One of the local school districts in my area is making waves. Next fall, the Waukee Community School District will eliminate letter grades for their middle school students. “Middle school students consists of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.
According to an article in the Des Moines Register, rather than receiving the typical As, Bs, or Cs, students will now be receiving “statuses” such as “beginning“, “developing“, “secure“, or “exceeds” in several different standards in each subject. The article goes on to say that other districts in the area are considering switching to this method of grading as well, but Waukee is the first to actually make it happen.
The article lists reasons why this method of evaluating the students is better than a letter-grading system, and I won’t go into all of that. You can just go read the article if you want. I will mention the one point they made that I DO agree with is that one instance where the letter-grading system may NOT be an accurate representation of a child’s understanding a certain class or subject is when points are given for things like attendance, extra credit, and class participation. For example, my daughter can maybe earn an extra 10 points in her science class for having perfect attendance, maybe boosting her from a B to an A, but that doesn’t mean she understands the subject matter more than a student who just got the B.
BUT. (You knew there was a BUT.)
If your child brought home a report card, and they received grades like “Developing” or “Secure” what does that mean to you? It seems to be like this method leaves the door open for the teacher to be a lot more subjective in evaluating each student, and possibly let the grades reflect their opinion of the student. Possibly different teachers in the same grade level with different teaching styles might interpret when a student has reached a level of “secure” in a particular subject, rather than just knowing that when you score 90-100% on something, it’s an A. (Or in the case of our school district, it’s actually a 93% needed for an A– I know, we’re a bit tougher around here!) With a letter-grading system, you know that if you take a test and get an 85%, you receive a B. It is not open to interpretation by the teacher, who can subjectively determine how well you grasp the subject matter.
And what about preparing these kids for high school? The four years where GPA is everything? The article seems to insinuate that grading kids on a letter basis promotes competition between students, but I don’t necessarily consider that to be a bad thing. I think it’s healthy for kids to want to be successful in school, and heaven forbid we let them worry about their grades!
In our school district, the letter-grading system starts in 4th grade, which is the grade my youngest daughter is in now. I don’t consider it a bad thing, because I am not kidding when I say she had been EXCITED and looking forward to it for YEARS. She couldn’t wait to start getting letter grades like her older siblings! She works hard to get good grades, and the joy on her face when she sees her report card? PRICELESS. Somehow I don’t think I would get the same kind of reaction out of her if she was getting a report card that had things like “Secure” and “Developing” on it. What a snoozefest.
I’d love to hear your opinion on this. Does your child’s school district use the letter-grading system or another system? How would you feel if this change was made? Let’s hear it!
