Chardon will change grading methods for grades K-3

The Board of Education had previously voted to use the new grading system, and Munson, as well as the Chardon Early Learning Center, will transition into it at the beginning of the next school year.

The presenters claimed that standards-based grading is a more thorough and specific evaluation of a student’s understanding, and Ms. Ferguson offered an example.

“This first report card is a third-grade report that shows a student with a ‘D’ in reading. If this parent wanted to hire a tutor to help her child improve his reading, the tutor would have to do assessments just to figure out which skills the child hadn’t mastered yet. A “D” doesn’t tell you what he can or can’t do,” she said. “When the child goes to the next grade level, the teacher has to start from scratch to figure out where the child is struggling within the subject of reading.”

For standards-based grading, instead of grading from “A” to “F,” each subject has a rubric of criteria specific to the course. One rubric shown for the First Grade English Language Arts class consisted of five parts: “Print Concepts: demonstrate understanding of the basic features of a sentence. Phonological Awareness: Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and phonemes. Phonics & Word Recognition: Know & apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding. Phonics & Word Recognition: Recognize and read grade-appropriate irregularly spelled words. Fluency: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.”

The presenters explained that each of these categories would be given its own grades. The grades for each category would be listed as “M” for mastering, “P” for Progressing, and “E” for emerging.

Ms. Ferguson further noted that student behavior can influence grades whether or not a student understands the material, so to separate a student’s behavior from the comprehension of the subject material, there is a separate grade in each class for behavior. This grade is an “S” for satisfactory or an “N” for needs improvement.

“We currently grade behavior on our report cards, but when the committee looked at all the report cards side by-side, we were grading different behaviors on all of the report cards,” she said. “This shores that up nice and tidy. We’re all grading the exact same behavior.”

School board vice president Dr. Guy Wilson summed up the discussion by giving his approval of the standards-based grading system.

“I think it’s a step in the right direction,” he said. “It does seem to be more granular and more powerful than what we have now. It sounds like we’re going to take it slowly. Essentially, we’re not going to try to do everything at once. One step at a time.”

After the presentation, Chardon Local Schools Treasurer Deb Ambruster went over the financial report for the fiscal year. She drew applause when she mentioned that Orange High School spent $508,701 less than anticipated, in the areas of Purchased Services, Supplies and Materials, and Capital Outlay.

Dr. Wilson also presented Ms. Armbruster with the Ohio Auditor of State with Distinction Award, given to local governments and school boards which have a clean audit.