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Portland schools may move away from traditional grade levels, grading systems
Dec 05, 2011 2:10 pm
PORTLAND — Eliminating traditional grade levels and scoring may soon dominate discussions in Maine's largest school district.
One provision of a comprehensive plan framework approved several weeks ago by the School Board would establish standards-based grading throughout the city.
"It's a conversation yet to be had in Portland," Superintendent James C. Morse Sr. said.
Morse will likely not be part of that conversation, since he has given notice that he will leave his job in June.
Standards-based education has increased in popularity in recent years. Some districts, such as Gray-New Gloucester, have already adopted programs that dissolve traditional grade levels, instead requiring students to meet or exceed learning standards before moving on, regardless of how long it takes.
The Legislature approved a resolution in June that outlines a plan for statewide adoption of standards-based education. The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Justin Alfond, D-Portland, and was initially proposed as a law that would have eliminated credit-based graduation requirements and created statewide rubric systems for student evaluations.
However, the non-binding resolution was the only aspect of the law that was ultimately signed by the governor.
The programs are controversial enough that three School Board members voted against the comprehensive plan framework two weeks ago because they feared the program could be pushed forward as if it had their stamp of approval.
"I'm worried if I vote yes tonight, I'm already giving a thumbs up to standards-based grading. It hasn't been vetted fully," School Board member Marnie Morrione said during the Nov. 15 meeting.
Morrione, Jaime Caron and Laurie Davis voted against the framework.
Despite its inclusion in the comprehensive plan, Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee Chairman Peter Eglinton said it was not the panel's purview to discuss the strategies the district would use to meet its goals, only to ask questions that flesh out the goals.
While the committee did not weigh in on standards-based grading, Eglinton said he would like to see the district consider doing both traditional grades and standards, so parents would not be left in the dark, and teachers could use the tools they need for evaluations.
Parent Elizabeth Griffin, who has two children in middle school and one in elementary school, said she had some serious concerns about the district moving away from traditional grades.
"I'm concerned about it because I don't think it's any less subjective," she said. "We're still relying on teachers to tell us how our children are doing."
Griffin said she is familiar with the elementary school report cards, which function more like a standards-based approach, telling parents if their children are meeting or exceeding certain skill requirements, and that she doesn't think they're any more helpful for parents to evaluate their children's progress than traditional grades.
"They become meaningful because the teacher explains them," she said.
Like Eglinton, Morse said the section of the framework that includes standards-based grades is aimed at bringing that conversation to the community, rather than forcing the district to move in that direction.
But Griffin said she attended a public meeting earlier this year about the comprehensive plan and no one mentioned standards-based grading.
"This is a subject that should have come up in that meeting. Instead, we talked about goals like getting more students to graduate (high school). That's not controversial at all," she said.
However, Morse said he sees the state moving toward standards-based grading anyway, so Portland will have to keep up.
"The Common Core has already carved that path. We're at the beginning stages of that discussion. There's going to be lots of dialog. The issue is going to engage a lot of people with a lot of opinions," he said.
The state's Common Core standards for English and math proficiency – based on the national Common Core standards – were adopted by the Legislature in April. Now 48 states and the District of Colombia have signed on.
The Common Core mean students who move can expect consistency of their programs from district to district, because the standards will be the same no matter where they go to school.
School Administrative District 15 (Gray-New Gloucester) and (Regional School Unit 57 (Waterboro) schools have been piloting the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition, or RISC program, and the organization has been offering a variety of standards-based grading symposiums for teachers and administrators in Maine lately.
However, while some schools have jumped into the standards-based programs relatively quickly, others have struggled to convince their communities that these programs are the best things for their children.
In Regional School Unit 2 (Richmond, Dresden, Farmingdale, Hallowell and Monmouth), parents and School Board members have opposed the change, questioning whether it provides students with rigorous enough programs to prepare them for college.
Griffin said she hopes to stay informed about the district's decision to pursue standards-based grading, and that she is still concerned that if Portland's students don't have grades, they'll have a more difficult time competing for colleges.
Griffin said after she wrote a letter to the School Board expressing her concerns, she also talked to other parents.
"They all said, 'well, isn't that silly,'" she said. "It doesn't tell us any more than a grade-based system."
Emily Parkhurst can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 125 or eparkhurst@theforecaster.net. Follow her on Twitter: @emilyparkhurst.
Comments
watchdog says:
a_tesmen says:
@rathayer -- could you please clarify which universities/colleges you are speaking about. The universities with no traditional grades are a minority -- Northeastern University is the only one in New England I am aware of. Are there others, rathayer, that you know of? At Northeastern, there are no grades, just evaluations of the work students complete.
Here is some evidence to back up Shekaylee. This is a quote from a college-admission website of Peterson's, a reputable source regarding education with 40 years of experience, http://www.petersons.com/about-petersons.aspx:
The 4.0 system has become the standard at most colleges, and many high
schools have adopted this GPA scale as well. Teachers typically award a
letter grade, which is then translated into a scaled score. This score is
multiplied by the amount of credits the course is worth. A cumulative
(total) GPA is then arrived at.
See http://www.petersons.com/college-search/college-admission-requirements-g...
Shekaylee is thus right. The majority of universitis/colleges have traditional grades and use the 4.0 system when evaluating college applicants. The 4.0 system is a traditional grade system, just like traditional letter grades.
Standards have been around for a long time. That is not new. Turning standards into non-traditional grades is the new thing and is truly an experiment for our kids.
rathayer says:
shekaylee is absolutely wrong! Universities across the nation accept scoring systems from across the world every year. They do not care how a high school scores a student, they only care that the high school can explain it in the profile that accompanies a transcript. Also, colleges and universities everywhere are looking at how to incorporate standards into their own practices. Anyone who says that standards grading is new is simply uninformed. It's not new. It provides everyone (student, parent, college) with more concrete information about the learning achieved and it allows teachers to effectively align their scoring practices. This is not only where Maine and the nation are going, it is our best hope for improving the level of education in America so that our children will have a strong future.
rathayer says:
shekaylee is absolutely wrong! Universities across the nation accept scoring systems from across the world every year. They do not care how a high school scores a student, they only care that the high school can explain it in the profile that accompanies a transcript. Also, colleges and universities everywhere are looking at how to incorporate standards into their own practices. Anyone who says that standards grading is new is simply uninformed. It's not new. It provides everyone (student, parent, college) with more concrete information about the learning achieved and it allows teachers to effectively align their scoring practices. This is not only where Maine and the nation are going, it is our best hope for improving the level of education in America so that our children will have a strong future.
watchdog says:
There are a few, a very few, people who are focused on keeping our education system the same as it was in the last century. But we can't do that anymore. We know more nowadays about how students learn. Students are not sardines. They are individuals each of whom learn differently.
Almost all educators and advocates that I have talked with around the country for the last two years support an education that allows every student to progress at their own pace and in a manner that recognizes their individual styles of learning; that provides each individual student with not only the basic three R's but a full menu of choices from numerous other areas of interest to that individual; that allocates educational services and resources based on the individual needs of each child.
The education system most of us are familiar with has tried for decades or centuries to treat all children like sardines. Children are graded in a way that merely ranks them among their peers regardless of their specific learning styles - input, processing and output of information. It is now clear that no two children learn the same. Some are auditory learners, some are visual learnings, some must have hands-on, some learn best on their own. To continue to group students by some arbitrary age-based social system is to ignore the fact that we are all individuals. We no longer need to treat all children like sardines when in reality some are whales and some are guppies.
I would ask you to watch the khanacademy.org ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw5k98GV7po ) video which explains how an actual system is working in "standards based education". The simplest way to understand standards based grading is to think of scouting - Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and Awana etc - where the scout earns merit badges based upon demonstrating proficiency in a given area - like knot tying. (Note that khanacademy if FREE to all students 24/7/365). So too would students in a standards based system earn 'merit' badges as they attain proficiency at all the skills they need in math or science etc.
Next I would ask what definition is being used for "standards based grading", "standards based learning", "outcome based education" and similar terms. The alarmists' definition is based on an article from the "May 1993 Phyllis Schlafly Report - What's Wrong With Outcome-Based Education?" ( http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1993/may93/psrmay93.html ) - a paranoid dissertation that claims schools are going to be used to brainwash our children into servitude. If you watched the Khan video, ask yourself if that is what the Schlafly article describes. It is not.
Finally, I invite you to tune in to my live radio show Wednesday evening from 8:00-8:30pm on WMPG - 104.1 or 90.9 FM when I interview the Director of Education Choice for The Heartland Institute, Bruno Behrend, on this exact subject. He is considered a national expert on education and school reform. We'll be covering this topic on air.
In fact, I challenge the reporter to join me in studio for the show. Or even the parent quoted in this article.
To all parents - these education issues are extremely important to Portland, to Maine and to America. I would recommend that you reach out beyond one ill-informed parent to get answers. What is the ultimate objective of education for your child? Opportunity. Opportunity to have a shot at the many American dream. Do you really want your child to continue to be limited in their education like just one more sardine? Or do you already know that your child is unique and deserves an education that best matches their abilities and talents where they can achieve to their fullest.
See you Wednesday.
Ken Capron,
WatchDog Nation on WMPG
watchdog@maine.rr.com
797-7891
shekaylee says:
All I ask, Ken, is that you consider what would be an acceptable record/transcript to not only state based colleges but also to places like Harvard, Stanford, etc. Many "traditional" colleges and universities are sceptical of different grading methods when evaluating admiting a student.
You really need to give colleges more credit for figuring this out. At Michigan State (https://admissions.msu.edu/toolbox/apply.asp) they give you the opportunity to explain your school record "If you feel that your high school record does not accurately represent your academic abilities, please explain why. Include and discuss particular extenuating circumstances that may have contributed to any scholastic challenges."
You must really think college admissions people are idiots.
"Shekaylee is thus right. The majority of universitis/colleges have traditional grades and use the 4.0 system when evaluating college applicants." - Anna Collins
Ya - before you accept such statements as fact, you should do your homework. Colleges and Universities have and will take into account alternative grading systems. They have done so for years because of the foreign students who have a variety of grading systems. I picked Michigan at random and looked up their admissions policy and there it was in black and white - "the personal statement" which allows you to explain any unusual circumstances.
Really Anna and Kaylee - a nationwide grading system - and colleges are going to reject it? That doesn't even make sense. Stop spreading paranoia about things that haven't even happened.