By Anthony Rifilato
School board President James Scannell read a statement at last week's school board meeting, telling parents that the information they provided to the board at last month's meeting -- where they expressed concern about whether enough time was given to implement a new grading system -- was helpful. Scannell explained that it wasn't the system itself that most parents took issue with, but rather its implementation, which at times had been "schizophrenic."
"It's a signal that we have to get additional information," said Scannell, who explained that administrators are working toward developing a plan for implementing the new system.
The new grading system, or rubric, which measures students' abilities on a scale of 1 through 4 -- 1 meaning that a student falls below standards and 4 meaning that a child is exceeding them -- was a source of contention among many parents.
They told the school board last month that some teachers were not adequately prepared to use the new method, and that the rubric system was too vague and could potentially encourage some children to underperform.
More than 500 parents signed a petition asking the district for more time to implement the new report card. Parents were further outraged that they did not receive their child's report cards for the first quarter as the district moved to implement the new system.
After hearing from parents, the district decided to change course, and in a letter dated Dec. 3, school Superintendent Kathy Weiss sent a letter to parents announcing plans to delay the new grading system and report card, saying that parents voiced concern that "the grading key for the new report card does not provide information which parents feel is easily interpreted. Therefore, we are delaying the implementation of a new report card in order to review and revise it."
Implementation of the new report card will begin in September 2004, and in the interim, the district will continue training teachers while a committee that developed the new report card works on revising the grading key and the format.
"We're going to spend the rest of this year working with teachers and training them," Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Jeff Hollman said after the meeting. "After listening to parents, we decided we needed more time to get everyone ready."
Parents were pleased with the board's decision, saying that their concerns were addressed. "We feel that you really listened to what we had to say," Robin Sciortino told the board. "We are pleased and appreciative of the outcome."
Hollman explained that the administration is working on creating consistency among the district's seven elementary schools, and holding grade-level meetings district-wide so that each school uses the new grading system in the same way. "We're going to look at the report card we drafted and clarify, using input from parents and teachers," he said.
