Elementary school teachers will see changes in the way student performance is assessed and communicated to parents this year due to modifications made to the standards-based grading system. Teacher focus groups, surveys and parent input have contributed to the changes which were put in place over the summer.
One significant change is the way in which objectives and assignments have been “bundled” in Synergy. Smaller, more discreet skills have been embedded into the broader objectives. As an example, the use of a hyphen will still be taught and assessed, but not in isolation. Rather, this skill is now embedded into a broader skill covered in the writing area.
These “bundling” of skills mostly occurred in the language arts and specialty areas of art, music and physical education. The bottom line for teachers is that there are now fewer objectives to be assessed in Synergy.
Another result of the teacher focus groups is a change in how kindergarten student performance will be reported to parents. This year, kindergarten teachers will complete a Progress Monitoring Checklist each quarter. This checklist will accompany each student’s report card to provide parents a more comprehensive overview of their child’s ability to perform essential skills and strategies within his/her developmental reading level.
“Teachers told us the kindergarten report card was not giving the information that parents need to know, such as how the child is actually performing in reading,” said Krista Barton-Arnold, director of elementary education. “We added this report based on teacher request and parent surveys.”
While the Progress Monitoring Checklist is required to accompany the kindergarten report card quarterly, it is recommended for use with those first-, second- and third-grade students performing below grade level in reading. The Progress Monitoring Checklist can be located on the Department of Teaching and Learning SharePoint site in each grade level Language Arts Resources folder.
Other notable changes for the upcoming school year include:
- Tighter alignment of social students and science objectives in fourth and fifth grades.
- More parent-friendly language on the report card, specifically in the standards.
- The continued phase out of overall letter grades (fifth-graders only in 2014-2015).
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There is already “parent friendly language”…letter grades.
If the kindergarten report card is not showing whether the child can read WHY are those objectives on the report card? The first grade Reading objectives are not developmentally appropriate with, by the way. Why aren’t the Progress Monitoring Checklist objectives the ones on the report card?
I am a parent supporter of standard based grading. I have read the research supporting the initiative and believe that I have a better understanding and a more detailed report on how my child is being assessed. I have found that many of the elementary school teachers have not read/or been exposed to the research and as a result are not able to respond appropriately to parents questions. In some cases they are not correctly assessing the standards. We need to train all our elementary school teachers not only on the data behind standards based grading but on how to accurately assess skills (creating fair and appropriate tests, truly using formative assessments to drive instruction).