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Question
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My children's school division has recently started using a reporting rubic instead of traditional letter or percentage grading. Although I am not opposed to this system necessarily, I am finding it difficult to determine where my children stand with their learning. I understand that this new assessment based system is probably less troubling for the children but I wonder how effective it is for their futures. Do you know of any universities/colleges that accept this system when applying to post secondary education? How do we know as parents where our children are falling behind in their learning if basically there can be a 30 – 40 % (if you equate it to the old percentage based marks) difference within the four options given to assess a child’s performance? I guess I am just trying to understand how this system helps them in the long run. An example another parent gave me was as follows:
If I have to have surgery and I have a choice between two doctors; Doctor 1 has graduated from Yale Sum Cum Laude with outstanding grades and doctor 2 has several letters saying what a great guy he is or how well he performs appendectomies, which would I choose to operate on the tumour on my spine?
I had a hard time arguing against this above scenario and I am looking for more information so as not to be uneducated about how this new system can help and/or hinder my children’s education? If you could provide feedback regarding this area of assessment based grading In would really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance,
Nicole
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2010-01-21
Nicole |
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The
Grade
Doctor
says:
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If there are clear descriptions of the levels used in the reporting rubric it should be easy to
tell where your children stand with their learning. What each child, parent and teacher
needs to know is where the child is relative to proficiency and this is the value of rubrics
when they are well written. Universities implicitly accept this system because it is a level
system like A B C D and F but it is better because the levels have real meaning unlike
rather meaningless letter/percentage scales. It is also worth noting that universities
certainly accept Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate, which are level
systems that do not use percentages (AP 5 levels, IB 7).
I have some difficulty with the example the other parent gave you because ‘Sum Cum
Laude” is part of a level system and the contrast is so weak that it really is not like the
level systems that most standards-based schools use today. Ultimately what this is about
is that words (carefully chosen and well written) have real meaning whereas numbers at
best have symbolic meaning.
I hope this helps but if it doesn’t please ask another question.
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