In theory shouldn't it be giving you more helpful data. So I haven't seen one of these yet. But lets say the standards are

Reading comp: Below expectations
Reading fluency: Meets expectations

Doesn't that then make you say "oh so I need to work on my kid on reading comp and they are okay on reading fluency so we don't need to do that"

Vs just A or B. All A tells me is my kid got the assignment right. It doesn't tell me whether he struggled to get there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our middle school, they use SBG all quarter, then convert the grades to A/B/C/etc. So it’s the worst of both worlds, since every teacher converts the grades differently. Some do an average. Some say that even if a kid has 4 on 25 assignments, but a 3 on two assignments, they get a B, not an A because they had more than one 3. It is confusing & frustrating.

Please tell me this is not in APS.

Not that poster but it sounds like FCCPS. They were also doing this for some high school classes but recently decided to go back to traditional grades. It’s really bad for secondary students.

I know APS is working toward SBG for middle and eventually high schools (I think?), but I was hoping it hasn’t been rolled out yet.

In theory, SBG sounds great, but at least at the elementary level, it feels like the further lowering and flattening of expectations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our middle school, they use SBG all quarter, then convert the grades to A/B/C/etc. So it’s the worst of both worlds, since every teacher converts the grades differently. Some do an average. Some say that even if a kid has 4 on 25 assignments, but a 3 on two assignments, they get a B, not an A because they had more than one 3. It is confusing & frustrating.

Please tell me this is not in APS.

Not that poster but it sounds like FCCPS. They were also doing this for some high school classes but recently decided to go back to traditional grades. It’s really bad for secondary students.

Synergy will still calculate a numerical grade, so a 90 is still an A, an 80 is still a B, and so on.

I went to elementary school in California 40 years ago and this is how we were graded. I didn't get letter grades until junior high. It all worked out fine.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our middle school, they use SBG all quarter, then convert the grades to A/B/C/etc. So it’s the worst of both worlds, since every teacher converts the grades differently. Some do an average. Some say that even if a kid has 4 on 25 assignments, but a 3 on two assignments, they get a B, not an A because they had more than one 3. It is confusing & frustrating.

Please tell me this is not in APS.

Which school is this?

Gunston. (I’m exaggerating in that they don’t usually have 25 assignments in one quarter, but you get the idea.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our middle school, they use SBG all quarter, then convert the grades to A/B/C/etc. So it’s the worst of both worlds, since every teacher converts the grades differently. Some do an average. Some say that even if a kid has 4 on 25 assignments, but a 3 on two assignments, they get a B, not an A because they had more than one 3. It is confusing & frustrating.

Please tell me this is not in APS.

Which school is this?

Anonymous wrote:At our middle school, they use SBG all quarter, then convert the grades to A/B/C/etc. So it’s the worst of both worlds, since every teacher converts the grades differently. Some do an average. Some say that even if a kid has 4 on 25 assignments, but a 3 on two assignments, they get a B, not an A because they had more than one 3. It is confusing & frustrating.

Please tell me this is not in APS.

Here’s some information on it: https://www.arlingtonparentsforeducation.org/teachers-lounge (teacher perspective)

https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?u=12119a80f9eb7a7322f4902ae&id=0fa9b2fc24 (parent perspective)

At our middle school, they use SBG all quarter, then convert the grades to A/B/C/etc. So it’s the worst of both worlds, since every teacher converts the grades differently. Some do an average. Some say that even if a kid has 4 on 25 assignments, but a 3 on two assignments, they get a B, not an A because they had more than one 3. It is confusing & frustrating.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No grades. They have a standard such as student can add at grade level. They either meet the standard, are approaching standard, are developing or something else. It’s useless and I don’t even look at their report cards anymore.

So A B C?

No, they literally wrote out 5-7 standards that the kids are supposed to learn that quarter. It’s very specific and totally useless.

So they specified what your child was supposed to learn, told you how well they learned it, and you think it’s “totally useless”? How is a completely subjective A that is not based on numeric computation using a weighted formula from a syllabus (as middle and high schools do, but not elementary) more valuable?

I haven't found it to be particularly helpful for my rising 2nd grader, but letter grades wouldn't be very helpful either. All of the good information about how he is doing has come from the parent teacher conferences.

I don’t do standards-based grading, but this is the article that my PLC (basically a group of teachers with similar courses) discussed last year: https://www.weareteachers.com/standards-based-grading/

Anonymous wrote:We left APS b/c pandemic and return to Taylor this year, there are no grades? I read the slides, so basically it’s pass fail?

What slides are you talking about?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No grades. They have a standard such as student can add at grade level. They either meet the standard, are approaching standard, are developing or something else. It’s useless and I don’t even look at their report cards anymore.

So A B C?

No, they literally wrote out 5-7 standards that the kids are supposed to learn that quarter. It’s very specific and totally useless.