Grading Students with LD

I and my daughter have no idea what her grades are based on—one year the teacher told us he gave her good grades because she made a lot of social progress (untrue—just stopped having tantrums as she figured out the new school). We have asked for grading charts—so we could all understand what the grades were to be based on—but even though this is in the iep, and has been argued over for months, I still haven’t seen these and I wonder what will show up on the next report card. Some teachers refuse to give her a grade and give her a pass fail grade.

When I grade my students with learning disabilities, I apply the same grading scale as the regular ed students. The difference is that the work the LD student did is modified. The number of points may be different from the points of a regular ed counterpart because the assignments were shortened, but if the student earned 90% of those modified points, it’s an A. 80%, B and so on. Same goes for simplified assignments. (i.e. modifying a multiplication fact worksheet into an addition fact worksheet.) If the work is simplified or changed in any way, the student should still be able to earn a percentage of points for said assignment. For writing assignments I use a rubric based on what I know the student is capable of. A 5 for the best job I know he can do, a 4 for just below that, 3 for a passable, but not outstanding job, 2 for a below average job, 1 for a poor, but turned in assignment, and a 0 for a missing assignment. The grade is then averaged out of 5, and I get a grade from that percentage. Another way to “grade” students who can’t be expected to turn in assignment-type work is to compile a portfolio of work during the quarter and prepare a narrative that tells areas of improvement or regression. Either way, grades should be based, at least in part, by tangible work. If effort or other “fairy” criteria is factored into the overall grade, then the teacher should prepare some sort of scale which explains what he deems is an A, B, C, etc.

this sounds like a clear explanation—do you factor in class participation? my kid’s english teacher doesn’t want to factor that in, but that is the one place my daughter shines—and she really learns in an oral way and in reading—but writes on a very low level (she got a score of 20% on the TOWL-3), reads at the 12th grade level, and is in 8th grade honors english).

If it isn’t already in her IEP, I would insist that the IEP states that part of the way your daughter is graded would be based on class participation. This is a very common accommodation and is very useful.

Laurie

THe key is making the expectations clear. Yes, there are subjective aspects to teaching and learning but grades are the objective measure of…. ???? (Okay, they’re *supposed* to be that.)
So wahtever the grades are — before they are ever given, you should know what they’re going to measure. It could be really hard to sell such a subjective thing as “class participation” as a grade to a teacher. However, there are an awful lot of other objective ways to demonstrate knowledge — as simple as dictating answers, or through projects and drawings or oral presentations. (Ideally they look like more work to other kids … or that college admissions person who is going to be far more interested in that very, very bright young lady who has had the initiative to create her own pathways to higher-level learning despite obstacles.)

I have had grading mods rubric written into the iep—however, the annual iep (which started with a meeting right after a mediation agreement last April), has not been signed. there were two not-so-good iep meetings in the spring—shortened, not teacher present, no notice given, no chance to really deal with outstanding issues—and the third meeting on this annual iep was supposed to be in the fall after extensive writing tutoring this summer (paid by district) we all wanted to see what progress she made in the program. she made great progress, but is still years behind in writing and is not independent with doing it. I met with the teachers briefly about grading, they were to come up with proposals, and I would review them as part of the iep document. (BTW, my duaghter’s teachers are outstanding!!! this year, at least). My daughter just needs to show she knows the material in a non-essay writing way. She does outstanding on standardized tests, but they don’t give those in the classrooms much anymore. She is shakey on projects, because it requires the same sort of organizational skills that she doesn’t have for writing.
But as of this day, three weeks after the iep meeting (that didn’t really solve things, but included a plan to reevaluate the situation in two months) I do not have a copy of the iep or the grading plan. Last I heard, the copy created went to the school district’s legal office and the attorney for the district has yet to solve the problem about me getting a copy. So, I can’t review the iep or sign it, because I haven’t seen it. I wonder how these teachers will grade her.

Hi Lisa S.,
I’m a mom and have read the replies to your request. Something to be aware of is the actual effort it takes a particular child to get to the same answer. I think the kids deserve a grade that reflects their effort, with still being realistic. I wouldn’t want a fairy grade, but the recognition that what I did do was good. ~ Deb

I am going to offer a different side.As A parent I want my child graded identical to the reg children.It challenges my daughter to strive for better grades.In my daughters case this has worked so far..yes at times she is fustrated with 60’s but has developed the drive to achieve and reach 90’s.She is learning to do more on her own without assistance from myself at home or an aide.She is willing to study an extra half hour to reach the higher grade.At times…she only gets a 40 but understands that she tried her best.In some cases..the child could give up and other accomadations would have to be made but if the child has the drive why fairy grade them.

This is true, you don’t want to snuff that out. I don’t want my son to have fairy grading either but his self esteem was/is suffering to the point that he was very depressed and is now on medication. If it can help make him want to reach for those things again, wonderful!

Unfortunately, my daughter would always get “F”s if she was graded by the regular standards. She is in honors classes and can barely write. She also has a twin sister who was in the same classes last year, and she does compare herself to her sister. If the teachers only gave standardized tests, she would excel, but some teachers never give tests, just projects. She is motivated to learn but not really to get good grades—she does not see the point of pleasing other people: she works very hard when it comes to learning, but does not find grades motivating. Example—she mastered all of her math class curriculum last year by the first week of school.—she warmed a seat in there all year and the school would not move her to an appropriate class because she did not pass the test in April. She could have passed the test in August, after I had taught her the previous year’s math, but that was too late. So, with only 1 hour of tutoring a week, and 5 days of assignments, she mastered the honors curriculum and passed the next level math test and got her self back into honors math.—no help from the school, just at home. She masters the curriculum—just not the writing. and the school admits that they have given her no help on her writing goals for 2 years.

I’ve posted under the heading of Dysgraphia on the Parenting LD board. Try it; if it works, you’ve won, and even if you have only limited success any improvement is good.

thanks victoria—my daughter has minor problems with the physical part of writing—mostly tired after a short time—but her major problem is the thinking part of it. what to write, how to write for an audience, how to limit what you say, how to structure what you want to say, etc.She writes excellent poems and creative stories—can write pages and pages when it is her choice of material, but in the last two standardize writing tests, left the paper blank because she doesn’t know what to write. She needs progress in the social/emotional part of writing also. This is all very difficult for teachers to understand—they don’t often see superior readers who can’t write a response to what they have read.
the struggle goes on….