Bill's Correspondence Chess Diary

The Palm Beach county school system is junking letter grades for elementary school students and replacing them number grades 1-3.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/state/content/state/epaper/2005/05/10/s1a_reportcard_0510.html

Now lets highlight some of this article. The PB Post's 9th page headline is most interesting-  "Parents aren't impressed with number grade system." Which begs to ask why the hell this is being put in place.

Under the formula, a 1 means the student is working a year or more below grade level, a 2 indicates the student is working less than a year below grade level, and a 3 means they are working at or above grade level.

"Somehow, people believe that when they see an A, B, C, D or F, they have all kinds of information about a child's progress," said Bill Thompson, principal of Forest Park Elementary. When A's, B's and C's were chosen decades ago to rate students' work, "there was no such thing as grade-level expectations, the Sunshine State Standards or No Child Left Behind."

"An A is not the same in one class as in another class, but prior to the adoption of standards, it was a way of measuring how kids did. Now we have a way of aligning ourselves class to class, school to school, even district to district," Thompson said.

This is all gobbleygook that passes  for education today. I know an A in one class is different than another. But does Mr. Thompson really think a 1 is going to be any different. It's terribley vague to boot also. What is the standard of this class. A student is doing grade level or higher work. But how much higher if they are excelling? So if an entire class is doing as expected, they all get ones. Seems more student self esteem oriented than telling a parent how their child is doing.

"That's where the confusion comes in," Thompson said. "There's somehow an assumption that that A means all is well."

If a Teacher is giving an A to a student and all is not well, then that student shouldn't be getting an A! That simple.

Do you think a number is any better if you mean the student is having any kind of trouble? No its the same thing if you goby Mr. Thompson's warped sense of logic. I don't!

Across the country, other school districts are doing away with grades, too, including the Detroit school system last year. Also last year, Lee County, on the west coast of Florida, added standard-based numbering to its middle and high school report cards, although it kept the letter grades.

And how are these schools doing? From what I know of the Detroit school system, not very well. Are we just blindly following them. Where is the data this is a better system?

But parents who have heard about the changes are skeptical. Under the new card, a student making the traditional A could instead get a 3, but so could a student making a C. 

See what I mean. This is a case of educators worrying about a student's self esteem rather than whether they are learning or not.

"I guess my first response is we are all not winners," said Maureen Goodwin, who has children at Lighthouse and Beacon Cove elementaries.

Goodwin said she didn't find the new report card more helpful. The change adds nothing.

"It's pass-fail. It's too generalized," she said.

I agree with that 100% percent. So why doesn't Mr. Thompson see it too? Oh he knows better because he is supposedly an educator! Well his grading system doesn't educate at all.

Parent Carol Edlund is equally unenthusiastic about the new grading system. She said a low grade can be an incentive to work hard, but kids won't have that anymore.

"I'm completely against it. You think they're doing great, and really they've been doing C work. And when the children move on to middle and high school, those kids are still getting grades," Edlund said. "They're not going to be able to make that leap to A work."

The post quotes two parents who don't like this new system. Are there parents out there who do like it? I'm surprised the Post didn't quote any. Or is it that there are few if any parents who like it. Then why change the grading system. 

Report cards were never meant to be a motivational tool, said Thompson, the Forest Park principal.

"They were designed with relatively narrow focus: to let parents know how their kids are doing," he said. "It's not intended to take the place of all other forms of communication."

Then don't pardon my French Mr. Thompson when I say you have your head up your arse. If I didn't get good grades, I was in trouble with my parents. They would discipline me in some way. That made me motivated to do better in class rather than facing more of my parent's wrath.

How a parent is supposed to know if a 1 is C grade work or A grade work is beyond me.  

He hopes the new format will make parents look more closely at their kids' report cards and that the scrutiny will mean more parent-teacher talks. He doesn't expect the new report cards will mean an end to the era of the honor roll, not with all the work kids do in a trimester. Tests and individual work will still be graded A, B, C and so on.

"It would be very easy to sort out kids who excel," he said.

I half agree with this gibberish.  Parents will look more closely at the numbers grade. Why? They will want to know what the heck it really means?

And if A, B, C work on tests and other work is still ok, why isn't it on the report cards?

School board member Debra Robinson initiated the change to the report card using numbers several years ago. She likes how specific it is. She is comfortable keeping the letter grades — as long as parents are looking at the numbers, too. But she doesn't think the report card is perfect. Robinson would like to see a report card tailored to each grade. It could even add a number 4 to indicate which students truly excel.

A 4 would be good but then why are we changing the system? Also why isn't the board taking parent's input in this situation. Oh they all know better. What a crock!

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