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Can those of you with subject-accelerated DC or DC receiving in-class differentiation tell me how they are graded?

For the first time, the school (at our urging) is offering in-class differentiation for DS8 (3rd grade). I didn't think to ask, though, how that could affect his grades. 3rd grade is the first year the kids receive letter grades instead of the effort-type grades. It only makes a difference to me because DS attends a parochial school and there is a program offered in our area that offers four-year scholarships to kids in 4th and 8th grade. One of the points for qualification though, is all As/A+s in the core subjects (I think for both 3rd and 4th grades), and they DO NOT take into account whether the student is taking more challenging courses. It may not be be an issue for DS, but it seems unfair if he received an A- (not a qualifying score) but had done much harder work than a kid who scored an A with the easier standard curriculum.

I wouldn't give up the opportunity for DS to be challenged for anything, but it seems like there may be a way that other schools/parents work this out.

Just wondering how your schools handle it.

I wondered the same thing with my DS7. I was told that no matter how far ahead they are accelerated in a subject the grading would not be modified. I had sujected weighted grades like high school AP classes. If you get a 'B' then it's marked as an 'A' since the kid is really taking advanced subjects.

Maybe you could explain why you want the grades modified and quote programs like AP in high schools that take the modified grade approach.

Good Luck!

Thanks, Momma Bear. I'm still thinking that DS will get all As (unless he continues to overlook questions on in-class assignments **ARGH!!!**), but I was wondering what the norm was for other schools. If he doesn't get all As, and it's because he's challenged, I guess the lack of the scholarship would be a pretty cheap price to pay.

Have a great weekend!

Ours is all very confusing too! Last year DS 1st Grade received grades for work he was accelerated for (Lang and Math 2nd and 3rd Grade) on a regular basis, but when it came to report time whatever he had scored just showed up as a bunch of stars since any Grade received was considered top of/beyond First Grade.

This year in the same school it seems different. Online he is shown as a 3rd Grader (although he's 2nd - his homeroom class is 2nd/3rd) and is given Grades to match third.

Not sure this post helps - probably just confuses things further!

When my DD was in 2nd grade but was subject accelerated into 3rd grade for the mornings (math, reading, writing, gym, art), she had her 2nd grade subjects listed on her report card as 2nd grade subjects with their respective benchmarks and she had her 3rd grade subjects listed on her report card as 3rd grade subjects with their respective benchmarks. Now, doing this was quite the feat with district computer programmers involved and she only ended up getting an accurate end-of-year report card (they hand-wrote a copy of the mid-year report card for her district files because they hadn't yet figured out how to do it on the official copy). For us, the 2nd grade report card template into which the teachers enter grades is different that the 3rd grade report card template, so it can't be just a matter of having one teacher put in one set of grades and the other teacher putting in another set of grades. Too, the principal didn't think it was acceptable to just put a note in the notes section saying that she was accelerated -- he wanted each skill area to be fully documented. DD was the first child subject (and later grade) accelerated in our district that anyone can remember, so she was the guinea pig. DS is now subject accelerated, so we'll see if they have a system fully in place to do this easily now.

A note about standardized testing: In our case, DD was not allowed to take the 3rd grade state tests, even though she was in 3rd grade in all the tested subjects, because she was still officially classified by the state as a 2nd grader. Unfortunately, on the several days the 3rd graders were taking the state tests, she was sitting in 2nd grade actually grading her 2nd grade classmates' math minutes.(GRRR!)

At my DD's school it seemed that when she was accelerated in anything that was up to 6th grade the grades was as though she was in that grade. So as a 4th grader in a 6th grade math class she was graded the same as the 6th graders. Once she moved out of the 6th grade curriculum into middle and high school levels the grading seemed to ease up a bit. I think partly there were few kids who they were able to compare her to. The teachers were elementary teachers not middle/high school teachers. However, as far as state tests were concerned she was always tested at her grade level and scored in the advanced range.

Thanks for the replies. I guess the question in my mind is whether the report card should reflect what my child is capable of or what's expected of a normal 3rd grader. I've always thought it was the latter, but then differentiation makes things more complicated, doesn't it?

Now that we're a few weeks into the school year, I can see that it's not likely going to be a big issue for us. DS is still not overly challenged in any of the subjects, although it is a vast improvement from last year and I'm still hopeful to see more differentiation.

I will begin pulling large chunks of hair out of my head, though, if he brings home another set of graded papers this week that are only partially complete and therefore get a D or F. Can someone please explain to me how a kid can "not see" half a page of questions?