Weighted grading system in Elementary school?

[ncmickeyluvr]

Has anyone ever dealt with a weighted ( or is it weighed? I googled it and it was referred to both ways. ) grading system for Elementary aged students? I've heard of it in High Schools but never elementary. I went to a very small hs and we didn't even have that.

Here's the situation. Sorry if it's long.

My dd is in the 4th grade and in an Academically/Intellectually Gifted classroom for Reading and Math and it is 4th and 5th grade AIG students combined. Those students are taught with more rigor than normal 4th &5th grades. Today was the Honor Roll reception. Only 3 AIG students made A Honor Roll. My child made AB Honor Roll. Afterwards, another parent approached me and said that some parents districtwide were forming a group to try and have the AIG students grades weighed like HS honor students would be. I told her I would consider going to a meeting and left it at that.

Now I'm wondering, what would weighing the grades gain my student? My gut reaction is that this is more about the parents than the students. I think the parents might feel the need to prove that their child is "smarter" than the rest of the kids. If their AIG kid is only on AB honor roll....or not on the honor roll at all...then the rest of the school wouldn't know that their child is "smarter".....KWIM?

So can anyone tell me a reason why I'm wrong? Is there an actual purpose to weighing the grades? If it's going to actually help my child in some way, I'll go to a meeting and at least hear them out. I certainly am not interested in making my AB student stand out more. Unless there something that I'm not getting, the whole thing puts a bad taste in my mouth. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[DizBelle]

It seems like it would only be a truer indication of their acheivement.

 

[abdmom]

I'm a former teacher and a former teacher of gifted students. I've taught in various schools, but never in one that had an honor roll, never mind an elementary honor roll. Honor rolls in elementary don't benefit the students, nor do those A or B grades on their report cards. Students at the elementary level can be at very different places in their development. Their grades and honor roll status will not matter in future years.

What does public acknowledgment of grades get? Competition. Feelings of I'm better than so and so. Feelings of I'm not as good as so and so. Disappointment that I'm not the absolute best. Not something I would want to foster in children of that age. At this age, they should be congratulated for doing THEIR best, not being judged against others. JMHO

 

[Wishing on a star]

Our elementary schools not only have honor rolls, even in the youngest grades, but they are routinely published in the paper.

Jeez....

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I didn't have weighting until high school for class placement and college purposes. In individaul classes--when I had higher level classes in upper high school grades and college, they would sometimes do a curve. (Hubby's college of engineering coursework was notorious for this.) The purpose of curves was to prevent folks from otherwise all failing the course and I never understood why they would make exams impossible to pass.

In Elementary, it gains nothing other than allowing kids to be on honor roll. I think it is silly. But at the time I did elementary and had gifted classes--they weren't really included until they made it during the social studies period.

I don't mind honor rolls. Nothing wrong with recognizing a student for work done well. But weighting elementary grades is nonsense and to me a complete waste of time as a "cause" to be taken up by their parents.

 

[allison443]

I have never heard of weighting done in elementary school, only in high school. In high school grades are usually weighted for purposes of class rank. Weighting would make A person with all As in honors courses rank ahead of a person with all As in regular courses.
In high school it is important because class rank is a factor in college admissions, some scholarships, etc.

IMO I don't see the point of weighting in elementary school.

 

[agnes!]

Oh my....these parents obviously don't have older children, do they actually think grades at this age/grade MATTER?!? Elementary grades don't go on any kind of permanent record, it won't matter to Bryn Mawr or Yale or Stanford WHAT grades these special little snowflakes got in 4th grade.

Now I understand having weighted-grades in high-school, that makes sense to me. A student doing more work in an AP/IB/dual-enrollment class should get a bump on their GPA.

I have to say, I've run into my share of pushy-parents/helicopters around here, but I have NEVER heard of people agitating for kids in GT classes to get a bump so they can get on AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HONOR-ROLL.

I have this to say to these folks...
"Hey, AIG parental-units, how about your kids work hard and then YOU accept that whatever grades they get are the grades they deserve."

There are other hills that I would choose to die on.

agnes!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Has anyone ever dealt with a weighted ( or is it weighed? I googled it and it was referred to both ways. ) grading system for Elementary aged students? I've heard of it in High Schools but never elementary. I went to a very small hs and we didn't even have that.

Here's the situation. Sorry if it's long.

My dd is in the 4th grade and in an Academically/Intellectually Gifted classroom for Reading and Math and it is 4th and 5th grade AIG students combined. Those students are taught with more rigor than normal 4th &5th grades. Today was the Honor Roll reception. Only 3 AIG students made A Honor Roll. My child made AB Honor Roll. Afterwards, another parent approached me and said that some parents districtwide were forming a group to try and have the AIG students grades weighed like HS honor students would be. I told her I would consider going to a meeting and left it at that.

Now I'm wondering, what would weighing the grades gain my student? My gut reaction is that this is more about the parents than the students. I think the parents might feel the need to prove that their child is "smarter" than the rest of the kids. If their AIG kid is only on AB honor roll....or not on the honor roll at all...then the rest of the school wouldn't know that their child is "smarter".....KWIM?

So can anyone tell me a reason why I'm wrong? Is there an actual purpose to weighing the grades? If it's going to actually help my child in some way, I'll go to a meeting and at least hear them out. I certainly am not interested in making my AB student stand out more. Unless there something that I'm not getting, the whole thing puts a bad taste in my mouth. Anyone have any experience with this?

The entire point of the gifted program is for the classes to operate at a higher level to meet the students level of study.

In essence the rigor of the classes are equal to a student who is average.

This would have to be a district policy change for it to be effective.

My dd is in 7th and in "challenge level" of classes. She could probably do the gifted program however her strong point is not math which is what the gifted program is all about really.

Now she is gifted in language, so she "loses" in that regard. Not able to take the "gifted" language class, although they are frequently combined with them for classes.

But....her school district is not rigid when it comes to taking HS classes.

AND...you have to have a certain GPA to get into your core classes that are weighted.

She is looking to taking a weighted English course in 9th to compete with the gifted kids that are not going to be taking it and are going to be in the weighted math. Yes, it is a ranking competition.

I see no benefit for it to be in elementary school. If the classes have to be weighted for the student to be graded higher against the reg. kids they probably should not be in the class. The parent/student is missing the point of being in the gifted program in the first place.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

OP here ...Thanks for your imput. For the record, I want to state again that THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA AND I AM NOT FOR IT. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some reason that I was overlooking. I think it is very clear that this is about a small percentage of parents looking to inflate their special snowflake children. It also seems like they'll just spin their wheels because the school system will know that there's no basis for this.

Strangely, when I mentioned it to dh on the phone a few minutes ago he immediately knew which parent brought this up. This is sadly not out of character for her. Plus she has college age children so she really should know that this would serve no purpose....oh well.

Personally, the only reason my child is in this class is for her to be challenged. She was breezing through the curriculum with no effort. I know from personal experience that if she is not challenged now she will never learn the skill of studying and preparation. She does ALOT more work in this class than she would in the regular class and I'm really seeing improvement in how she approaches her work.....no more sailing through for my kid...and that's a good thing!

Thanks for your imput!

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

This is all about parent ego...

 

[agnes!]

OP here ...Thanks for your imput. For the record, I want to state again that THIS WAS NOT MY IDEA AND I AM NOT FOR IT. I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't some reason that I was overlooking. I think it is very clear that this is about a small percentage of parents looking to inflate their special snowflake children. It also seems like they'll just spin their wheels because the school system will know that there's no basis for this.

Strangely, when I mentioned it to dh on the phone a few minutes ago he immediately knew which parent brought this up. This is sadly not out of character for her. Plus she has college age children so she really should know that this would serve no purpose....oh well. ...

Thanks for your imput!

What you wanna bet that she doesn't *really* have any other parents who are interested, that it's just her trying to stir up trouble?... And what you wanna bet that when the teachers see her coming up the ranks with this 4th Grade child in her march towards sheer perfection in high-school that she will be "THAT mom".

Oh, I could tell from your post that you are one of the good guys/reasonable parents and were puzzled about this other mom wanting to agitate for grades to be BUMPED up in grade school.

Shoot, I think the whole idea's so laughable that if I had been drinking while DIS'ing I would have spit all over the monitor while laughing hysterically.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

What you wanna bet that she doesn't *really* have any other parents who are interested, that it's just her trying to stir up trouble?... And what you wanna bet that when the teachers see her coming up the ranks with this 4th Grade child in her march towards sheer perfection in high-school that she will be "THAT mom".

Oh, I could tell from your post that you are one of the good guys/reasonable parents and were puzzled about this other mom wanting to agitate for grades to be BUMPED up in grade school.

Shoot, I think the whole idea's so laughable that if I had been drinking while DIS'ing I would have spit all over the monitor while laughing hysterically.

Thanks I almost didn't ask because I didn't want people to think that I agreed with this idea.....not that there's ever any wild assumptions on the Dis To answer....she's already "that Mom".....hence dh guessing who it was. However, I'm sorry to say that I know that she's not alone in this. They tried to cut funding for AIG in our system last year and a whole lost of parents got their panties bunched in a big way. The system has really bent over backward to try and involve parents in future decisions hoping to avoid a repeat of last year....in the meantime they've managed to enable an outspoken minority to think they can write policy. While I certainly don't want to ally myself with these people, I don't want to completely write them off in case they ever really have a valid point Seems like I need to continue to stay away.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Thanks I almost didn't ask because I didn't want people to think that I agreed with this idea.....not that there's ever any wild assumptions on the Dis To answer....she's already "that Mom".....hence dh guessing who it was. However, I'm sorry to say that I know that she's not alone in this. They tried to cut funding for AIG in our system last year and a whole lost of parents got their panties bunched in a big way. The system has really bent over backward to try and involve parents in future decisions hoping to avoid a repeat of last year....in the meantime they've managed to enable an outspoken minority to think they can write policy. While I certainly don't want to ally myself with these people, I don't want to completely write them off in case they ever really have a valid point Seems like I need to continue to stay away.

Well what are your requirements for getting into the higher middle school classes?

Maybe there is some motivation there because of that. I am just throwing that out there.

It is possible that space is limited in the gifted middle school classes and that is why they are trying to get it changed. If you are competing for space with other elementary schools and your GPA is low then you might not make the cut.

Anyway, that is the only thing I can think of.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

Well what are your requirements for getting into the higher middle school classes?

Maybe there is some motivation there because of that. I am just throwing that out there.

It is possible that space is limited in the gifted middle school classes and that is why they are trying to get it changed. If you are competing for space with other elementary schools and your GPA is low then you might not make the cut.

Anyway, that is the only thing I can think of.

That's a good point but I don't think that's the case. DD is my oldest so I haven't dealt with middle school- yet. As far as I understand, there is no AIG in our middle school. AIG and high-achieving non-AIG students will all be pooled together on a "team".

 

[The Mystery Machine]

That's a good point but I don't think that's the case. DD is my oldest so I haven't dealt with middle school- yet. As far as I understand, there is no AIG in our middle school. AIG and high-achieving non-AIG students will all be pooled together on a "team".

I don't think so. The gifted kids get to take a higher level of math for sure & sometimes science & language as well as a rule.

Yes, they are on teams but they also get different classes.

 

[shrubber]

It seems to me that the majority of these gifted and IEP classes are shams.
The district gets more and more money by diverting children into one end of the spectrum or the other. Pretty soon, there will be no ' normal ' kids anymore, they will all be requiring some ' special ' type of education.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It seems to me that the majority of these gifted and IEP classes are shams.
The district gets more and more money by diverting children into one end of the spectrum or the other. Pretty soon, there will be no ' normal ' kids anymore, they will all be requiring some ' special ' type of education.

I would say they are shams in the fact that you have to test into them as opposed to being able to take them freely thru a teacher recommendation.

As far as being available for students who need a higher level of classroom instruction instead of being in the regular classes, I can assure it is a lifesaver for some kids.

 

[ncmickeyluvr]

It seems to me that the majority of these gifted and IEP classes are shams.
The district gets more and more money by diverting children into one end of the spectrum or the other. Pretty soon, there will be no ' normal ' kids anymore, they will all be requiring some ' special ' type of education.

I won't comment on whether or not it's a sham....what you think is your business. What I do know is that being in the AIG classroom has really helped my daughter. If left in the traditional classroom, alot of AIG kids become a distraction to the teacher because the are "bored".