Mom, dad — how am I doing in school?
That’s a question parents who have been supervising their children during the remote learning initiative may be asked in the coming days as June grades are finalized.
This week, School District 43 laid out its plan for final grades and revealed that parents, as well as students, will be given input into this year’s report card.
And parent input will be key as the majority of parents plan to keep their children home from school in the coming weeks.
“Parents are our partners. they are a teacher as well as a parent,” explained Paul McNaughton, director of instruction, who said teachers will be communicating via phone call, email, Zoom, FreshGrade, and even face-to-face with parents for thoughts on their child’s education.
While students typically reflect on their work, parent input is new and considered an important part of the grading process as school winds down for the year, McNaughton said.
Parents will be asked a series of questions, which have already been ‘field-tested’ among SD43 parents.
“The answer to those questions that the parents and students provide will give us rich information to put into the report card,” principal Andrea McComb told trustees during a Zoom board meeting.
School work for kindergarten to Grade 8 has focused on literacy, numeracy, physical and mental wellness and effort for “passion projects” and non-academic activities will be considered, making for a relatively straightforward grading process because younger students already had covered 70% of the course material.
The informormation comes as schools resume classroom instruction this Monday, June 1.
CATCH-UP TO COME
For high school students in Grade 9-12 who only completed 25% of their course when schools closed, course content had to be adjusted.
That meant teachers had to come up with key concepts students must master for a specific course, with the expectation that gaps would be filled in the next level of the course, if necessary.
“We had students start the class in February, we had to figure out a way to give them the key learning they needed to have and we had to make sure we had a support structure to help those students who were struggling,” McNaughton told The Tri-City News.
Students will be graded based on how well they master those key concepts and those who move on to post-secondary may have a little catching up to do.
It’s hoped that professors and instructors will do some review, but McNaughton acknowledged the district has no control over that.
"They may have to alter their instruction a little bit knowing the students would not have had all that learning as they would in a normal year.”
For students who don’t engage at all during remote learning, efforts will be made to reach out to them but if the work isn’t done, students may be getting incomplete reports this week as passing requires completion of coursework before spring break and during remote learning, as well.
Find out more here.
