Proficiency Grading: Teachers Reveal All

Proficiency Grading: Teachers Reveal All
The real opinion of the teachers

By: Teresa Shaw and Hannah Lyons

A Proficiency-based grading rubric in which most teachers in
Stoller Middle School are now using.

             Students gather in Stoller Middle School with mixed feelings during the first day. Some, are coming with a gigantic grin on their faces. Some, on the other hand, are coming in with frowns, already missing summer. What awaits for both the students and teachers is a new challenge. Yes, a challenge that has taken a turn in what everyone has taken for granted; the school's grading system. Instead of being the traditional style, give A's or B's, the new grading system, called the Proficiency Grading, has ensured to give students and parents a better understanding on how the student is doing in school compared to just a regular "A". Being fairly abrupt though, students, parents, and teachers in particular have struggled with this new grading system. Some students have clearly given up on this new system due to the immense differences. Others have taken a liking to the Proficiency grading, saying that it sounds better than what they would get as a usual letter grade. What people haven't thought about this grading system are the people who shape and give the grades out - the teachers themselves. When we interviewed the teachers for their opinion, the majority of them had mixed feelings about it. "It would be better if it was mixed" Ms. Hauth, and 8th grade teacher in Blue Hall stated. "Proficiency grading has its good points and bad points. The good thing about it is that it tells more than what an "A" is. The bad point of it is that it's hard to understand and enforce to students. The only reason why the students dislike it is because they don't understand it enough." she exclaims. Mr. Badyrka, an 8th grade teacher in Red Hall, agrees with this as well. "I think the proficiency has it's good and bad points. It's good because students get to understand what their grades really mean and retake and improve on targets as well. The bad part about it is that it's hard to use and apply. I don't think it's any better than the traditional system, it could fix a lot of points, but it has its qualities." he answered.

           Some teachers though have a more negative view of this grading system. “I think they (the teachers) need to give an actual buy-in. First of all, what are we (the teachers) preparing the kids for? If highschool teachers are still using the traditional system, we’re really using this grading system is useless.” A teacher claims. “I think that we should revert back to the traditional system, but look back to the targets so the kids could understand the targets.” Together with that, some teachers refuse to cooperate with the new grading system—saying that the system in which the principal has provided them unusable, and slow—reverting back to the traditional grading system. “Some teachers just transition the Proficiency-based gradng system back to the traditional one; giving a PHP a 5 and so forth. If we’re going to go back to the old system, what’s the point?” an anonymous teacher exclaims.

           The students themselves though have their own opinions about this abrupt grading system. "Even though grades are supposed to raise with this new grading, my grades (and a lot of my friends as well) have been dropping instead. The targets, math in particular, are harder to reach. It's almost impossible to get a PHP now!" Karen, an 8th grader in Blue Neighborhood exclaims. "I don't think this grading is fair. It's making the students frustrated, the parents frustrated, and even the teachers frustrated! Why did we have to change our old system in which we're so used to anyways?" she demands. Katherine, an 8th grader in Green Hall, differs from Karen's opinion though, claiming that the Proficiency has not dropped her grades nor raised them-they have just stayed the same. "I think that the Proficiency-based grading is okay. I like how we're able to redo stuff whenever we want. The only part I want to fix though is how PHP, or Highly Proficient, is so hard to get. We should fix it so that we don't have to get all of the answers correct in order to get an "A".

        The internal debate about the Proficiency grading system still remains to continue in Stoller Middle School. Does it actually help the students do better? Even the teachers are unsure about the improvement that it's making. What they do know for sure though is that we need to make a change in it; to make it easier to understand for parents, students, and even teachers and to also make the program, in which they have been given to give the grades, easier to use as well. The only fact that lies in this issue is that everyone is still baffled at this point of time. The choice to run back to the traditional grading or to embrace the current change though, is still open in the hands of both the teachers and students in Stoller Middle School.