Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Two things in the news: Opinions?

Hi everyone!
I read two interesting things about education in the last 24 hours. One was an article I caught on the internet about schools moving to a different type of report card - one based on skills rather than subjects. It would do away with traditional letter grades, but only for the younger levels. The schools that are already doing it have progress reports that list the skills the child is expected to have, then rates them on their progress toward mastery. So for language arts the area assessed might include something like: Able to create a 5 sentence paragraph, then have a rating of how the child perfroms. Anyone else see this info? Any thoughts?

The other article I read was on the front page of the Chicago Tribune today. It was about a report that is proposing a more European approach to education, with allowing tenth graders to go through some rigorous testing and opt out of the 4 year high school thing. If they test out, a student could leave HS after 10th grade to pursue tech/voc training, college/advanced studies or whatever. Or they could still choose to continue on for the 4 years of HS. Thoughts on that one? I think this sounds great!

Debbie,

Does the school system pay for the avanced courses if the child tests and opts out of the four year high school thing? I think they should. Was this approach proposed for the stated of IL or the whole nation?

Diana

I like moving toward the skill based report card. LOL - can you imagine showing up, and demanding a grade skip based on - look, my child is already proficient at the thinks you propose to teach her during the whole next year.

As for testing out of High School - I have mixed feelings. I don't know if another high stakes test is in anyone's best interests.
t

I am all for the alterntive report card. My daughter recently received a 90 in reading on her report card. Since I knew my daughter was at one of the highest reading levels in the class, I was concerned that she had not been doing her work. Her teacher explained (shaking her head) that the grade was based on the child's particular reading level. This would be great except that piece of information is not included on the report card (as suggested in the article). Without that information, a letter grade is useless data.

I also like the concept of the other article, though I think American schools will modify it slightly. Our school district is starting a dual enrollment (HS/college) program. Students in the program will graduate from HS with an associates degree.

Wow Texas Summer,
Your district sounds really progressive! The HS/associates degree sounds like a program that will help lots of kids. I do agree that communication over things like grades is really important.
Trinity