Round 2 for grade change proposal at Bigfork Middle School

The second reading of a proposed grade change policy for Bigfork Middle School was on last week’s agenda of the Bigfork School Board of Trustees.

Bigfork Middle and Elementary Principal Matt Jensen made a presentation and answered questions about the proposed change, which he calls standards based grading. A half dozen teachers who were part of a leadership team last year also spoke in favor of the policy.

Board members Doug Fraley and Paul Sullivan Jr. asked questions, as did a number of parents who attended the Sept. 18 meeting. The school board is scheduled to make a decision about the proposal Oct. 23.

The proposal would do away with traditional letter grades in favor of a more in-depth approach. Traditional letter grades would be replaced by the following grades: SP — Superior Performance, P — Proficient, NP — Nearing Proficient and N — Novice. But those new grades would not be the equivalent to traditional A, B, C, D and F grades, Jensen said.

Standards based grading separates content from behaviour, he said, noting that students would be graded under a number of new categories under the proposal.

Fraley said he understood the concept of providing more detailed report cards, but wondered why that couldn’t be done while still providing a traditional letter grade.

Jensen said that a traditional letter grade is done through averaging, which is not done under standards based grading. However, there apparently would still be some averaging of work done within an educational subgroup to determine whether or not the student receives a SP, P, NP or N in that subgroup. This would be done by assigning a number to work assignments such as 4, 3, 2, 1 or O.

“I think this is great for K through 5,” Julie Fraley (Doug’s wife) said. “I don’t think they’re getting ready for high school with this type of grading system.”

Mary Sullivan, who has taught school since 1968, called the proposal “a major change in the way we do business. “I see it as one of the most significant changes I have seen in all those years,” she said.

Sullivan was one of six teachers who were part of a leadership team that looked at standards based grading last year.

Amy Bessen gave examples of students who received A, B or C grades last year but performed very differently in the classroom. Such differences are not apparent when reading a traditional report card, she said. For example, a student who received an A could have done C work on tests and quizzes, but excellent in homework and other assignments. A student who received a C could have gotten As on tests but severely lagged on homework.

A student would likely not be able to do extra credit to earn a higher letter grade under standards based grading unless the extra credit work increased the student’s proficiency in a specific subgroup, Jensen said.

“As and Bs are a great equalizer,” Jensen said. “You can get there lots of ways. There’s not many roads to proficiency.”

A middle school student would likely advance to the next grade at the end of the year even if the student was not proficient in a subject area or educational subgroup, Jensen said. The next teacher would concentrate on increasing the student’s proficiency in that subject area or subgroup, he said.

Jensen said that Somers Middle School has implemented standards based grading and Bozeman High School has partially implemented it.

Somers Middle School Principal Lori Schieffer later said the school implemented modified standards based grading in 2007. It provides added subgroups on report cards but also includes a traditional letter grade, which she called a compromise.

“Standards based grading reflects a student's proficiency towards learning goals,” Schieffer said. “Letter grades reflect a student's effort more than their understanding of concepts. For example, as a parent, I would much rather know that my child has reached proficient levels of understanding of capitalization and punctuation as opposed to ... a B in English. A standards based report card portrays more information that helps understand a student's strengths and skill deficits. A letter grade does not provide this type of detailed analysis.”