When I first knew I was an "Insider"

When my oldest son entered first grade, we were informed that teachers would be piloting standards-based grading at his and one other elementary site in the district. I was pretty excited to learn about the switch, but I wasn't sure what that looked like for an elementary student. Having taught only high school students, I had a hard time wrapping my head around what kind of report card would be coming home that year.

Like many other parents, I attended the open house at the beginning of the school year, hoping to learn more. The multi-purpose room (a.k.a. cafeteria/gymnasium/auditorium) was pretty full for the 30-minute session that was scheduled for us to hear from the principal before the classroom visits began. He started with a quote from Grace Murray Hopper - "The most dangerous phrase in the language is 'We've always done it this way.'" In a community where excellent grades are an expectation of many parents, the shift in practice he was about to explain needed a strong setup. He continued the presentation with an interactive "quiz" in which he asked the parents to weight a hypothetical set of test questions so that their total points would equal 100.

As he gave time for the parents in the audience to think and divvy up the points, my neighbor leaned over on the cafeteria table bench and asked me what I thought. I told her it wasn't really fair because I "knew the answer." You see, I had studied up on standards-based grading for a professional pursuit of my own, so I knew where this exercise was heading. I felt like I had insider trading information and I wasn't sure if I should share it or let her make the discovery as the presentation continued. I pointed out to her the type of thinking that was required of each question - multiple choice recognition, short answer recall, compare and contrast, etc. She started to formulate her thoughts, and the principal resumed his speech.

As he led us through scenarios of fictitious classroom teachers who each assigned different point values to the same test questions and how those values affected the student's grade, you could literally look around the room to see open mouths, nodding, confusion, and even a little bit of outrage that this could be allowed to happen. The principal had made his point and set up the teachers well for the impending visits from parents whose children would now be fairly graded in their classrooms.

Of course, this was a 30-minute introduction to standards-based grading, and my account of this night is a memory from 2.5 years ago, but it was enough to make me want to resume my research in the area. Perhaps I knew the type of answer he was looking for, but I still had so much to learn.  When I arrived home and recounted the evening to my husband, he said something like, "So our kids are never going to get straight As?" I cringed a little and realized he was really the one who should have attended that night. 

I have known for some time now that I possess some fascinating insider information. This blog is my way of sharing it with you.