Primary grade students in Regional School Unit 40 were the first in that district to bring home new standards-based report cards.
Director of Instruction Kim Schroeter told the RSU 40 Board of Directors Dec. 6 that schools throughout Maine and across the U.S. are moving to a new system of evaluating and reporting on student achievement.
“This is an interim step,” she said. “We’re making it so everyone knows what is expected in each grade.”
Schroeter passed out copies of the Kindergarten, first and second grade report card templates each of which comprises a comprehensive list of skills and attributes that students are expected to acquire by the end of the academic year. For example, Kindergarten students need to demonstrate language skills by recognizing and naming the letters of the alphabet, reading some basic text books, following instructions and composing written work.
In mathematics, those early learners need to count to 100 by ones and tens, identify shapes, and solve some addition and subtraction problems.
While these standards may not be achieved in the first trimester of the academic year, they are required for promotion to the first grade. Students who achieve the standards early may move through the grade more quickly, Schroeter said.
Standards-based report cards are not yet fully developed for science and social studies. There are no national standards expected for other subjects such as physical education, music and art. Schroeter said Maine schools will use the 2007 Maine Learning Results as a model from which to develop standards for those content areas.
The report cards separate behavior attributes, such as citizenship and work habits, from academic learning. Schroeter said this was done in a effort to prevent those students who behave well from passing in content areas where they are not proficient. She said some students are already showing behavioral improvement, after seeing a clear explanation of how their ability to make progress in those areas effects their passage through the grades.
“We certainly want parents to know how the child is behaving, but we don’t want students to get high grades just because they behave well,” Schroeter said. “It’s working, because kids know they can do better academically by changing their behavior.”
As students move into middle and high school, report cards will separate courses with lists of standards for the various areas of study. Report cards will comprise three pages, which Schroeter said is already the practice in many Maine high schools. The ultimate goal is what she referred to as a “proficiency-based diploma.”
In response to concern from the board as to how colleges respond to report cards that do not include letter grades and rank in class, Schroeter said at least 27 U.S. States already use the new diplomas and most institutions of higher learning no longer rely on grade point average and standardized test results to determine a student’s admission status.
Citing international students and homeschoolers, she said colleges are looking for a “projection about how well they will perform.”
Board member Darryl Goldrup asked how Schroeter planned to familiarize parents with the new evaluation system.
“They’re having a lot of frustration about not being able to quantify,” Goldrup said.
Schroeter said she hoped to do hold parent information sessions some time next year.
Board member Lynda Letteny asked how the new system would impact the publication of an honor roll.
Medomak Middle School Principal Ben Vail said the recently ended trimester was the first time in recent years he has not published an honor roll.
“I didn’t get a single call,” he said. Vail said he resurrected an Excellence Award to acknowledge superior work, awarding certificates in every content area to those students whose work was at or above the standard for those subjects.
For more information about RSU 40’s new standards-based reporting system, contact Director of Instruction Kimberly Schroeter at 785-2277 ext. 235.
