HUUSD Grading Limitations - Grades 7-10
The HUUSD school board will meet this coming Wednesday, June 28th at 6:00 in the Harwood library. On the Agenda are 4 questions which are to be addressed regarding Harwood's past and future proficiency based grading system affecting grades 7 - 10. The questions were initially asked to help ensure next year's grading system is successful given the problems experienced last year.
Below are the 4 questions and background for each. If interested please attend the meeting. The Administration and Board are under the impression that nobody cares about these issues since few have noted any concerns; My guess is that nobody was aware of these issues.
Please attend the meeting if possible and/or express your viewpoint with your school board rep. and the HUUSD administration.
1) Why has Harwood decided not to implement assignment level gradient grading (interim grades between Proficient and Advanced) as recommended by the Great Schools Partnership and successfully demonstrated by its exemplar school Casco Bay and numerous Vermont schools. Please differentiate between numeric grading and gradient grading (e.g. 3.0, 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4.0) as necessary.
BACKGROUND - HUUSD uses a 4 scale non-gradient assignment scoring system (1, 2, 3, 4) even though its educational consulting group, Great Schools Partnership (GSP) recommends that schools implement gradation (e.g. 3.0, 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4.0). Gradation helps student motivation and provides colleges additional information since it better shows a student's potential. It should also be noted that without gradation, it is impossible for a student to have a final course grade greater than 3.0 unless they receive at least one PERFECT 4.0 (4.0 is considered honors level and very difficult to achieve)
2) Why is Harwood convinced that its transcript will be acceptable to colleges when written documentation from actual College Admissions officers say that Harwood's transcript with limited gradation puts student's at a disadvantage?
BACKGROUND - Letters from college admission offices have said that Harwood's limited grading disadvantages students putting admissions and scholarships at risk. Harwood's GSP consultant has stated that its most exemplar school, Casco Bay High School, once used Harwood's future 4 scale numeric system but changed it to include the additional gradation because colleges told them to do so. To be clear, colleges admissions have stated that they will do their best to work with whatever transcript is provided, however the majority of colleges have also said that additional gradation benefits the student and their chances are improved for admissions and merit scholarships. This includes our very own UVM.
3) What is Harwood doing to minimize risk to ensure that next year's PBL scoring and grading system will be successful? What school if any is Harwood using as a model for its combination of grading, software, report card, etc. to help ensure unexpected results do not occur?
BACKGROUND - Last year the administration was repeatedly asked which model school Harwood was following to ensure a successful grading implementation. The community was always reassured that "lots of schools" were doing as Harwood was doing. However, Harwood's GSP consultant confirmed that no other school had a similar grading system, especially noting the aggregated scoring, which have been so confusing for many. He went on to justify the system by saying "somebody has to go first" or nobody would ever try anything new. The question is being asked because perhaps a proven system would be better for Harwood and its students.
4) How will Harwood address the fact that PowerLaw penalizes good grades especially at the start of the school year and penalizes any performance dip. What schools has Harwood spoken to who have a similar implementation and utilize PowerLaw?
BACKGROUND - Next year grades 7 - 10 will use an extremely complex mathematical formula called "PowerLaw". Many schools, including most recently our neighbor CVU, have since turned away from PowerLaw because there are too many factors which can make it inaccurate. In a nutshell, PowerLaw rewards ever increasing scores. PowerLaw however penalizes high performance early in the year, it requires the final assignment grade to be the highest grade for optimal grading, and it does not allow for scoring dips due to illness or other. CVU's Director of Curriculum provided a list of the significant issues that they found with PowerLaw. The list has been provided to the administration
Please consider going to this meeting if you have children in the high school or middle school student!!!.
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