Dear WMS Families,
I know I am getting older due to the waves of nostalgia I feel more and more regularly. A riff from a Bob Seger song brings me back to my early HS days sitting on a pavilion porch and hanging out with friends. The smell of chocolate chip cookies hot out of the oven takes me to Grandma’s kitchen and memories of mixing up batter and licking the spoon. Mullet haircuts I’ve seen lately take me back to my own 8th grade hallways — perhaps a retro style that should have been left in the past. That is why I can’t help but identify with the parents and caregivers who pine for what feels like the simpler days of letter grades that we used to offer our students. It was a system we knew — a system that made sense to us.
In my own schooling and well into my teaching and leading career, letter grades were the norm. We operated on an A-F system with +’s and -’s to capture tweener performance. Throughout my high school years I would debate grades with my teacher. I’d ask Mr. Clough why he took off three points instead of two points on an errant algebra calculation. With just one more point I would “get” an A- instead of a B+. For decades after I was on the opposite side of those negotiations. Disappointed students would ask me to justify points deducted for a calculation faux pas. After classwork, homework, assessments, and projects were averaged together, I could count on a dissatisfied parent calling to ask if I would consider offering extra credit to boost a student’s final grade. It felt like a flawed process that positioned grades as compensation for work. Yet the “grade” did not not always make clear what students knew and were able to do. In a traditional grading system a “B” could mean many things. It could mean a student knew the concepts but didn’t complete homework consistently. Or, that same “B” could mean that content knowledge was fragile, but the student was conscientious and hardworking. As educators we want to avoid fuzzy feedback, and averaging a range of factors like tests, quizzes, projects, participation, effort and homework altogether often muddied the message.
As the trend towards standard-based reporting has swept the nation, we’ve become convinced that this system offers a more accurate picture of students’ learning outcomes. Standards-based assessment reflects the underlying purpose of grades – to serve as a source of non-judgmental feedback about progress towards well-defined learning goals. In standards-based assessment, grades are based on the most consistent evidence of what students know and do. Students may not have mastered a concept on the first attempt, but ultimately they ended with a solid grasp — so we honor that mastery and nurture a growth mindset. Conversations between students and teachers have shifted away from earning “points” and towards discussions of skills and content. Teachers examine the pattern of achievement and weigh the most recent outcomes more heavily to determine whether or not, at the end of learning’s journey, students have met each standard.
With the semester coming to a close this Friday, teachers are working hard to analyze each students’ learning performance over the semester and prepare report cards on thoughtfully chosen power standards within each discipline. Every teacher in a grade or subject weighs their evidence against the same, consistent standards using the following performance indicators:
E: Student work exceeds the standard/skill:
M: Student work meets the standard/skill:
NY: Student work does not yet meet the standard/skill:
U: Student work is unsatisfactory*
Earning an “M” is the goal, and it is a high bar to reach. Not all standards have “E” opportunities. An “E” is an exceptional grade reserved for students who consistently apply concepts and skills in novel, highly challenging situations throughout their work — beyond that which is expected at the grade level.
On February 7th we will open the eSchool report card portal through HAC. Additionally, we will send home a hard copy of your child’s report card with a sign off sheet for you to indicate receipt (an old school paper version). If the mood strikes you, feel free to listen to some Bob Seger while you peruse it 😊. We look forward to sharing your child’s academic progress and successes with you. Of course, as always, if you have any questions or concerns about your child, please feel free to contact your child’s teacher or reach out to me.
Respectfully,
Betsy Gavron
* Note You may see some teachers in eSchool’s use the numerical equivalents of the performance indicators 4 = Exceeds, 3 = Meets, 2 = Not Yet, 1 = Unsatisfactory - But all report cards will use the letter notation.
