Grading has changed

[PebblesMK]

A note was sent home with my daughter (4th grade) stating that the school was doing away with letter grades and changing to number grades 1-4. 4-Advanced proficient, 3- proficient, 2-Slightly below proficient, 1- Significantly below proficient. The letter says this grading scale will "...more accurately define the skills our students are working on."

Does anybody have a school with this sort of grading scale, and if so, does it really help "define the skills"? I spoke with one of the teachers and she said that there were parents and kids who were intimidated by the letter grades which is why they couldn't get good grades. Personally, I think it's ridiculous, but am wondering if it's really all that different than letter grades?

 

[RadioNate]

My DS just transferred to a school that does that. I don't even understand it.

They said we should expect 1s & 2s in the beginning of the year since the concepts were new and that they would be at all 3s & 4s by the end of the year.

I'd be much happier with the old A, B, C.

 

[golfgal]

When our kids were in k-3rd grade they had a +,s,u system for report cards. I had the number grades when I was in elementary school. The kids still know that a + or a 4 is the same as an A. Kids are kind of sneaky that way . It's just more PC crap.

 

[koolaidmoms]

My child's school uses the 1-4 system but the way they define the numbers is a bit different.

1 is does not meet NYS standards for ____ grade
2 meets some NYS standards for _____ grade
3 meets all NYS standards for ______ grade
4 exceeds all NYS standards for _____ grade

Each area math, science, reading, etc... Is broken down into the skills they need to achieve that year. So reading in kindergarten may be:

Recognizes all upper case letters - followed by a number.
Recognizes all lower case letters - followed by a number
Can phonetically sound all letters - followed by a number
etc...

It works for us. I like it better than the letter grades my daughter gets in 5th grade. Reading - A. Means nothing to me. Seeing it broken down by each skill they need to attain makes much more sense to me.

Hope this helps some.

 

[esbrick]

A note was sent home with my daughter (4th grade) stating that the school was doing away with letter grades and changing to number grades 1-4. 4-Advanced proficient, 3- proficient, 2-Slightly below proficient, 1- Significantly below proficient. The letter says this grading scale will "...more accurately define the skills our students are working on."

Does anybody have a school with this sort of grading scale, and if so, does it really help "define the skills"? I spoke with one of the teachers and she said that there were parents and kids who were intimidated by the letter grades which is why they couldn't get good grades. Personally, I think it's ridiculous, but am wondering if it's really all that different than letter grades?

IMHO ok now letter grades are intimidating, how long before number grades become intimidating. The grading system is a tool so that students, parents and teachers can measure progress. No matter which denomination is used it will mean something. . . Sheesh, honestly we, students, parents and teachers alike should be alarmed if we see to many low numbers or alphabetically advanced letters. If you don't measure someones progress how are you to see where someone needs help or where the student it progressing and what tools used in the successful classes can possibly be used to advance the student in the classes where they are having trouble. Just sayin. . .

 

[Piglets Mommy]

Our school went to this part way through last year. I hate it. It's so hard to determine how well they are doing. DS had been getting A's in Math, and was suddenly getting 3's. I was concerned that he wasn't doing as well, so scheduled a conference with the teacher. She said that very rarely would a child get a 4, even if they had been getting A's, as a 4 was "exceeding grade level expectations". So now kids who were getting A's before were now getting 3's, but so were the kids who were getting B's before. I personally hate this system....I think it is too ambiguous.

 

[Becky2005]

It's been like that since my DD was in Kindergarten. I didn't care for it then and it was a series of symbols (literally) which you could translate and then a few years later they went to this grading system =

1 - Needs Improvement 2 - Meets Expectations 3 - Exceeds Expectations

That is IT. Now the theory is they break each part down more so instead of saying --

English = A you get "Comprehension = 3" "Fluency = 2" "Sentence Structure = 1"

That type of thing. In our school, starting in 4th -- definitely 5th they do get grades on their actual papers since going into Middle School they will get a letter grade but their actual report cards are the 1, 2 & 3. I find it very subjective grading. Some teachers only give out 3's if you basically are doing 1 grade level above work. Others will give it out for less than that, etc...

So, I'm pretty much a bad mom and don't pay a whole lot attention to their report cards. They won't "flunk" any kids anyway here unless there are issues overall & you would already know about that way before report cards.

 

[pooh4evr]

our district has done it that way for probably 20 yrs or more- now finally in 4th grade they get some letter grades - math, and reading - other than that it is all #s - it is crazy - yes 4s are hard to come by, we take our conferences very seriously - it is really the only way to know what is going on-- I don't thnk we are doing this generation of kids any favors by coddling them (i know i spelled it wrong- guess i get a 2) use red ink, give them the grade they earn, and recognize the kids who do well- what happened to honor roll, reading certificates for reading 100 books,.. mediocre has become the norm.

 

[traviesojmt]

Our school went to this part way through last year. I hate it. It's so hard to determine how well they are doing. DS had been getting A's in Math, and was suddenly getting 3's. I was concerned that he wasn't doing as well, so scheduled a conference with the teacher. She said that very rarely would a child get a 4, even if they had been getting A's, as a 4 was "exceeding grade level expectations". So now kids who were getting A's before were now getting 3's, but so were the kids who were getting B's before. I personally hate this system....I think it is too ambiguous.

I agree, I hated it when we lived in CA. Ours was a 1 to 5 scale. My DS made a 100% on every spelling test ever given. He is just really good at spelling. He was even the school spelling bee winner. First grading period, he got a 4. The teacher said that they don't give 5's at the beginning of the year. Seriously, what else could he do to exceed expectations? There wasn't a higher grade to be made. When we finally moved, our new school didn't know what to make of their grading scale. They said that it didn't tell them anything. My DS also learned that he could work his butt off and make a 4 or kick back and relax and they would give him a 4. He preferred seeing an actual grade of what he earned, not what the teacher chose to put down.

 

[KiminChicago]

Our school has used the number system for a couple of years now and although at first I didn't like it, but once the teachers got used to it too, it worked out a lot better.

As some pps have said, the subjects on the report card are broken up into skill sets. So instead of getting a single letter grade for math, DD got a number grade for things like "Can add two two-digit numbers", "Can subtract a two digit number from another two digit number" and "Understands the concept of borrowing when subtracting." It really pinpoints which areas a student needs help in and which areas the student really understands. In our case, if a skill didn't have a number grade, it meant that the particular skill hadn't been taught in school yet.

When they first started grading this way, there was no way for a child to get a 4 because of the way the tests and quizzes were set up. After the teachers figured out what "exceeds grade level expectations" meant, they were able to structure their curriculum so that students who really were ahead got the correct number score.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

A note was sent home with my daughter (4th grade) stating that the school was doing away with letter grades and changing to number grades 1-4. 4-Advanced proficient, 3- proficient, 2-Slightly below proficient, 1- Significantly below proficient. The letter says this grading scale will "...more accurately define the skills our students are working on."

Does anybody have a school with this sort of grading scale, and if so, does it really help "define the skills"? I spoke with one of the teachers and she said that there were parents and kids who were intimidated by the letter grades which is why they couldn't get good grades. Personally, I think it's ridiculous, but am wondering if it's really all that different than letter grades?

Our school had this for K thru 2nd or 3rd grade and everyone hated it including the teachers. The report cards became a joke with all the 1's & 2's for the first report card then majority of the kids getting all 3's and 4's by June.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Our kids in grade K to 3rd get number grades. Once they get to 4th grade they get letter grades. I really don't see the difference. Why would kids care if they get a letter or number. Its still a grade either way.

 

[PebblesMK]

our district has done it that way for probably 20 yrs or more- now finally in 4th grade they get some letter grades - math, and reading - other than that it is all #s - it is crazy - yes 4s are hard to come by, we take our conferences very seriously - it is really the only way to know what is going on-- I don't thnk we are doing this generation of kids any favors by coddling them (i know i spelled it wrong- guess i get a 2) use red ink, give them the grade they earn, and recognize the kids who do well- what happened to honor roll, reading certificates for reading 100 books,.. mediocre has become the norm.

They have removed the letter grades from everything, including homework. I just have a really hard time understanding the path that school is taking. The teacher and I stay in contact almost every day and I've asked that she mark things wrong if they are messy or spelled wrong. Sadly, the school she is at has decided that handwriting, spelling (on anything other than a spelling test) isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. They also only write cursive for one quarter, which is not the same version I was taught. Kids have it far too easy these days and it's so hard as a parent to implement the things that I learned and use in daily life into her lifestyle when her school says otherwise.

I'm hoping that this system does shed light on things in a broken down form. I do know my child's strengths and weaknesses but sometimes it's not always the same in a classroom setting. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Hannathy]

When our kids were in k-3rd grade they had a +,s,u system for report cards. I had the number grades when I was in elementary school. The kids still know that a + or a 4 is the same as an A. Kids are kind of sneaky that way . It's just more PC crap.

Yep more PC crap!

Also much harder to prove anything either way. Teachers don't have to have as much proof to give whatever grade they want and the poor kids have no hard and fast number to know where they are at.

I hate it and was very glad when my son could go to the charter school where they still give grades and everyone knows what means what.

 

[BEloveDisney]

When I was in school grading was numbers. 0= F 1= D 2= C 3= B 4=A. I didn't have letter grades until college. The numbers didn't so anything to reduce intimidation at all. It was still pretty clear that 4 is good and 1 is bad.

 

[Toad_Passenger]

Our school had this for K thru 2nd or 3rd grade and everyone hated it including the teachers. The report cards became a joke with all the 1's & 2's for the first report card then majority of the kids getting all 3's and 4's by June.

Sounds like a joke to me, too.

So you're going to tell a kid who comes out of the blocks knowing the material (Scoring 90% or better on tests and quizzes), that he only gets a 2. Then, later on in the year, when he is still scoring 90%+, that he suddenly gets a 4? That makes no sense at all, except that it prevents parents of other students from facing the fact that their child may need an extra push to catch up on things.

"It's okay Mr. & Mrs. Sally. As you can see the best student in the class only got a 2, so Sally is not too far behind with her 1."

 

[Hannathy]

Sounds like a joke to me, too.

So you're going to tell a kid who comes out of the blocks knowing the material (Scoring 90% or better on tests and quizzes), that he only gets a 2. Then, later on in the year, when he is still scoring 90%+, that he suddenly gets a 4? That makes no sense at all, except that it prevents parents of other students from facing the fact that their child may need an extra push to catch up on things.

"It's okay Mr. & Mrs. Sally. As you can see the best student in the class only got a 2, so Sally is not too far behind with her 1."

Yep you got it!!!

As Golfgal and I said more PC crap

 

[si-am]

This is a new trend in education, and you're going to start seeing more and more of it. The thought behind it, I believe, is that the letter grades (and numbers) don't really MEAN anything. Does an 88 (B) or a 92 (A) tell you if your kids know the material, really?

But a 4- Exceeds, 3- Meets, 2- Almost, 1- Not quite, based on essential learnings, is easier to understand both for the kids and parents.

 

[Gwendolyn]

In the Netherlands we always have number grades but ours are totally different.

5 and under is a straight fail.
5 = just failed
6 is just passed grade.
7 = average
8 = above average
9 = 100%
10 = exeeds expectations and is a more than perfect score. That is the grade that you get, when you answer questions better than the teacher would expect from students following your course

When you do your exams you can pass with max of two 5's or one 4, but you have to compensate with two 7's or an 8. All other grades have to be at least 6's. If you have a 3 in your exam results you will fail no matter what grades you have besides that 3.

 

[golfgal]

I agree, I hated it when we lived in CA. Ours was a 1 to 5 scale. My DS made a 100% on every spelling test ever given. He is just really good at spelling. He was even the school spelling bee winner. First grading period, he got a 4. The teacher said that they don't give 5's at the beginning of the year. Seriously, what else could he do to exceed expectations? There wasn't a higher grade to be made. When we finally moved, our new school didn't know what to make of their grading scale. They said that it didn't tell them anything. My DS also learned that he could work his butt off and make a 4 or kick back and relax and they would give him a 4. He preferred seeing an actual grade of what he earned, not what the teacher chose to put down.

What a great thing to teach a student, how to do the minimal for the grade

This is a new trend in education, and you're going to start seeing more and more of it. The thought behind it, I believe, is that the letter grades (and numbers) don't really MEAN anything. Does an 88 (B) or a 92 (A) tell you if your kids know the material, really?

But a 4- Exceeds, 3- Meets, 2- Almost, 1- Not quite, based on essential learnings, is easier to understand both for the kids and parents.

Yes, it tells me that my kid got 18 wrong or 8 wrong-HUGE difference if they know the material or not. A 4 tells me the teacher likes my kid, a 1 tells me the teacher doesn't like my kid.