by James C. Sherlock
Virtually all parents pay close attention to their children’s report cards.
That is, however, a fruitless exercise if the grades do not reflect actual learning.
I spoke the other day to a senior school official who related to me his own story. One of his children, a second grader, brought home straight A’s in math.
Yet this parent, with a Ph.D. in Education, and his wife, herself a second grade teacher, knew for a fact that the child did not yet understand math at her second grade level.
Another friend with credentials similar to those parents reminded me today that teachers test what they teach. In her experience, the teacher likely did not mislead on purpose. An alternate explanation is that the teacher was not testing to the state standard, but rather to her own.
Those two parents had the education and professional experience to recognize and address the issue with their child. Many parents do not.
It is time to find out how extensive this problem is in Virginia.
SOL results can give an indication of grade inflation, but they by definition are time-late. They reflect that a kid either is or is not performing at grade level, but are given very late in the school year.
We need to define the extent of the problem of grade inflation before we can address it.
An outlier. Albemarle County Public Schools is experimenting this year with a new grading policy .
Homework will no longer be counted toward students’ final grades, nor will behaviors such as attendance.
One school official said:
As we continue to roll this out, as we continue to make this work, it’s ultimately going to make for a less stressful environment for our students.
Interesting. And aggressively positive this early in an “experiment/”
But by definition that policy puts parents in the dark about their children’s progress:
…until they’re ready for those summative moments in that test or that project where they’re showing what they know.
“Summative moments” sounds suspiciously like “high stakes testing” against which the left rails. The self-proclaimed “most antiracist school district in Virginia” should pick a side on that issue and stick with it.
Perhaps the Virginia Department of Education can assist Albemarle County by evaluating the results of that experiment.
But let’s move on.
Parental rights to information. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Code of Virginia give parents the right to inspect and review the student’s education records maintained by the school. That includes SOLs.
While at least one school division, Fairfax County Public Schools, is proactive about providing SOL results to parents, it is not clear how many others do that. And, as I wrote above, SOLs are time-late.
A recommendation. I recommend that the new Secretary of Public Instruction commission a survey of the grades awarded to students versus SOL results:
- in Albemarle County this year; and
- in the worst-performing schools in Virginia over the last three years before COVID.
Drill down to a level of granularity sufficient to determine if parents of a significant number of those children were misled into a false understanding of their child’s progress. Take whatever action is indicated by the results.
All Virginians support parental responsibility for assisting with their children’s education. Their ability to carry out that obligation, however, depends upon giving them accurate information.
We owe them that.
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