By Brandon T. Bisceglia
Kids in Orange’s elementary schools will be coming home with newly-designed report cards this marking period that educators expect will give parents a better sense of how their children are faring on a variety of levels.
The new report cards, launched Nov. 29, are part of an effort to align grades more closely with educational standards.
Two years in the making, the report cards will grade on a proficiency scale, or p-scale, of 0.0 to 4.0 for math and language arts. The changes are being rolled out in phases, and other subjects will continue to use the former scale until the district is ready to fully switch to the new system.
Director of Curriculum/Instruction & Personnel Dr.Evelyn Russo said the p-scales provide a much more accurate grading system than previous methods.
“It’s clear-cut, consistent, more reliable with no grey areas,” she said.
Russo explained that prior grading systems, such as the100-point scale or the antiquated A-F system, mixed “process with product” in assessing students’ work, leading to unclear or unfair grades.
Under the A-F system, for example, a student who struggles to understand the material at the beginning of the year but masters it by the end would still only get perhaps a C because everything is averaged together. Her grade would not properly reflect her progress.
“We want students to be able to take risks. We want them to be able to fail,” Russo explained. “We don’t want them to be afraid of failing.”
English and language arts grades will be laid out in a series of “strands,” each of which contains one or more “categories.” Math grades will be broken into “domains,” each of which has one or more “headings.”
Not all of the standards that are being graded will appear on the report cards. Instead, certain standards that are viewed as “priority”will be displayed, while others will be available in an accompanying resource.The definitions of the standards will also be available elsewhere.
Russo said these measures were taken to reduce confusion among parents.
“Standards in general are more difficult, and the definitions are written in educational jargon,” she said. “A lot of time was being spent by teachers to create the report cards, and parents didn’t see the value.”
The district wanted to make sure that parents were as comfortable with the new system as possible, so it has provided multiple videos and slides on the Orange Public Schools website to walk people through the changes. Additionally, Russo, Superintendent Vince Scarpetti and the school principals held live information sessions for the public at each of the four elementary schools throughout November.
“It gave people an opportunity to look, to talk with each other and to ask questions,” Russo said.
The next phase of the transition will focus on reporting standards for behavior and habits of mind. That phase is expected to be completed in the 2019-2020 school year. Phase 3 will then integrate the standards for such subjects as science, art and physical education. The final phase will tackle social studies and is expected to be complete by the last marking period of 2021.
Even with all the new information the report cards will provide, Russo pointed out that there are many other ways in which faculty and staff communicate with parents about their children, from parent-teacher conferences to phone calls to progress reports.
“I hope parents always feel comfortable enough to call or email us,” she said.