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| Location: Scranton, PA |
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Elementary students in the Scranton School District will have new report cards this year that mirror the grading system used for state assessment tests.
Students in kindergarten through fifth grade will no longer see traditional letter grades on their report cards. Instead, the district will use a performance-level scale of 1 to 4. A 1, the lowest grade, stands for “below proficient,” and a 4, the highest, stands for “advanced.”
Students will receive the ratings for various skills in individual subjects. For instance, one skill for first-grade reading is “reads accurately/fluently.”
“We really want (teachers) to look at ability and aptitude to see how it fits,” said Nancy Hlavaty, Scranton’s supervisor of curriculum and instruction. “Is the (student) stumbling, or is it so easy that he’s just flying through it? It should give parents a real clear perception of where he needs help or where he’s fine.”
Scranton is changing grades only at the primary level because colleges are focused on letters or percentages, Ms. Hlavaty said.
The district made the switch to be more in line with the state System of School Assessment grading system, she said. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, all children must score at least proficient on the assessments, a rating of 3 or 4, by 2014.
Schools that fail to meet annual proficiency goals must adopt plans to increase the scores. The system was recommended by a committee that included teachers, Ms. Hlavaty said. Despite the teacher input, most teachers have not seen the new system. Teachers will be trained on Friday.
The district would have had to pay the 350 to 400 teachers $25 an hour for the training if it had been held in the summer, Ms. Hlavaty said. She said the committee picked the training date, and she does not anticipate any problems, despite the quick implementation.
A number of teachers said the training should have been done sooner so they could have incorporated it into grading from the start of the year, both for their benefit and so the children would be used to it. Still, the teachers were confident they’ll be able to use the system without a problem.
“The fact is it’s an example of teachers overcoming not having the right planning in place,” McNichols Plaza Elementary School teacher Patrick Festa said.
Parents said they know little about the new report cards, but many said their initial reaction is to stick with the traditional letter grades.
“It’s going to be confusing,” parent Nina Tuffy said.
Theresa Chickeletti agreed: “How do you know where your kid stands? Do I like them? No.”
Some said they worried their children will not understand the new grades.
Parents will receive letters from the school this week explaining the new system, Ms. Hlavaty said.
Riverside is the only other Lackawanna County district so far to change to a grading system that mirrors the state assessment tests.
Lakeland Superintendent Margaret Billings-Jones said the district is looking at how a test-geared system would be viewed by colleges. Other superintendents said they had not considered the idea, but thought it sounded interesting.
The state Department of Education had no opinion on aligning report cards with the assessment tests, saying it is a local decision.
While Scranton is starting the new system throughout the primary grades with the first report cards in early November, Riverside phased its system in over three years, Riverside Principal Marilyn King said.
The biggest challenge was making sure all teachers were assessing students the same way, so the district kept refining the process.
Questionnaires were sent home to parents for feedback, Mrs. King said. Although some preferred the traditional letter grades because they are more familiar, about 85 percent of the responses were positive.
Contact the writer: lshedlock@timesshamrock.com
©The Times-Tribune 2006 |
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