Milford School District Board of Education heard more about elementary school growth reports
Milford School District Board of Education recently heard a presentation from Supervisor of Instruction Dr. Bobbie Kilgore regarding new standards-based grading provided to parents on student growth reports. This grading system is used in elementary schools in the district as well as throughout the state of Delaware.
“There are many reasons we decided to use this method,” Kilgore said. “We know that students develop at a different pace, and we want to be sure we are giving parents as much information as possible exactly how their children are progressing through our instructional programs.”
The need for the presentation stemmed from comments made by parents at a previous meeting stating they did not understand the new grading system and felt it focused too much on behavior rather than academics.
“Our growth report is fully in line with core state standards for English, language arts and mathematics as well as social studies and science standards,” Kilgore said. “The growth report does not reflect every standard taught through the school year, it reflects mastery levels of priority standards that are considered necessary for future academic success.”
Kilgore used the analogy of skydiving, asking the board if they would prefer having someone pack a parachute who started off with a perfectly packed parachute, but by the third try, the parachute failed to open or one that had the parachute open each time but only partially. The final option was one who could not get the parachute to open at all at first, but then were able to get it to open sometimes then finally every time.
“Each of these same students could have the same grade of “B” but they don’t all have the same mastery of the content,” Kilgore said. “Traditional grading does not give information about how a student is actually progressing toward mastering content.”
The new grading system allows a wider range of grades, Kilgore explained. A score of MT, or “most of the time” indicated a student has an advanced understanding and is meeting end-of-the-year expectations. A score of ST or “some of the time” indicates a student has proficient understanding and meets grade level expectations, although they may require teacher support.
“The goal is for students to minimally reach some of the time or most of the time by the end of the school year,” Kilgore said. “NG means that it is not graded. This is used when the teacher has not yet introduced the standard or skill, so there is insufficient evidence of student achievement.”
Based on feedback at the previous board meeting, Kilgore stated that the district had reduced the behavioral standards from nine to five. Behavioral standards are to provide parents with details beyond academics and are based on national standards.
“Thank you for this presentation as it did answer some questions,” Board member Dr. Adam Brownstein said. “It is like Boy Scouts. You have 15 merit badges to collect over the year and you start day one with no merit badges. As you learn, you begin collecting the badges. I do understand from the public standpoint that this is a very different way of doing things, and frankly, I agree with most of the public comment.”
Brownstein felt that there were a significant number of behavioral issues being graded with a lack of focus on academic areas. One comment made at the previous meeting was a lack of grading in science and social studies.
“I want to point out that social studies and science are indeed being taught from day one,” Kilgore said. “But they are reported in quarters two and four. This is something we have not done in the past, but we want to make sure teachers are getting an accurate picture with science and social studies.”
Kilgore explained that honor roll is still being computed but there was a system issue that prevented it from being published at the secondary level. The district is looking at different ways to celebrate academic achievement other than honor roll as well. Board member Jean Wylie asked how grading would be handled when a child went from fifth to sixth grade since the system would be completely different.
“The standards are the same, but they do change every year,” Kilgore said. “Teachers will be versed in the standards and those decisions are still being determined. We haven’t quite gotten there yet, but we have a plan to form a committee of teachers to sit down and really work through that process.”
Brownstein stated that this process may help a student at the college level as many struggle when they are challenged with what they have learned. This would provide them with tools to learn how to meet those challenges.
“I simply do not understand why we cannot use standard grading like A, B, C, D, E,” board member Butch Elzey said. “That way parents can see what their kids are doing. I don’t know who comes up with this stuff, but our students do not know. Switching to this, getting a completely different grade, and it is not just the students who are struggling, the parents are, too.”
Kilgore stated that grades of A through E do not provide parents with details on how their students are really performing. She agreed that the district needed to do more about communicating with parents about how the new process works.
“I am just engaging in hypotheticals at this point, but there are students who do not have parental or community support at home,” Vice-President Matt Bucher said. “We have students show up at our door that have been through things we don’t want to know about. I do think this system is going to be beneficial for those students because you can identify massive progress. Maybe they did poorly on a test because they had to take care of a brother or sister, Dad’s gone, and Mom’s knocked out on the couch.”
Where Bucher saw a problem was with students whose parents were involved.
“I really feel we are shortchanging those children because they don’t understand this, it is gibberish to them,” Bucher said. “It kind of is to me, really, but I am not an educational expert. I don’t like to use the term two-tiered system, but we really need a system that allow the initiative yet protect the integrity of the elementary school system.”
Kilgore felt that the new system actually looked more closely at each student and may identify areas where even high performing students could see areas they need to improve.
“You do need to polish this up a little bit,” Bucher said. “I don’t want to have something in place for 15 months and when we hear negative feedback, pull the rug out from under our administrators that have a wealth of knowledge and experience.”
Bucher felt the board needed to give the program a chance.
“As a board member, it’s kind of our responsibility to be the devil’s advocate,” board member Ashley Connell said. “The public is not living this change. However, I have not heard anything about our hardworking teachers and how they feel about this.”
Kilgore stated that when the district reached out to teachers at the end of the previous school year, there was one team of teachers that preferred the old system. She also stated that there was a learning curve which teachers were working through. No decisions were made regarding changes to the report card policy for elementary students at the meeting.
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