previous system, but it's just a larger breakdown of the same test into more sections while grading many fewer assignments. Kids have a hard time relating to the skills because there is nothing specific on their assignments that call out the skills being assessed so the skill breakdown is really for admin to see. They are the only ones that care that all of the SOL skills are being taught. From the student's perspective, they are getting graded on much fewer assignments/work and getting much less homework assigned and feedback on classwork and homework back to them. It may or may not help them to have grades related to skills, but what definitely doesn't help is to give them less feedback on work and less work to do overall.

FCPS also keeps going back and forth on whether zeros are part of this initiative. It's like a bill in congress where you think the change is about one main topic and then FCPS tries to tack on many other initiatives to have them fly under the radar under this umbrella change. So no one really knows all that SBG encompasses because FCPS keeps adding to the initiative. [/quote]

I have 2 high achievers and one middle range kid who struggles.

Ironically,  this standards based grading makes it far more difficult for my middle range kid to learn, retain, prepare and achieve academically.   The good students are fine with whatever system they get.

[b]I am sure that FCPS is going to find that this no accountability,  subjective system is far worse for the students it is supposed to help, than the traditional system of clear expectations, high, concrete standards, and a simple, accountable grading system tgat makes sense to students and parents[/b].[/quote]

FCPS will harm the exact democratic they think they are helping.  They do this repeatedly.

Progressives are ultimately horrible people, not matter what their claimed intentions are.

But, you parents in FFX had a chance to change this last November.  You voted for more of the same.

“Equity first.  Academics? - somewhere lower down on the list.”  - that is literally what your school board and your superintendent have said, repeatedly.[/quote]

I wonder if they took parents of FCPS students how the actual vote went. The majority of people in the county do not have a student in FCPS.[/quote]

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