grading

I don’t know what state you are in, but in VA we are not allowed to say anything about modifications on the report card. There is a new ruling out that you can’t even put down that there were accommodations that were given when the student took the SATs. This is a big no no in our state and I don’t think that it is a state by state situation. It has been ruled discrimination.

Grading is a mystery under any circumstances. In most schools, most teachers are fairly free to base their grades on anything they like.

I’ve though the most intelligent way to grade is to look at the improvement the child has made and grade on that but many grade based on where the child is at in relation to the rest of the class or to ‘grade level’.

I think parents need a realistic picture of where their children are based on grade level.
I myself was intially lulled into complacency by what can only be called fake grades.

I realize that for some kids with severe deficits you need to look at it differently. I just have a bit of a problem with parents thinking everything is just fine and then realizing at graduation time their child is not prepared for college.

As I understand the system, the goal is always mastery of the material, despite the emphasis that is put on grades. One option is a pass/fail system. A big problem in lower elementary is that so much of the focus is on mastery of spelling and math facts. Both of these present significant challenges to LD kids, but have little application in real life, given the ubiquitousness of spell checkers and calculators. One option we used successfully was to reduce the percentage spelling tests counted for the language arts grade. We also absolutely eliminated timed math tests as a portion of my child’s math grade. She took the timed tests with her peers, but her grades on those tests did not count for any portion of her math grade. On the other hand, she was expected to be able to correctly execute math problems, which she demonstrated either on untimed math tests, or in individual testing proctored by the special ed teacher.

I can tell you that there are no comments or markings on my son’s report card. I was very careful to ask if this was allowed once he was in seventh grade. They told me that classification was confidential and that they would not ever asterik a report card or make other notations. My son receives basic accomodations like extra time on tests, prefered seating. I will say that in the lower grades the special education teacher (he was in a resource room-pull out) made positive comments on my son’s report card. I found that innappropriate, no matter how well meaning it may have been. I called the principal and they immediately deleted the notation after I voiced my disapproval and issued a new report card. It never happened again.

The elementary school I work in allows teachers to place the reading level and then the grade. Example: One of my sixth grade Resource Room students Reading grade on Report Card was written 3/B (Level 3, grade B). Parents were made aware of this at Parent Conferences in the fall. If they moved in later or had not attended the conference, a note was made on the Report Card to explain.

Here’s another take on making notations on report cards- A lot of the area businesses by me, most notably, Chuck E Cheese, gives incentives such as free tokens when a student brings in a report card with good grades. If a student in a special program were to bring in his or her report card, on which were indications that he/she was in special ed, this would be a breach of confidentiality. Notations should never be made on the report card. Better to include a seperate document that explains all modifications and accomodations made to the student’s curruculum. It can be put in the envelope with the report card.

My son was so proud of his last report care 1 B everything else A and even A+. He wanted to show everyone of course they saw the sped codes.

That then makes people think he hasn’t really earned the grade. Same with honor role why don’t sped kids get honor role when they get A?

Grading can be a very contentious process. My school is currently changing report cards from basic Reading, Math, etc. to Standards Based report cards. Since it is expected that all children can and will learn all children are expected to meet state standards. This will take away the comparison to other students and make grading less subjective (we hope) because a student is working on a given standard or has mastered it.

In any case, it is inappropriate to mark any report card with codes to indicate that a student receives special education services. That information is confidential and progress toward IEP goals should be reported on a separate report which occurs at least as often as report cards do.

Finally, however grades are determined it is critical that the parent/guardian know the rules. If Joey is earning all A’s because he’s receiving effort grades as opposed to content mastery grades the parents need to be exquisitely aware of this so that they don’t make the mistake of thinking that their child is as, or more, competant than others in a given content area. If Susie earns a C based on test scores, rubrics, class work, and so forth in comparison to her peers, her parent/guardian needs to know this. They also need to know if that is the best Susie can be reasonably expected to do.

Our school’s transition on these report cards has taken more than three years! The committee spent one entire year reading the research and gathering report card samples. During the second year they devised the new tool. During the third year there has been implementation in grades 1 - 4 which has met with mixed results. Some teachers, both veteran and new don’t like the standards basis and prefer a more traditional approach. Quite a few parents have had difficulty with the change, but they seem to have quieted down after 2 trimesters.

Hope this helped, or at least gave you food for thought!

I thought this was a federal law. showing a student as sp-ed on a report card is to the best of my knowledge a breach of confidentiality, not to mention just good old plain not nice.

Is it the schools intent to embarris the child? to humiliate them? to make the child hide their report cards? or to be ashamed?

I say the shame, humiliation, and embarrisment goes to the teacher and school that would do such a thing to a child.

Yes, it would be a breach of confidentiality and discrimination.

Our IEP students are assessed according to the ssame grading criteria as the regular ed students. Modifications are made in the testing, not in the grades. Students are allowed the modifications that are written on their IEP and then are scored according to the rubrics for each question.