Standards-based grading to replace letter grades at primary school

GENTRY -- Report cards for some Gentry students will look different this year. Instead of receiving letter grades of A-F, Gentry Primary School students will receive a number grade of 1-3. But the change is not about numbers or letters, it's about the mastery of skills and content.

The problem with the "old" letter grades was the fact they are more subjective and do not really communicate to parents, students or to next year's teachers what students have mastered and where they need additional instruction -- hence, a new standardized grading system.

Under the new grading system, students will be given a number grade for each skill or unit of content they are expected to master in their course of instruction. A grade of 3 indicates the skill is mastered or content learned and the student is ready to move on to the next level. A grade of 2 means the student has made progress but still needs to further develop the skill or continue mastering the content. A grade of 1 means the student has not mastered the skill or content and needs more instruction and practice.

This will change the appearance of report cards, with a listing of skills and content and a number to indicate the student's progress in learning the content or mastering new skills rather than a single letter grade for each subject.

According to a presentation made by Christie Toland, assistant superintendent, to the school board on Aug. 20, the new grading system is better because it helps:

• "Teachers isolate each learning goal (or standard) in order to meet all students at their individual levels of understanding. By doing this, the teachers are able to both fill in gaps in learning and push students who have already met the standard to an even higher level of learning.

• "Students identify which learning goals (or standards) they have met and which standards they need extra help in order to meet. This empowers students to 'own' their learning experience.

• "Parents know exactly which areas they can help their child with at home so that they can assist their child in meeting his/her learning goals. This empowers meaningful conversations between parents and teachers as well. It helps everyone be on the 'same page' when it comes to each student's learning."

The new grading system is expected to help Gentry Primary School students improve their reading readiness and reading skills. The school is a part of the Reading Initiative for Student Excellence (RISE) program and the grading change is expected to help students learn the skills necessary to become good readers.

According to Toland's presentation to the board, Gentry Primary School "teachers are receiving specialized training based on 40 years of research about best practices for teaching kids how to read. We have learned the importance of not just teaching foundational skills but making sure that each student masters these particular skills early for the best chance at becoming a successful reader. Each student will be assessed on these foundational skills, (and) students that struggle with mastering these skills will get intervention quick(ly) and be reassessed."

"To help strengthen reading education in the state, Arkansas is focused on changing instructional practices in the classroom and incorporating the knowledge and practices of the science of reading," the presentation said. "There are certain skills students should master at different grade levels. There are many Arkansas State Standards taught at each grade level for each subject. With the help of literacy experts from our Northwest Arkansas Educational Cooperative (under the direction of Arkansas Department of Education), we chose the most essential skills for each grade level that should be mastered for literacy and math to report to parents/guardians on the report card. These are not the only skills that your child will be taught this year but they are the most important foundational skills and should all be mastered by the end of the particular grade level.

"Standards-based report cards will be vital in helping to communicate each student's progress with these skills/standards to the parents/guardians."

Toland said, "A child learns to read in the early years so that he or she can read to learn throughout life."

According to Toland, the standards-based grading system is being implemented in grades K-2 this year and the school district is exploring the possibility of using it in grades 3-5 in the future.

To see more on the new grading system, visit www.gentrypioneers.com and click on the School Board Materials link and view items from the August meeting in the FY19 folder.

General News on 08/29/2018