New report cards aim for more complete evaluation

By: Matt Chiappardi
HIGHTSTOWN – Traditional letter grades are now passe in the East Windsor Regional School District’s elementary schools.
      Unveiled at this week’s board meeting by Debbie Feaster, the district’s director of K-5 curriculum, was a new design for report cards that dumps the mainstay grading system that assigns grades A through F for particular subjects.
      In its place will be a five-page report that breaks subjects down into specific curricular areas and evaluates students on a scale of 1-4 for each one, with the highest being the best.
      For example, instead of a simple letter grade for mathematics, the new report card will give a separate evaluation for probability, geometry, mathematical processes, numerical operations, and patterns and algebra. For each of those, students are also evaluated under several other subheadings that measure items such as effort, skills, and improvement.
      "This provides a more accurate picture of how students are performing and if they’re meeting the standards," said Ms. Feaster.
      The new standards coincide with the core curriculum by which each New Jersey public school is mandated to evaluate their students through standardized testing.
      "The essential standards are now right there on the report card," said Ms. Feaster.
      The letter grades to which many people are accustomed and have been a hallmark of student evaluations for nearly a century don’t seem likely to be missed by district officials.
      "The traditional grading system is more subjective," said Ms. Feaster.
      "They aren’t really telling you anything about how a child is really doing," she added.
      Assistant Superintendent Michael Dzwonar agreed.
      "We’re deeply embedded in a grading system which really is arbitrary and meaningless," he said.
      "After you account for homework, attendance and participation, you really have 35 percent of a 100-percent assessment. That doesn’t give much data," he added.
      The only major concern from the school board about the new grading system came from Kennedy Paul.
      He said he is worried the new system, with only four numbers to evaluate students, will not provide as accurate an image of how a student is doing as letter grades that traditionally have five levels.
      "If my child gets a 3, is my child getting a 74 or a 90?" he asked.
      Ms. Feaster said the new grading system doesn’t correspond to letter grades. It is, instead, a "rubric" that indicates how well a teacher believes a student met the core curriculum standard, she added. The lowest evaluation is 1, indicating "minimum progress toward the standard." Four is the highest, meaning "consistently above the standard."
      Mr. Dzwonar defended the new report cards by reiterating his position that the old grading system is arbitrary and adding that, "this is what our teachers are already doing, you’re just not seeing it yet."
      The new report cards were designed by a committee of more than 30 teachers and district staff members this summer, said Ms. Feaster. It is something, she said, she’s been planning for more than a year.
      East Windsor Education Association President Ellen Ogintz, who was on the committee, said she "loved the new report cards."
      "Letter grades don’t reflect growth, this does," she added.
      Parents have yet to be formally notified about the report card changes, but the district is planning to hold an educational session for them sometime in October, said Ms. Feaster. School Board President Alice Weisman suggested another session also be held in Spanish.
      Ethel McKnight Elementary School PTA President Rodger Lippman was impressed when showed a prototype of the new report card Wednesday.
      "It seems like they’re giving parents a lot more information than before and that’s great," he said.
      "The more parents know, the better they can help their kids get a better education," he added.
      In other business, with the exception of a few early-year bus "snafus," Superintendent Ron Bolandi said the school year, which began Sept. 6, got off to a "phenomenal" start.
      The most pressing bus incident was reported by board member Susan Lloyd, who said a bus carrying Melvin H. Kreps Middle School students accidentally dropped them off at Hightstown High School. Those students were then told to walk back to the Kreps school, she added.
      Ms. Lloyd said the problem was addressed after a few cellphone calls were made to parents.
      Mr. Bolandi called the incident "wrong," and vowed to make some tweaks to the transportation system to correct what he called, "normal complaints," for this early in the year.
      "This is not a big deal," he said, "We’re looking forward to a positive and productive year."