Muldown report cards no longer use letter grades

Muldown Elementary students and parents will notice a change in report cards when they are mailed out later this month. Traditional letter grades have been replaced in favor of a standards-based grading system.

Muldown made the switch to standards-based report cards this school year, as well as moving from quarter to trimester grading periods. Parents were introduced to the change at parent-teacher conferences earlier in the fall, but the first report cards don’t come out until the end of the trimester on Nov. 26.

Principal Linda Whitright said the overall reception of the new report card has been positive, but some parents did have questions about removing the traditional grading of an A, B or C.

“There’s a whole lot more information [on the new report card],” she said. “We could put an A or B on here, but what does that actually mean? What does the student know?”

The standards-based grading report card is based on the Montana Common Core standards that describe what a student should know at an identified point in time. Unlike a traditional report card that typically compares students to each other, a standards-based report card shows student progress toward content and performance standards.

Superintendent Kate Orozco said report cards at the middle and high schools will continue in their current format. However, the common core standards demand that all schools begin the process of assessing students differently in order to focus on students’ understanding and application of the skills and knowledge they learn, she noted.

Muldown’s new report card uses a rubric approach to provide information on student achievement. For most subjects, such as language arts and mathematics, students are scored based on a 1-3 scale for a number of categories. 1 stands for “not meeting standard,” 2 is “approaching standard” and 3 is “meeting standard.” Students can also receive a grade of NA, which stands for “not assessed” — this signifies that the particular concept hasn’t yet been addressed in class.

Students are given a 1-3 score for several specific areas. As an example, a student would be evaluated in the language arts category for reading skills, writing, speaking, and listening and language. Within each of those categories, students are also given a score for more specific areas.

For example, on a third-grade report card, under the reading literature category, students are assessed on four areas including “Asks and answers questions about the text,” and “Retells stories and determines their main message, lesson, or moral.”

Physical education, art, music and similar subjects are assessed with grades of satisfactory, improving and needs improvement.

Students are given grades at the end of each trimester. The expectations change from one marking period to the next as students move toward the end of grade-level expectations.

Whitright explained that while a student could receive a “meeting standard” grade of 3 in the first trimester, it would be very unlikely to have all 3s in the first trimester because the report card reflects the goals of the entire school year.

“When the report card says they are able to do this [skill], that is at the end of the grade level,” she said. “That is what they should know and be able to do at the end of the year.”

Whitright said the report card, which also contains a comment section, is designed so that teachers and parents can ensure students are on track to meet the end-of-year standards.

“The conversations need to continue with teachers and parents, so parents understand what’s happening,” Whitright said.