Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Opinions On "Standards Based Grading"?

I wish it was something as coherent as that. I got some analogy to a cupcake, that to get a 4 he needed to take all the ingredients and create a new cupcake himself, instead of the same cupcake he was shown how to create.

If you understand what the hell that means, you're clearly smarter than I am.

My issue is that I'm applying him to a competitive private school now, since his current school isn't meeting his needs, and he has a report card that shows he just "met the standards." That's the same report card a "C" student would get. I don't understand it at all.

New?? They did this when I was in elementary in the 1970's. My kids had this through 3rd grade. And my oldest is a senior in college, so she started in the late 1990's. Although we usually had a 4th designation (can't remember if it was E or O) for exceeds expectations. The "report" card was a complicated form with more than two dozen check boxes.

I think it's good thing but I guess it depends on how it's implemented. Young kids shouldn't feel pressure to get "straight A's" and giving kids A/B/C grades are just as arbitrary. (They just mean something to use since it's what your used to.) Young kids shouldn't be graded. A report card should be about feedback to parents on what the kids know. I do realize this is silly when the kids already knows everything in the curriculum but it does make sense for most kids.

Edited to add.. I think it's like others are saying a 1-4 designation and the letter designations are for effort.

Marcy, my sympathies.

BTDT with wanting to transfer schools and needing a stellar report card for my 1st grader who had finished 5th grade math and was doing pre-algebraish work and reading chapter books way beyond what I expected for his age. He got a "meets expectations" for counting up to some number for numeracy. They had many subcategories for math and all of them were graded as "meets the expectation". The teacher's performance evaluation (bonus etc) depended on showing a good growth curve from the first trimester to the last and hence the performance did not jump to "satisfactory" until the last trimester. I was unaware of this and spent a lot of time putting together a work sample portfolio and armed with data and numbers asked for a meeting and was told that they were only asked to test for counting up to 500 and he met her expectations (he missed 1 number because he counted super fast!).

Many people asked me why I was getting uptight about a 1st grader's report card. And the reason was the same as Marcy's - I needed to get DS into a highly competitive private school and his report card looked mediocre at best (he got a "below expectation" for art - poor kid later turned out to be color blind and had colored pictures using the wrong colored crayons).

Marcy, I used the data I had to prepare a data rich portfolio for the private school to consider in addition to his report card - I suggest using work samples, standardized testing scores, any score sheets from online programs like EPGY, talent search scores, contest wins, IQ test score summary, DYS qualification etc. to show that your child is more able than what the report card says. Good luck.

We have that all the way through although we do have 5 categories [well below = 2 years plus below, below = one year below, at standard, above by one year and well above. I don't think my school uses well above though and high school uses credit and merit instead of above and well above. But in the 70s at primary school we at +, = and - so below, at above {though it was above average not above standard and I never got grades at high school except in external exams as far as I can recall. Or maybe I did but since passing was only based on the final exam I didn't care.

Some anticipate a similar experience in applying to colleges, when all measures/grades/assessments represent a low ceiling.

Parents may wish to continue helping their children collect items for a portfolio through middle school and high school, which students might use to supplement their transcripts when applying to college. Portfolios of work samples might inspire portions of a college essay, personal statement, and interview question responses.

yes, I got a forewarning of what my child's college application process was going to be like when my DS was applying for 2nd grade The experience taught me to organize data and save it for future use. And did I mention, that in my experience, when I pull out my huge folder with all the information organized into categories and start showing them to administrators, they prefer to agree to my request rather than go through my big binder

Holy Toledo-- what the heck IS it with the entirely bizarre level of obsession with cupcakes in elementary educators anyway?? Is this location a party cabana or an institution of learning?!

~THAT parent, the one whose kid has food allergies.

There-- rant over, continue on-topic discussion.

Thinking about this tread some more and I'm wondering why OP thinks her son is going to look better on a A/B/C/F grading system then the S/P/N system. Is what goes into a letter grade that is all different? Not sure gifted students 1st graders report card with letter grades would be any more helpful for getting into a private school. What goes into that "A"? It's not do I know material that exceeds this grade. It's usually does the student meet grade expectations based on what I've taught, are they compliant and do they put in effort. I've never seen a teacher do letter grades based on the fact that they know material beyond what is being taught in class.

My main point is that a large part of grades are often the compliance and effort part particularly the younger the student. Thus gifted kids don't always get the "A's" that the myth tells us they should because they are often bored with the material.

Have you looked into details about what the private school looks at for admission? I would hope at this grade a letter of recommendation, a portfolio of work, and some type of standard assessment would be considered.

I think, for my part, the exceeds level has been explained as difficult to attain unless the child can show beyond grade level mastery for every single item within a category. If they don't even assess each item until the end of the year, then you only see 'progressing toward' or 'meets' as a notation, and you don't actually know how your child is demonstrating above-level (on the report card, vs talking to teacher). So it feels less substantive: 'here are the standards we've assessed, your child has met these' rather than 'here is how your child is doing relative to the grade-level and average student.'

I concluded there is no way to receive an "exceeds" for my kid in 1st grade. He received a "3" in "able to add and subtract within 20." I have a paper where he had to write ten number sentences that equal 12. This is what he wrote:

6+6=12
10+2=12
-10+22=12
√144=12
4x3=12
6x2=12
20-8=12
36÷3=12
24x½=12
12+0=12

When I asked how that didn't exceed the standards, the answer was because he used things they weren't taught in class (!). I don't see the cupcake at all.