anyway see an article hereso on the report card change
Cobb parents line up against 3-2-1 grading scale
School board meeting Thursday on expanding standard-based report cards
By NANCY BADERTSCHER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Some Cobb County parents plan to plead with the school board Thursday night to scuttle a move to standards-based report cards for third-graders, arguing that a 3-2-1 grading scale promotes mediocrity.
Standards-based report cards are one of the latest national trends in a 20-year push to establish higher academic standards and have mandatory state tests of the materials.
• Cobb County news These kinds of report cards have been going home with students in lower grades in Forsyth and Barrow counties, among other places. In Cobb, they’ve been used in kindergarten for two years and in first and second grades in the just-completed school year.
The traditional A, B, C and F grading system still applies in Cobb’s fourth through 12th grades, but younger students are graded on specific skills and given the top rating of a “3” if they meet standards “consistently and independently.”
A group of parents, calling themselves the Committee for Informed Parents of Cobb County, is trying to block a proposal to expand the standards-based report card to the third grade for the coming school year, calling the report card an “unproven and unresearched fad.”
“We’re opposed to the ideology behind it, and that’s to push everybody to the middle, so nobody feels bad,” said Christy Kown, one of the committee’s co-chairs and the parent of two Cobb County students, a second-grader and a sixth-grader.
Standard-based report cards, she argues, provide “a checklist of small bits of information about what a child can do, but not the big picture.”
Dr. Fara McCrady, a clinical psychologist and another of the committee’s co-chairs, said, with standards-based grading, “there’s no way to distinguish the high achievers from the midlevel achievers, and the same thing at the bottom.” She has a second-grader, a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader.
School administrators have acknowledged that the current 3-2-1 report card may not do enough to acknowledge excellence. One of the proposals before the school board tonight would create a new grade — a 3-plus to acknowledge a student who “exceeds standards.”
“It was in response to the feedback we received in good faith from the parents and from teachers,” said Robert Benson, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
Supporters contend that a standards-based report card is more illuminating than one that just gives letter grades in various subjects and could, ultimately, lead to students performing better on standardized testing.
“It’s more specific so parents and students can see where strengths and weaknesses lie,” said Amy Krause, director of curriculum and instruction for Cobb County Schools.
Benson said the report card is one tool the school system is using to comply with Georgia’s performance standards.
Local educators are “making sure our expectations are high and consistent from classroom to classroom and from school to school,” he said.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
“It’s more specific so parents and students can see where strengths and weaknesses lie,</div></div>
and ABCDF could not do that?
in the lower grades at elementary school they have the Needs Improvement, Satisfactory (S-/S+) and E with comments the teacher can add
Starting in 3rd grade they get the ABCDF marks.
If you don't fight for what you deserve, you deserve what you get.
We are > Fossil Fuels --- Bill McKibben 350.org
with the pressures of "no child left behind"...just know that more and teachers are "giving the grade" as opposed to having to "justify the grade".
we were told in a memo (from backrah imself) that:
1. quarter reports
2. interims
3. weekly progress (which the parents can access on line)
4. calling (and speaking to) the parents
5. emailing (traditional SNAIL mail)
is NOT enough to justify failing a child.
so ILP gave every single kid (including one that has NEVER reported to my class) an A. i know many teachers (personally) all over the country that has begun to adopt the same practice.
we had a huge Higher Education Summit last week (as many colleges are complaining about the idiot kids they are getting). cant wait till my school is audited by the state department. wonda what will happen?
ok the review/unit tests given in class is kinda broken down like that (minus what is expected)
just each topic and what the child get in that topic e.g. place values, decimals etc.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ceabee</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I hear you...but is a whole lot more detail to this new format eg:
Math is broken down into the various units (measurement, geometric shapes etc)
and under each unit they detail the standard (what the child is supposed to be able to do )
the one report was 7 pages. ..anyway i guess the info is provided..it's for the parent to use it or not. </div></div>
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Gen</div><div class="ubbcode-body">how pickney can nuh turn up fi class EVER and get A
dat is juss bare foolishness enuh. </div></div>
that is the point i am trying to make.
when teachers are told, "the administration WILL NOT support ANY failing grades". Even when a teacher does ALL of what i mentioned to notify, warn, engage (use any word you want here) the student/parent.
yes..i like them.
we have standards based report cards (in the younger grades) & testing (for my grades) here in MD.
but when the tests highlight what the child can/can not do and those standards are put against a child passing to the next grade (or graduating in my case)...the standards mean naddah.
the kids are passed.
I have to handle the applications of these people ... smaddy need fi do something bout the no child left behind thing ... even if is fi mi sake... and mi no want no teacher do that to my pickney ... no wonder nuff of them have this blasted sense of entitlement.
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