Oskaloosa Adopts New Standardized Report Cards

George Daily Auditorium

As the school year comes to a close, it becomes necessary to reflect on the good and the bad in order to make forward advances in our education system. At an informative meeting at Oskaloosa High School Monday night, Oskaloosa Supt. Russ Reiter stated that teachers are given too much flexibility within the curriculum. He also talked about how we need to improve the communication between parent and teachers, as well as the communication between teachers teaching the same curriculum. These issues are hoped to be addressed by the new standardized report cards.

The School Board voted earlier this year to approve the idea of going towards a standardized report card and changing the GPA configuration for incoming freshman classes. The standardized report card gives the parent additional information to what is already on our current report cards. The students will be graded on multiple Grade Level Benchmarks(GLB). A GLB is a clearly defined statement describing what teachers want students to know and be able to demonstrate. In a given class per trimester, a student might have one or two GLB or possibly even five to six. An example of a 1st grade math GLB would be that the student will identify and count money. An example of a high school Biology GLB would be that students will compare, contrast, and diagram the cells of living organisms.

In addition to the overall letter grade, the student will also receive a grade for each Grade Level Benchmark. In order to distinguish the overall grade from the grade of the GLB , the GLB will be given a number code(1-4). A Four means that the student exceeds expectations while, in contrast, a one means that the student did not meet the expectations. In addition to the two grades that we already discussed, there will be a third grade that appears on the report card. The third grade assesses the work habits of the student. Work habits are behaviors contributing to student learning. Work habits will be reported to provide parents with information about behaviors related to performance. Examples of work habits include but are not limited to: Turns in work on time, makes good use of time, listens well, and follows directions.

In an interview with Oskaloosa School District Curriculum Director, Dr. Mary Cooksley, I asked her if a students work habit grade would directly affect the overall grade of the student. She said ‘no’ and that the reason they included work habit grades were to isolate those behaviors that contribute to learning from the actual performance on the content. It also helps keep parents informed. When I asked for teacher opinions at the high school in regards to the new system, many faculty members said that they thought the process was being a little too rushed and that they needed another year to fully prepare. Supt. Reiter admitted, at the meeting on Monday, that they were a little farther behind then what they had hoped. He said it was due to a good cause. That good cause is that there is much conversation on what to do when a student fails a GLB. When I asked Dr. Cooksley the “what if” question she said that there is no current policy, to be put in effect, if a students fails a GLB. She says it will stay ‘policy free’ for next year and they hope to have a policy for the following school year after the new report cards take effect. She thinks that students could be involved in that discussion, as well as parents.

All acedemic areas will report out with the new standars with the exception of music adnd physical education. The GLB for music will be devolped next year. The administration is still trying to figure out how to apply the 1-4 coding system into the P.E. ciriculum. Dr. Cooksley says it would be very hard and it is possible that they might find a different way to report out the information.

The overall letter grade of the student in high school will be on a different GPA scale starting for next years freshman. The goal is to separate those who “barely” get an ‘A’ and those who get a strong ‘A’ The grading scale is as follow.

Letter Grade Percentage GPA

• A 94%-100% 4.0
• A- 90%-93% 3.67
• B+ 87%-89% 3.33
• B 84%-86% 3
• B- 80%-83% 2.67
• C+ 77%-79% 2.33
• C 74%-76% 2
• C- 70%-73% 1.67
• D+ 67%-69% 1.33
• D 64%-66% 1.0
• D- 60%-63% .67
• F 59% and below .33

As you can see there will be some major changing in our grading system that will take place next year. You might wonder who or what is behind it. I asked Dr. Cooksley if the government is dictating this standardized movement. She said that to her best knowledge, the government is not involved with the changes that are taking place. She says that the government would advocate for the “movement” but they are not dictating the movement.

For parents who are interested in finding out more on the new system, you are encouraged to attend another informative meeting at the elementary school on Monday April 18 at 6:30 P.M. For those unable to attend you can find the powerpoint presentation and other resources and information at http://www.oskaloosa.k12.ia.us/staff/curriculum/Site/Grade_Level_Benchmark_Reporting.html.