Sun Archives
- Nevada students score poorly in reading tests (6-19-2003)
- Schools not reaching goals(10-10-2003)
Beyond the Sun
The policy was straightforward. For every day that homework was turned in late, teachers at Bob Miller Middle School would take 10 percent off the student’s grade for the assignment.
“The bright kids figured it out right away,” Miller Principal Tam Larnerd said. “A 90 percent is still an A. ”
So in 2006-07, Larnerd instituted a new policy at the Green Valley campus: Students in accelerated classes were docked 25 percent off an assignment’s grade for every day it was late. The 10 percent rule held in the regular classes. In 2007-08 the penalty in a few regular classes was bumped up to 25 percent.
“Once we have a few years’ data in front of us we can compare,” Larnerd said. “The goal isn’t to punish kids; it’s to help motivate them to do their very best, every day.”
The district has general regulations governing grading policies, but there is considerable flexibility — and variation — among schools and regions. To better determine what educators are doing and what’s working best, the district has about 60 schools participating in pilot studies of grading policies. Larnerd’s homework policy is one of those studies.
The projects include schools raising the bottom of the grading scale, so that the F starts at 50 percent, rather than zero. Others include more creative approaches to evaluations. At Sandy Miller Elementary School, the traditional letter grade in reading and writing has been replaced with written narratives of each student’s performance. Teachers taking part in the studies receive a stipend from the district’s central office because of the extra work involved.
Karlene McCormick-Lee, associate superintendent of the district’s Superintendents Schools region, which includes magnet programs and empowerment campuses, is overseeing the pilot programs. She has also formed an advisory committee of students, parents and staff to recommend changes to the district’s grading policy.
Changes to grading policies should grow out of a collaborative process, McCormick-Lee said. “If you expect people to buy into it, there needs to be extensive conversation.”
At Thurman White Middle School, it doesn’t appear such conversations took place before the vice principal told teachers to raise all failing quarter grades to at least 59 percent, increasing the odds that low-performing students will have high enough scores to pass the semester.
“That seems like a fairly substantial educational decision,” McCormick-Lee said. “Whether it was right or wrong isn’t for me to say. I’m more concerned that the collaborative process seems to have been ignored.”
Clark County School Board member Sheila Moulton, who sat in on the grading committee’s last meeting, agreed.
“It’s totally unacceptable,” said Moulton, who added she planned to raise the issue with her board colleagues and ask staff for a report. “You have to know what the rules are before you start, and you can’t change in the middle of the game.”
At Sandy Miller Elementary, Principal Anne Grisham said the written narratives pilot study has already been a learning experience, even though it’s been in place for only one semester. Writing the narratives has turned out to be much more time consuming than anyone anticipated, Grisham said. But the effort has not gone unnoticed — or unappreciated — by parents.
Most parents have said they really liked it,” Grisham said. “They thought they knew more about how their child was actually doing.”
Regardless of the pilot programs’ eventual outcomes, “it’s already caused us to take a hard look at our grading practices and have honest communication among the staff members,” Grisham said. “That’s powerful stuff.”
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