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PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794
Posted on 10/05/2002 12:52:45 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough
BETHEL — When the first school report cards come home this year, parents will see a change in the way their children are marked. Gone is the traditional way of grading for kindergarten through fifth grade. Instead of A’s, B’s and C’s, there will be numbers and descriptions designed to give parents a more accurate idea of how their children are faring.
The student progress reports were 18 months in the making. They were developed by a 24-member committee of administrators, teachers and parents who studied report cards from around the state and used input from a focus group of parents.
"It’s reflective of the children’s continuous progress,” said Assistant Superintendent Joanne Nicholson. "They certainly give parents more information, but do not overwhelm them.”
"I believe it’s a wonderful step,” said parent Jan Neuner, who has a son in the second grade at Rockwell school and served on the committee.
The progress reports are not set in stone. If need be, they will be revised next year, said Rockwell principal Brian Kirmil. "This is a pilot and we’ll watch it closely,” Kirmil said. Parents of Rockwell, Berry and Johnson school children will have plenty of chances to learn about the new cards and give their feedback. Each family will get a handbook, school meetings will be held after each marking period, and Wednesday a parent information session will be held at the Johnson School at 7 p.m.
Why change the cards? "We have changed the curriculum over the last few years and the report cards didn’t match what we’ve done,” Johnson School principal Julie Luby said. Reading workshops, writing workshops and the "everyday” math program are just some of the changes made in the past two or three years.
In reading, for instance, Johnson School assistant principal Kathy Rockwell said children are now asked, "why do the characters act the way they do. We want the children to go deeper than what the words say.”
The grading code on the new report goes from 1 to 4. Each number is explained on the card and shows how the child is meeting "grade level expectations.”
Number 4 means "exceeds,” 3 is "meets,” 2 is "progressing towards” and 1 is "insufficient progress towards grade level expectations.”
Progress reports are broken into traditional subject areas such as writing, science and social studies. Then, each subject area is broken down further. In fourth and fifth grade, for example, reading is broken down into 13 areas including "monitors own reading for meaning and self-corrects” and "refers to text when presenting ideas or opinions.”
On the first-grade progress report, mathematics is broken down into seven areas, including "sorts groups of objects by attributes and explains the sort” and "tells time to the hour.”
"The reports show how your kid measures up to the standards and grade expectations,” Berry School principal Pat Cosentino said. Also, the reports have the same format for all grades. "We’re all on the same page.”
As a parent, Neuner is particularly happy with a section on learning behaviors. "It helps parents to see if their child is maturing,” she said.
That section has 18 descriptions including "stays with task to completion,” "manages personal belongings,” "shows courtesy to others,” and "relates well with peers.”
Maryann Kellogg, a third-grade Berry School teacher who has been in the school system for 26 years, said the new progress reports "make things clearer and show exactly what’s being taught.” Their uniformity helps teachers know how well the children are progressing.
Another big change at all three schools is the reduction of four marking periods to three — December, March and June. Luby said there will be October parent-teacher conferences to keep parents informed about how their children are doing.
Contact Marietta Homayonpour at
mhomayonpour@newstimes.com or at (203) 731-3336.
"why do the characters act the way they do. We want the children to go deeper than what the words say.”
Um, let's just stick with letter grades and make sure that we go deeper into what the grades say...
"Neuner is particularly happy with a section on learning behaviors...”
Emphasis on assessing "learning behaviors" draws attention away from "teaching behaviors" to the benefit of incompetent publik skool teachers...
Three marking periods instead of four... On the way to one... or none...
Yeah, in the liberal, socialistic indoctrination, that is todays public school system. Lovely.
This is classic bait and switch:
The grading code on the new report goes from 1 to 4. Each number is explained on the card and shows how the child is meeting "grade level expectations.”
Number 4 means "exceeds,” 3 is "meets,” 2 is "progressing towards” and 1 is "insufficient progress towards grade level expectations.”
Read 4=A
3=B
2=C
1=D
Once you break the code, you can easily see that the rest of it is just "Johnny plays well with others, blah, blah, blah."
Justifying their 36 week a year sinecure by blowing smoke up the citizens *$$.
Here in Vista, CA, the school district has used this type of report card for over a decade. My son (now in 10th grade) attended Vista schools for kindergarten and 1st grade. After 4 weeks into 2nd grade, I asked his teacher when could we expect him to learn to read, and to add and subtract and do other basic arithmetic. Her words to me (an exact quote which I will NEVER forget) were, "Is that a goal for you, Mrs. RightField? If so, let's include that as a goal for you and he to work on at home."
He was out of there by the next Friday, and was subsequently homeschooled through 8th grade. Meanwhile, we moved to a better district and he's at the high school where his father teaches. It's not perfect, but it stresses performance, responsibility and achievement.
Dewey's vision is realized.
Didn't really matter anyway. Everyone has been getting A's for some time now.
They implemented this in my elementary school in Massachusetts way back in the early 70s. Even then, we didn't have grades, just word description equivalents. Then we changed over to "commendable," "acceptable," and "needs reinforcement." BUT, you weren't measured against your peers but by how hard the teacher thought you were trying.
I went from straight As to "acceptables" and "needs reinforcements." So I stopped trying.
I myself just fought (and lost) this battle with the Diocese of Rocville Centre (New York), wanting to know why, oh why they were so impressed with a system invented by a famous secular humanist. I don't think the school board knew what I was talking about. I'll say this: The school board had no choice, since the edict had come directly from the diocese.
In any case, I've seen the report cards, and they are not too bad for the lower grades. They include such things as, "incorporates Catholic values in daily life." Now, while I have no problem with this kind of thing in the parochial system (after all, encouraging Catholic values is WHY we're sending him there), I do have a problem when they try to it in the public schools -- whose "values" will they use? The NEA's?
I still don't know why they've gone this way, and I've tried to convice them that if they insist on the rubric marking system, then they should at least also include Overall Marks. For example, a child could be marked in reading comprehension, sentence structure, spelling, penmanship, and clarity using the rubric method, and also receive an overall mark using the traditional method of A, B, C, etc., thereby giving the parent an idea of which areas need work and which do not, while also giving the parent a concrete, actual GRADE to see. I thought it was a nice compromise, but they didn't go for it (yet).
Regards,
Why not break it down into molecules, so that the parents will be really in the dark?
And why is reading even an issue by the fourth or fifth grade? It should be a done deal - they should be able to READ.
Why is it that in real-world endeavors, the standards are commonly accepted? It works or it doesn't.
Only the grifters that run "public education" get away with this Three-Card Monte game and are subsidized by their victims.
LOL!
Funny coming from someone with Diane Feinstein as your Senator! hehehe... Just be glad you don't have to admit Joe Lieberman & Chris Dodd are your Senators!
Anyway, back to the education thingy. Sorry, I just can't help thinking how Taliban Johnny is a product of wonderfully progressive CA schooling. CT schooling may be boringly traditional, but CT has produced some pretty good Presidents. And so has California! We're even! hehehehe
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