Report Card: A close look at the world of Maine Education

Home schooling, education jobs and Social Security Numbers....an education roundup.

Maine's pupil count drops below 190,000. Rep Finch asks, "Do we have 2,700 fewer kids, or do we have 2,700 fewer choosing public schools?"

Your Child Left Behind

Dec 2010 - Atlantic Magazine

Massachusetts used to "lag behind" states like Maine & Connecticut. Now they just "lag behind" other countries.

Today, Maine's largest demographic ranks approximately 38th in 4th/8th grade math....Massachusetts ranks #1 (regardless of demographic).

New system for grading in more schools (RSU 2)

This is from May. Parents at RSU 2 have organized a Standards-based grading Facebook page.

Standards Based Report Cards - Maine & Hawaii

Apparently, in Pelham NY a standards-based report card comes with 14 extra pages to explain it. This seems like a lot of work for the teachers.

RSU 2's 'standards-based' grading to get oversight

According to an RSU 2 parent, RSU 2 might need to expand the 1-4 grading scale (to include 1.5, 2.5, etc.)

Rethinking Report Cards

More on Standards-based report cards. Be sure to read:

Why don't we see standards-based report cards in middle or high school? (note what they say about college applications)

It seems that the Maine Dept of Education wants schools to "pioneer" this new grading system. Did they sign up for it to try get RttT (Race to the Top) $$? Maine's RttT applicaiton came in almost dead last.

RSU1 Administrator Admits Goal is NO-GRADES at ALL Levels K-12

Dear XXX,

         What thoughtful questions! I will do my best to answer them.  I am currently principal at Fisher Mitchell School, but previously served as K-12 Curriculum Coordinator for the district. In that capacity I worked with at team of K-5 teachers from U47 and Bath schools who volunteered to design a common RSU 1 elementary report card back in spring '08.  At that time we looked at models from numerous other districts as well as a draft card that a committee had been working on in U47.  THe card can best be described as standards-referenced.  For each academic subject area a student gets an overall Effort rating, and then ratings on specific skills or processes within that subject area. The ratings indicate whether a student MEETS expectations for his/her grade level for that time in the year, EXCEEDS expectations, PARTIALLY MEETS them, or DOES NOT meet them. 

           This provides parents with much more specific information about students strengths and weaknesses than a global letter grade of A,B,C which is usually obtained by averaging grades on assignments or tests over a period of time.  For example, on an letter scale a student who does really well at the beginning of the term on one skill area but was much weaker at the end of the term on another skill area would get the same grade as a student who scores fairly well on both (B or C ). Standards referenced ratings would show that the student EXCEEDED standards on the first skill area but only PARTIALLY met standards on the second skill area.

          Although grade level teams have continued to refine some items & calibrate scoring of different items, the K-5 Report Card has not changed in any significant way over the first three years of the RSU. The items are aligned with the Maine Learning Results and RSU 1 Curriculum.  Last year Mr. Shuttleworth convened a K-12 Standards-based Grading Committee to study and plan for transitioning to standards-based grading at all levels.  Meanwhile, the Common Core standards were developed, so as a first step, staff have developed RSU #1 standards for math and language arts, K-12. They are not posted yet on the website as staff at some grade levels are still are in the final stages of review/revision.  Kari Babcock, principal at Phippsburg has been a key leader for this work.

         However, a chart of District Assessments can be viewed on the RSU 1 Website under Depts. Curriculum.  Yes, the NWEA and the DRA2 are definitely used as formative assessments for planning instruction as well as to assess student growth.   

          As the district moves forward in designing a standards-based system, it is definitely important to include parents and community. It's likely we'll get to that point this spring, although the district level Committee has not started the system design work yet this year.  A live and/or online forum with Q & A are on the list of possible ways to include parents that were discussed last spring. We'd welcome your involvement when we get to that point.

                                                         Sincerely,

                                                                    Nancy Harriman 

Nancy Harriman, Ph.D.

Principal

Fisher Mitchell School

597 High St. 

Bath, Maine 04530

Tel.  (207)443-8265

Fax  (207)443-4167

 >>> 'XXXXX Concerned Parent' 11/4/2010 1:46 PM >>>

Hi William-

I understand that the school board will be discussing implementation of the number grade system at the middle school level.  Betsy Varian had indicated that this is tied in with Standard Based Learning.  My understanding of Standard Based Learning is that this provides a way for children with learning differences to receive differentiated instruction within the classroom setting.  Is there a tie between that and the number grade system?  I was unable to find a link between the two when searching the web.  Can you provide me with this information so that I can have a better understanding of it's purpose?  From my perspective, the 4-number grading system is more vague than the range (of 15) that is used with the letter grade system.  

Also, where can I find grade level benchmarks for RSU1 and info. on the core school-based assessments that are given at each grade level.  I was surprised to learn at my daughter's 4th grade conference that the only formal assessments given this year were the NWEAs.  Do the NWEAs provide info. data to drive individual student instruction?  Not even a DRA was done this fall because 'XXX student name' was on grade level in the Spring. 

Before the school board votes on a possible new grading system, I think it would be helpful if parents were given the opportunity to attend a question/ answer forum on the matter.  I feel with the consolodation, parents are less informed and are becoming less of a part of the decision making process.

Thank you,

XXX

 Concerned Parent  (Private individuals names removed, any parent could ask same questions.)