By Peter Elacqua
Staff Writer
MARLBORO – Administrators in the Marlboro K-8 School District have announced changes regarding the ways in which pupils will be graded beginning with the 2016-17 school year.
Earlier this year, administrators changed the way pupils are graded after parents sought changes in that area. At the time, administrators said they would address making changes for the 2015-16 school year and the 2016-17 school year.
At a Board of Education meeting in May, Superintendent of Schools Eric Hibbs discussed changes to science and social studies classes at Marlboro’s two middle schools.
Hibbs said administrators will eliminate the test and quizzes buckets, a grading category within a specific content area, from science and social studies. Those buckets will be replaced by an assessment bucket, which counts for 40 percent of a student’s grade in science and 45 percent in social studies. Teachers will administer a minimum of three assessments per category per marking period. Tests currently count for 40 percent of a student’s grade in both subjects and quizzes count for 25 percent in social studies and 15 percent in science.
Hibbs said administrators wanted to promote more project-based learning so science and social studies would have an applications bucket which counts for 40 percent in science and 35 percent in social studies. Teachers will give a minimum of three projects for this bucket. This bucket would replace the supplemental bucket, which included projects and lab assignments and counted for 25 percent of a student’s grade.
The remainder of grading for science will remain the same with common assessments counting for 10 percent of a student’s grade, independent practice counting for 5 percent and online programs counting for 5 percent.
For social studies, common assessments would be replaced by one project-based assessment that counts for 10 percent of a student’s grade. Independent practice and online programs will continue to count for 5 percent each.
At a June 28 board meeting, Hibbs presented changes to math, English/language arts, written expression, literacy and grades one through five science and social studies.
First, Hibbs discussed math for grades six through eight. He said tests will continue to count for 40 percent of a student’s grade. Quizzes will now count for 30 percent of a grade instead of 25 percent. The supplemental and online buckets will be combined into one bucket and count for 20 percent. Independent work will continue to count for 5 percent. Common assessments will count for 5 percent instead of 10 percent of a grade for each subject in the school district.
A student will take at least two tests, two quizzes, two supplemental and online assessments and one common assessment per marking period.
For literacy for grades six through eight, tests will remain at 40 percent, quizzes will remain at 20 percent, supplemental assessments will count for 20 percent instead of 15 percent and independent and online assessments will each remain at 5 percent.
A student will take at least two tests, two quizzes, two supplemental assessments and one common assessment per marking period.
For written expression for grades six through eight, tests will remain at 40 percent, quizzes will remain at 25 percent, supplemental assessments will increase from 20 percent to 25 percent and writing tasks and independent assessments will each remain at 5 percent.
A student will take at least two tests, two quizzes, two supplemental assessments and one writing task per marking period.
For first and second grade science and social studies, there will be no common assessments.
Second grade science and social studies will eliminate number grades and grade on an O-S-U scale where O indicates outstanding, S indicates satisfactory and U indicates unsatisfactory. Administrators said science and social studies will not be taught during the same marking period. Science will be taught during two marking periods and social studies will be taught during the other two marking periods.
For first and second grade literacy, tests will remain at 45 percent, quizzes will increase from 25 percent to 35 percent and supplemental assessments will be at 20 percent.
A student will take at least two tests, two quizzes and two supplemental assessments per marking period.
First and second grade written expression will have a test and a process writing assignment that will count for 45 percent, quizzes will count for 25 percent, supplemental assessments will count for 25 percent and writing tasks will count for 5 percent.
A student will take at least two tests and process writing assignments, two quizzes, two supplemental assessments and one writing task assignment per marking period.
First and second grade math will have tests count for 40 percent, quizzes count for 25 percent and supplemental assessments count for 25 percent instead of 20 percent.
A student will take at least two tests, two quizzes, two supplemental assessments and one common assessment per marking period.
Third through fifth grades will have common assessments in math and English/language arts and will be worth 5 percent of a student’s grade. Science and social studies will be taught in different marking periods.
Board member Michael Lilonsky asked Hibbs why administrators were not implementing a maximum number of assessments.
“In my opinion, it is not productive to set maximums,” Hibbs said. “Somebody may want to give 10 (assessments) and they might have a good reason why. If we have an excessive amount of tests, we will address it.”
In addition to grading changes, administrators addressed Achieve3000 (differentiated instruction for nonfiction reading and writing) for grades six through eight. The weight of the grade will remain at 5 percent under online programs.
Students will have the opportunity to retake online activities if they would like an opportunity to raise a grade. Administrators said that only the highest grade will count. This will occur at the building level and will be implemented by the principal. Information on the specifics of the process will be disseminated during the school year by each middle school principal, according to district administrators.