Grades

Monday afternoon you will be receiving your child's interim report, so I just wanted to touch base with you about grading.

Our system, along with much of the nation, is going through a shift in how grades are determined.  If you have a child in younger grades, you have already seen changes in the report cards.  No longer are they a simple S/P/U for subjects, but rather a checklist of targets and the level at which your child has achieved that target.  Similar report cards will be making their way into 4th grade in the next few years.

To ensure that I am grading the child solely based on what the child knows, the grades will be an average only on the tests, quizzes and projects that your child completes.  This means there will be no grades for homework, participation, journal writing, etc.  It also means there will be no guess work for you as a parent when you are wondering what sort of grade your child will receive on his/her report card.  I will still hold children accountable for doing their work in the classroom and at home, and I do believe that if they slack off on this work, it will begin to show in their grades.

I have spent a lot of time in thought, and in discussion with colleagues and administrators about grading practices, and I truly think this is a great move.  I did want to make you aware of it though because I know at Open House, I said I would be including other work.  For telling you two different things, I do apologize.  I jumped right into this school year with no real time to think ahead and so I was just doing what I had always done.  We know that that is not always best!  I truly believe this change is progress, and so, I am embracing it.

The children's grades will reflect true LEARNING.  Children prove to me that they understand a topic by doing well on an assessment.  If a child does not do well on an assessment, he/she is welcome to retake the test after doing some more studying.  I will not "pester" the child to do this, but he/she is welcome to ask me to retake a test and I will gladly replace their new test score with the previous one.  Please keep in mind though that this will need to be done in a reasonable amount of time (say two weeks).

For this first interim report, we have not had many tests or quizzes.  Both language and social studies are determined by one test grade each.  (I will say that I was very impressed with the scores for both of these tests!)  Although the children have been doing science experiments and learning about light and sound, they have not had an assessment yet, so they will not have a grade for science.  Math is mainly relatively easy multiplication quizzes (0, 1, 2, 5, 10) and one other quiz.  The reading grade will be determined by 3 reading and vocabulary tests as well as the average of their AR quizzes.

Next week, I will show the students how they can average their own scores for a 9-week period using that yellow sheet in their Tuesday Communicator.

Thank you for your help and support as I try new methods of ensuring I am assessing the children based on the learning that they do!