This WTOP News article intrigued me:
Montgomery County educators have approved a plan that will ease parents, teachers and administrators into a new grading system over the next five years.
According to The Washington Post, the schedule will include several checkpoints along the way.
Next year, for instance, grades will reflect only academic achievement. The following year, teachers will be asked to grade students based on how well they accomplished specific academic goals set by the county.
Under the previous policy, teachers had more liberty to set grades according to their own standards.
My first thought is - you mean grades weren't previously tied to academic achievement? What on earth could they have been tied to? Sure, I can understand a teacher wanting to give a few extra points to someone with perfect attendance and good class participation, but was subjective grading so out of hand that the county had to develop a written policy stating that grades must be based on academic achievement? Something smells fishy here.
The article ends with:
Montgomery County's Board of Education voted last March to revamp the school system's grading system, and expected to have the new system up and running within five months.
Instead, many parents, teachers and students were confused, and the policy was put on hold.
What's could be confusing about a policy stating that grades are determined solely by academic achievement? What's to confuse?
Onwards to the Washington Post:
In the 2004-05 school year, grades will reflect only academic achievement, although study skills will be noted on the report card. No bonus points for handing in a permission slip, or C's nudged up to B's just because the student tried hard. The next year, teachers will be asked to grade students based on how well they accomplished the specific academic goals the county sets for that course or grade level.
Under previous policy, teachers had more latitude to set grades according to their own standards. Under the new policy, they'll receive examples of what looks like "A" work, "B" work, and so on, said Betsy Brown, director of curriculum development.
Interesting. Did the teachers originally oppose this plan because those examples were not previously offered? Or are they not happy with the county telling them what a "A" is?
One of the fiercest criticisms of the policy as passed last year was that it did not make clear what to do about students receiving services in special education or English as a second language. Theoretically, a fifth-grader who started a term reading at the second-grade level and made great leaps to the fourth-grade level would receive a poor mark, since grades would be assigned based on fifth-grade objectives.
And there's an argument to be made for giving him that poor grade, although I admit it's not a compassionate argument. A high grade for fifth-grade work would suggest that this particular student is ready for sixth-grade work, when he may not be. Also, a policy of giving him grades for progress and effort, rather than grades reflecting achievement of a criterion-referenced standard, might move him along, but even if he continues to do well, eventually he could be receiving high marks in the 12th grade for doing 10th-grade work.
Why should he receive a high 12th-grade mark when (a) colleges are going to interpret the grade as indicating that this student can do 12th-grade work, and (b) other students might be performing 12th-grade work in a mediocre fashion, and receive lower grades? Try as I might to be understanding, I simply can't understand why two fifth-grade students, one who is reading at the fifth-grade level, and one who is reading at the fourth-grade level, should both receive passing marks.
It sounds to me like the board was trying to get everyone to agree that an A grade in fifth-grade reading means the student did A work in fifth-grade reading. Otherwise, there's no telling what it means. Apparently, though, the board has backed off from this attempt at objectivity:
Yesterday, the board accepted the committee's recommendation that such students be graded on standards set for them individually, with their report card also noting the level of achievement the student is being measured against.
The same will hold true for gifted and talented students. "If I'm a second-grader and a team has determined I should be working on the fourth-grade level on math, I can earn an A, B, C, D or E based on fourth-grade standards," Brown said.
Emphasis mine. Well, I suppose that's a compromise, and I suppose it's good that students can be held to higher standards as well as lower ones. But would this show up on a transcript? Would a 12th-grader who receives high grades for performing 9th-grade level work (because that his personal standard) be able to apply to colleges with all A's, and no information about how that student compared to other students?
And just curious - who gets to be valedictorian? The student with the highest GPA? The student with the highest GPA who was also expected to do 12th-grade work? Some very thorny issues seem involved with this setting of standards individually for students.
Posted by kswygert at January 14, 2004 11:51 AM