Abner Gibbs parent Heather Talbot discusses new report cards with retired principal Leslie Clark-Yvon. (Photo by Amy Porter)
WESTFIELD – At last night’s informational meeting for parents at Paper Mill, Westfield Elementary Schools presented the new standards-based report cards for grades K-5.
Presenting were Susan Dargie, Director of Curriculum and Instruction and Leslie Clark-Yvon, who retired after 42 years with the district, and came back to head the committee that developed the new report cards.
Clark-Yvon said that teachers have been saying for many years that the report cards didn’t match what they were teaching, which is based on the Mass. Curriculum Frameworks developed in 2011. So, she assembled a committee made up of teachers, special education educators, and specialists, who looked at what other districts around the state were doing, and developed a report card with sections for academic, social and learning skills.
“We wanted to report what we were doing in our classrooms every day,” Dargie said.
She said graded report cards do not tell parents what content the students have mastered. The standards-based report cards show how a student is doing against an identified grade level end-of-year standard.
The new reports cards have several sections under each subject with new descriptors that are very specific, and vary according to the grade level standards.
For example on the fifth grade report card, mathematics is broken into seven sections, each with a list of the skills being studied. The kindergarten report card also has five sections under mathematics with lists, including “Reads and writes numerals to 20.”
Dargie said this will allow the parents to work on the specific skills students may not have mastered.
Previously, grades 3, 4, and 5 had letter grades. The new markings for K-5 are: M for consistently and independently demonstrates mastery in the grade level standard, P for progressing towards mastery, S for some progress towards mastery, and N for not yet demonstrating progress.
Paper Mill parents Michael and Maria Brunelle attended one of the parent information nights on the new K-5 report cards. (Photo by Amy Porter)
Another change is that report cards will be sent home three times a year in December, March and June, instead of four.
Dargie stressed that nothing is changing in the classroom.
“The only change is the way we’re reporting it.”
She also said 95 percent of the teachers are for this change.
“The teachers have to be giving some sort of test in the classroom with a grade to help them know mastery,” Heather Talbot, an Abner Gibbs parent who attended last night’s informational meeting said. “I still want to know what my child’s percentages are.”
She then asked what the percentages were for the new letter grades.
Clark-Yvon said that 85 percent or more is an M, 50-85 percent is a P, and less than 50 percent is an S. N shows a low level of learning. She said that another major difference is if a child takes a test and they don’t do well, the standards-based expectation is that the child will be retested, and by the end of the year, that skill will be mastered.
“We can’t take the letters and translate them into A, B, C, D, E,” Dargie said.
Talbot said that previously second-third grade was a huge transition because the students went from “Meets Expectations” to letter grades.
“Now, when you go to sixth grade, this all goes away and you’re back to a letter grade. In that world, 85 percent is a B,” she said.
Dargie said that in her experience, children seem to be able to handle changes with ease. She said some students put a lot of weight on grades, and some will get an M “right off the bat.”
“When a child has mastered something, they’ve mastered it for the year’, Clark-Yvon said.”That grade won’t go down.”
According to the guide for the new report card, “By the end of the year, students will show mostly Ps and Ms.”
“We don’t know what to think,” Paper Mill parents Michael and Maria Brunelle said, after last night’s meeting. “Our child is in kindergarten. It’s new all over.”
There will be another meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. for all parents at Highland Elementary.
