ROUND ROCK — Following controversy due to lack of communication and inconsistency in implementation, Round Rock ISD Superintendent Jesús Chavez announced Oct. 27 that the standards-based grading system would be rolled back at two schools.
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The system was used at Ridgeview Middle School and Round Rock High School as a way to improve commended rates and prepare students for the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, which will reportedly be more challenging than the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, or TAKS.
Trustees and parents alike agreed that SBG could hurt students more than help them without more time spent researching its benefits.
“We are not ready for this. The teachers who aren’t ready for this are hurting our children,” trustee Terri Romere said at the RRISD board of trustees Oct. 20 regular meeting. “The research is good. The methods are good. The implementation is horrible.”
Romere said the board had not been informed about SBG until she asked that it be added to the Sept. 29 meeting agenda. Her greatest concern, she said, was the students who were challenged by schoolwork prior to SBG implementation.
Rollback
A called board meeting Oct. 27 followed Chavez’s announcement, and parents filled the RRHS lecture hall as they had at previous meetings.
“I think Dr. Chavez announcing that they’ll quit experimenting with SBG is great. They’ll go back to the great schools they were before all this,” parent Amber Schmitt said. “Everyone is cautiously optimistic, and we are happy to have this behind us.”
Schmitt, who founded rrisdconcernedparents.com and its complementary Facebook page—both of which allow parents to voice their opinions of SBG—said she thinks parents still need to work to ensure that the school board comes up with a district-wide policy “that is consistent and equitable.”
JoyLynn Occhiuzzi, executive director of communications at RRISD, said there is a chance SBG will be re-implemented in the future, but if is, it will be a district-wide decision.
Why standards-based grading?
RRHS and Ridgeview officials used SBG to increase the rigor of assignments and tests so that students would be more competitive when it comes to going to college and starting a career.
Ridgeview Principal Holly Galloway said an SBG pilot program launched for eighth-grade students last school year following research, a seminar and book study. This school year, Ridgeview sixth- and seventh-grade students were assessed under SBG.
RRHS Principal Natalie Nichols said that throughout SBG implementation at the school, the number of students taking benchmark tests have gone up, as have scores. She reported increased commended rates and increased number of students passing.
At the Oct. 27 meeting, trustees and parents expressed concern that with the rollback of SBG, the rigor with which students have been taught may be lost.
Next steps
Parents worried that inconsistencies in grading may have caused an error in their child’s grade were urged to talk to their teacher and principal immediately.
The SBG rollback will be concluded at both schools Nov. 7. A complete timeline of the process is posted at www.roundrockisd.org.
Trustees will have a workshop meeting Nov. 29 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss grading policy. The location is to be determined.
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