VALDOSTA, GA -
Lowndes County school's no zero grading policy is making national headlines.
The policy, in effect for 18 months, prevents teachers from ever giving students zeros.
The superintendent says it's designed to give students the option of re-testing until they learn the material but recent guidelines on the policy caused an uproar.
The controversy around the Lowndes County School's grading policy peaked over the weekend when the issue got national attention with an interview from Valdosta's 92.1 Talk Show Host Scott James.
The superintendent says that practice has been in place for a year and a half.
For grades 3-8, the lowest grade on report cards is a 60.
"It's not like we're continuing to re teach and reassess even though we do on one occasion and I would like to say most teachers at their discretion if the students are deserving they may do it more than once," said Dr. Smith.
The superintendent says in December a principal wanted clarification on the practice so guidelines for interpreting the policy were released.
"We did not do a very good job of communicating the intent of the guidelines," said Smith. "A lot of people misinterpreted maybe even some of our people misinterpreted the policy."
He says the guidelines are a work in progress and they'll continue getting input from teachers and parents.
School officials plan to take out two recommendations including one that counts the highest grade earned not the average of the two grades.
1. The grading scale in the grade book for all grades (daily work and tests) will be 1-100.
2. Reported Grades – The actual grade a student makes will be entered into the electronic grade book.
Teachers do not need to keep a separate paper copy grade book. The average score a child receives on the Progress Report/Report Card will be from 60-100. Infinite Campus grade book will automatically change 1 – 59 to a 60 average. The Progress Report should indicate the need for improvement and intervention without being a grade so low that a child could not raise the year average to passing with improved effort.
3. There will be one document to educate parents about the Parent Portal and new grading procedures and it will be prepared by the central office to be used system-wide. Teachers will need to provide a copy of the system-wide Parent Guide to Grading to all elementary and middle school parents and students. You need to include this information on your class web site as well.
Parents will see two scores when they check progress on the Parent Portal. The top number is the grade the student will make on the Report Card or Progress Report (60 – 100). The bottom number is the student's performance percentage (1 – 100). The official grade is the top number. Report Card Grade 75 60 60 Performance Percentage (75.0%) (20.0%) (47.0%)
4. All students will be given the opportunity to learn and redo assignments, especially if a student makes a failing grade. This includes daily grades and test grades. If a student scores below a 70, the teacher will re-teach the standard using a variety of resources, including technology. After the intervention, the teacher will reassess the student. The student will receive the higher grade attained, not an average of the two assessments or assignments. Reassessment is required once for all students scoring below 70%. Do not be satisfied with giving any student a grade below his/her potential and your expectations. We want all students to improve. Even a child scoring above 70 should be afforded an opportunity to improve as well. Additional reassessments are at the discretion of the teacher and/or administration. If the standard requires 100% for mastery, this should be your goal. For example, mastery of the multiplication tables is required before more complex mathematics can be achieved. You are encouraged to use a variety of types of assessments i.e. multiple choice, oral, project, teacher conference, observation, etc... What else can you do to ensure that the student is successful?
Successful learning should not be determined by the length of time it takes to master a concept. Our students should know we will never give up on them.
5. Zeros are unacceptable. Teachers will give students an I (Incomplete) for work not turned in and are to insist that the assignment is completed. Zeros will not be used. If students consistently score below 60, the teacher is to contact the parents and arrange for a conference. Teachers should seek help in determining what other resources are available to help the student including but not limited to academic coaches, team leaders, grade chairs, counselors, administration, and the RTI process (i.e. classroom modifications, SST, special education). Communicate often and well with parents. Grades are to be posted to the Parent Portal grade book no less than once per week. Over the next 18 months, we are going to determine what evaluation and assessment really mean.
Begin to think about your own grading practices. What purposes do grades serve? What is the relationship between learning and grades? Are you more concerned with what students "earn" or what students "learn?"
Press Conference
Lowndes County Board of Education
Comments from Dr. E. Steven Smith, Superintendent
Monday, February 6, 2012
The purpose of this Press Conference is to hopefully clarify any misinformation and misunderstanding regarding the recent controversy with our grading guidelines. Yes, we made mistakes. On behalf of our school system, I am here today to apologize for our mistakes; however, I do not apologize for our commitment to success for all students.
One of the basic tenets of the Lowndes County School System Educational Philosophy is that "All students can learn; however, they may not all learn in the same way or at the same rate." I would think that most of you agree with this principle. With this belief in mind, we are a learning focused school system and our main focus is and should be on students. We have many truly outstanding teachers who are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence every day. Excellent teachers are the foundation of quality instruction and they use differentiated teaching strategies in order to appeal to the different learning styles of their students. All educators should be committed to the continuous improvement of work provided to students including the degree of mastery learning in their classroom.
Failure is unacceptable. If a student fails, we must determine why and seek a solution to achieve success for the student. Thus evaluation, re-teaching, and re-assessment of students who fail to master the skill the first time is vital to learning and student success. Does this mean all students will learn? We hope so, and we must do everything possible to ensure they will, but unfortunately, some may not. Some of you may recall a story told by futurist, Joel Barker. There was a man who would get up very early every morning and walk the beach picking up starfish and tossing them back into the ocean. He was approached by a boy who asked, "What are you doing"? "I am saving starfish" the man replied. The boy responded, "You can't possibly make a difference and save all of the starfish on this beach." After the man tossed another starfish back into the ocean, he responded, "I made a difference in that one." Just like the man in the story, we can't ensure that all students succeed, but we can certainly do our best to help as many students as possible achieve success.
I want to emphasize that the information distributed in the Teacher Guide to Grading and the Parent Guide to Grading was intended to be "guidelines" and not alter our current grading practice. This situation originated with a principal requesting clarification regarding the grading practice of not assigning a report card grade average below a 60. For the past year and a half it has been our practice to use 60 as the lowest grade recorded at regular grading intervals for students in grades 3-8. This practice sustains hope for the student to master the learning objectives rather than creating a situation where it becomes numerically impossible to pass.
There were inconsistencies among schools and within schools regarding the correct interpretation and application of this practice. A meeting was held with our principals to determine the degree of inconsistency and to work toward some common agreement as to the correct interpretation and application. Over a month the guidelines went through a series of revisions with input from principals who had the opportunity to discuss the guidelines with their staffs. Principals worked collaboratively with other principals and the Central Office to develop these guidelines. These guidelines were designed to clarify and communicate the correct interpretation and appropriate application of the grading practice. Obviously, this is where a critical mistake occurred. The majority of this document contains beliefs that support our learning focused teaching philosophy and reinforces what great teachers do every day in classrooms across America. However, in gathering this information, two new recommendations surfaced and became embedded within the guidelines. The two recommendations in question were 1) counting the highest grade earned, not an average of the two grades and 2) re-doing assessments for those who passed. These two are variations from our established practice and may create a question of fairness to those students who did what was expected on the initial assessment. They will not be a part of our grading practice and will not be included in our revised Grading Guidelines to be re-issued at a future date.
As a system we have not adopted a position as to the grade given on a re-assessment. We have no requirement on the re-assessment for students who pass. Our teachers re-teach and re-assess at least one time in the areas where the student fails to master. Additional opportunities for re-teaching or re-assessment are left to the discretion of the teacher and/or the school administration. We discourage giving zeros or other extremely low grades for incomplete, missing, or failing assignments as they reflect an adverse statistical inequity for a student's final grade. Instead, we suggest giving an incomplete, evaluating the reasons for the failure, re-teaching the material, and re-assessing. If a student blatantly refuses to complete an assignment or demonstrate mastery on the assessment, the student will receive the score he earns.
We need to be mindful that these grading guidelines apply to students between the ages of 7 and 13. These students are in training to hopefully become responsible adults someday. Yes, they do need to be taught responsibility and be held accountable but through a progressive process. As students age and mature, we expose them to additional levels of responsibility and accountability. The ultimate expectation is that they will graduate from high school and eventually reach adulthood and become responsible citizens with all the responsibility and accountability life demands.
In closing, the intent of the Grading Guidelines was to clarify and increase consistency in the application of the grading practice, not to add changes to our current grading practice, especially in the midst of a school year. Any new additions to our existing practice will be deleted. Over the next 18 months our staff and stakeholders will continue to evaluate our assessment and grading practice to ensure that it continues to reflect sound educational practice. I have stated on many occasions that we must seek stakeholder satisfaction and support in all that we do and that our success is dependent on a strong partnership between the school, the home, and the community. Any change in policy will come as the result of thorough research, the dissemination of information to our stakeholders for feedback, and a comprehensive evaluation prior to a recommendation to our Board. As with all policies, the Board makes the ultimate decision.
Our Board Chairmen, Mr. Fred Davis, is out of town with the Georgia School Boards' Association so I will ask that our Board Vice-Chairman, Mr. Fred Wetherington come and present any closing comments prior to taking a few questions.
Copyright 2012 WALB. All rights reserved.
Lowndes County Schools
Grading Procedures
3rd – 8th Grades
TEACHER GUIDE TO GRADING
