As school returns to the Mifflin County School District this year, students, teachers, and

parents will be greeted with a new grading system for students in kindergarten through third

grade. The district is transitioning to a new reporting system called Curriculum Based Grading.

“The goal of our new reporting system is to provide parents with specific academic feedback

about their child,” said James Estep, Superintendent.

The district began this process a year ago by designing the reporting system with a team of

educators who reviewed past grading practices. Jennifer Mitchell, Coordinator of School Wide

Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Development noted, “When we asked parents,

teachers, and students what an 80% meant, most reported back a ‘C.’ But, what does the

child know?” Additionally, the former grading practices themselves were examined. “Many

grade books were made up of items that reflected effort and participation. While these items

still need to be reported, they do not accurately reflect if a child can or cannot perform

necessary academic functions. This prompted the desire and need for a change.”

With the new reporting system, teachers will produce report cards four times per year that

include sub-skills in each content area. These sub-skills are yearlong learning targets that

children are expected to perform at a given grade level. Instead of a parent seeing, “Math”

they may see “Ability to use four basic math functions to solve problems.” Teachers will

then report on these sub-categories. The number of sub-categories varies by grade level using

a system that has the following scale: M - Mastery (student has mastered the year-long target),

P- Progressing (student is progressing towards mastery), N- Not making expected progress

(Student is falling behind the anticipate progress). Some categories may be left blank which

means that the concept has yet to be taught. “A student who is making progress is still

experiencing success. Students may not master concepts until the fourth marking period, and

that is ok. Some of our learning targets, or skills, take an entire year to teach,” noted Mitchell.

The new system of reporting will allow students to experience growth and not get penalized

for it. In a traditional grading system, if students were to receive one low grade in a marking

period, it would doom them. With a curriculum based system, growth is fostered and students

have the opportunity to show what they know instead of feeling anxious over grades.

The district has posted the new report cards on their website. Found on the website is also an

informational handout for parents who will find the Frequently Asked Questions section

helpful. Each parent will have an opportunity to sit down and discuss the new report card and

reporting system with their child’s teacher at the conclusion of the first marking period.

November 10th is Parent Conference Day. Parents will be presented with their child’s report

card at the time of their conference for students in kindergarten through third grade. Students

in grades 4 and 5 will continue to use the traditional grading scale and will transition to the

Curriculum Based Grading system during the 2017-2018 school year. During parent

conferences on November 10 teachers will discuss the transition for grades 4 and 5 during

individual meeting times.

STANDARDS/CURRICULUM BASED GRADING FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What is standards based grading? Standards-Based or Curriculum Based grading is a systematic approach to reporting student learning. The Mifflin County School District’s elementary curriculum standards are aligned to state standards and content. Our curriculum standards represent year-long developmentally appropriate targets for students. What is a standard? A standard is a particular learning target. Standards are developmentally appropriate skills, tasks, or performance measures a student is asked to perform or achieve. Is this going to require more assessments for my child? The Mifflin County School District has realigned all assessments this summer. We have removed assessments at many grade levels to ensure that students weren’t being over assessed. However, it is also important for teachers to continue to get feedback from students in order to properly plan for each child’s needs. What is the goal of Standards Based Grading? The goal of this new system of student reporting is to give you, the parent/guardian, more detailed information about your child’s academic performance. Instead of getting one grade that reports a total average, you are going to receive detailed information about the specific learning goals (standards) your child has mastered or is working towards mastering. Parents/guardians can use this information to reinforce needed growth areas while at the same time building on the individual child’s strengths. How is Standards Based Grading different than traditional grading? Traditional grading systems are largely made up of non-academic scoring items. For example: effort, participation, homework completion, and attendance are a few of the areas that may be heavily relied upon in a traditional grading system. A standards based grading approach removes these items from grading. Instead, teachers are reporting only the child’s academic performance in this type of reporting.

Why aren’t these grades averaged? The system of averaging students grades does not accurately represent how a child performs in a given area. For example, if a child struggles in Oral Reading Fluency for the entire year and scores the following on the marking period grades: 75, 75, 85, 90; in a traditional grading system this child would have received an overall score of 81% or an average. In a standards based grading system, the child depending on his/her most updated score in oral reading fluency, would have that measure reported. A standards based grading system doesn’t penalize a student for growing. Instead, Standards Based Grading reflects the growth of a child, not just the achievement. What is the new grading scale? M = Mastery - The child had mastered this standard and year-long learning target. P = Progressing - The child is working towards mastery. N = Not making expected progress - The child’s progress is falling behind his/her peers. My child typically received high grades, should I expect my child to receive all M’s? Mastery means that the child is able to perform the year long learning standard repeatedly and successfully. It will be difficult for a child to earn mastery early on. In Mathematics, for example, a standard may be , “Understands and applies the four basic functions when problem solving.” A child may master a portion of this standard early on in the year, like addition. However, the child still is yet to learn subtraction, multiplication, and division. Therefore, a P would be given for this marking period as the child is progressing towards mastery but is yet to get exposure to the other concepts. Why don’t I see Special Area Subjects (Art, Music, Phys. Ed., Computer) on the first marking period report card? The special area subjects will be graded only in the second and fourth marking periods.

*THIS REPORT CARD IS ONLY HANDED OUT FOR MARKING PERIODS 2 & 4