The New Grading and Reporting Model - Explained!

Dear THS Community,

Several parents have called with questions about the new grading and reporting system. They asked questions like: “What is a hexter?”; “What is an “MNA?”; “What happened to D’s?; or “Why did we change anyway?” These are all great questions and I realized that while I covered these ideas at the information night, Back-to-School 2008, and in several newsletters and blog entries, I have never written down these ideas in one document that deals only with THS’ new grading and reporting system.

Let’s start with the question, “Why did we change?” This is a really good and valid question, and I totally understand why some are asking it. The system that we abandoned had been used by decades of US schools and did just fine, right? Well, in fact, that is very debatable. The system we are all used to (teachers award each student one grade to represent achievement in class, usually an A,B,C,D, or F) was created during the industrial age (1920s) and was designed to “sort and select” our students for their futures. “A” students, maybe the top 10% of the total, were those students that teachers decided were “university” material. These were the lucky few who were designated to become “professionals”. “B” students, maybe the next 20% of each class, were expected to become the “white collar” workers (factory managers, shop keepers, bank tellers, etc.) who would probably require some post-secondary training. Students below this line (the other 70%!) were not expected to pursue any further educational training and were designated to become the “blue collar” workers that would be the engine of our industrial economy. As you can see, the educators of our nation were expected to “sort and select” the best and brightest from the rest and it was perfectly acceptable for the majority of our nation’s students to either drop out of school before graduation to begin work, or at best to complete their schooling with a weak and incomplete education.

We no longer live in this industrial age. We are now in the information age, and there are fewer and fewer jobs available that require no post-secondary education. In fact, those of us in the educational field are being told by our state and national governments, as well as the leaders of the private sector, that we must strive to prepare each and every student (not just the top 30%) for post-secondary education or training. In other words, we have to strive to help every one of our pupils meet at least the level of basic mastery in each of his or her subjects. In order to achieve this, we are trying to use every weapon in our arsenal – including a new and improved grading and reporting system.

Research shows that grade reports are one of the most powerful tools a school can use to communicate individual learning and progress to students and parents. Unfortunately, the grades we have been issuing (in the traditional “A,B,C,D,F” model) sometimes gave a skewed picture of what was really going on in school. There were so many factors that teachers considered when compiling these grades (including things like test scores, participation, work completion, attitude, behavior, attendance, etc.) that the sum total really didn’t give any clear picture to the student or parent how much the student knew or how proficient the student was at the skills being taught. A student with poor knowledge, but a great work ethic and attitude might be awarded a “B”, while a student who know everything (as demonstrated on tests), but refused to turn in work and had a bad attitude might get a “D” or even an “F”. I’m not sure about you, but this isn’t what we call clear communication.

What we’ve decided to do at THS is divide the grade into two parts:

1) The Academic Grade, which reports the level of academic knowledge and skills, is designed to reflect the level of mastery the student has reached on each of the course content and skill standards assessed during that grading period. There are four levels of mastery that a student can earn. They are:

• A – Advanced Mastery = This student has shown that he or she understands both the content of the course and the skills being taught at advanced levels.
• B – Mastery = This student can demonstrate a solid understanding of the content of the course and the skills being taught as expected for their specific grade level.
• C – Basic Mastery = This student can demonstrate a basic understanding of the content of the course and has basic mastery of the skills being taught.
• MNA - Mastery Not Achieved = This student has not reached the basic level of understanding and skill development yet. He or she should continue to work on this material in order to be able to prove that he or she has indeed reached proficiency, and thus can be awarded credit for this class.

2) The Affective Grade, which reports how well the student is mastering those behaviors and attributes that lead to successful study, work habits, character, and civic responsibility, is the teacher’s way of communicating student mastery in these non-academic, yet very important, scholastic arenas. At THS, we use the 6 P’s as a model for assessing students’ affective skills. Following the same format as the academic evaluation, there are four levels of mastery that a student can earn. They are:

• A – Advanced Mastery = This student demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute always.
• B – Mastery = This student demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute most of the time.
• C – Basic Mastery = This student demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute some of the time.
• MNA - Mastery Not Achieved = This student rarely demonstrates mastery of this skill or attribute.

You will notice that we have eliminated the “D” from our evaluations. The reason for that is that students who performed at the “D” level in the past generally fell below the level that would be considered “proficient” and had not yet reached “basic mastery”. It goes against the basic philosophy of a standards-based system to allow students to receive credit in a class and advance to the next class before they have at least reached “basic mastery” in the proceeding class. In essence, those D’s are an “educational lie” and a form of social promotion. We aren’t giving “D’s” anymore at THS.

It is important to understand that in high school, grades only “count” twice a year. That is to say, colleges and universities never see hexter grades on the transcript – they only see the semester summative grade. Therefore, the hexter reports are really just “progress reports” – a formalized communication between the teacher and the student & parent to communicate how the student stands at with relation to achieving credit at the end of the semester in that course. If you child receives an “A” at the end of the 1st hexter, for instance, the teacher is telling you that so far your child has demonstrated advanced mastery in the content and skills goals student are expected to learn in that course during that semester. If your child receives an MNA, the teacher is sending you a strong message that your child has not currently demonstrating that he or she is on track to achieve at least basic mastery in this course. This is the time to contact the teacher and set up a plan to get your student back on track – schedule help during tutorial periods, after school appointments – this is the time to do whatever it takes to get back on track towards earning credit in the class.

Finally, we have moved to a “hexter” model simply to increase the number of times that teachers formally communicate achievement and progress to students and their parents/guardians. Instead of the old “quarter” system, where students are provided with formal evaluation and feedback four times a year, we have moved to a “hexter” system where the students are evaluated and provided with feedback six times per year. This has been a great burden to our teachers, but many have expressed that the added feedback has given their student and their parents more time to react if things aren’t going well. I will say that the number of students who didn’t receive credit in the first semester has been greatly reduced.

I know this document was long, but I hoped to answer many of your questions in one effort. I hope that you now feel even more comfortable with the new grading and reporting model at THS. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call me (369-1211) or contact me by email (acarter@telluride.k12.co.us) anytime.

Best regards,
Alex Carter