Kentucky Teacher

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

First-grade teacher Marty White helps Nicolas Phillips sort beans to illustrate addition and subtraction problems at Chandlers Elementary School (Logan County). Photo by Amy Wallot, Jan. 9, 2012

If a team of professors from the University of Kentucky’s College of Education had its way, Kentucky students would be graded only on their academic achievement – not whether or not they turn in all their homework or bring in tissues for extra credit.

The three have worked with dozens of school districts in the state and published an article calling for schools to use standards-based grading rather than a single percentage or letter grade. Standards-based grading requires teachers to list individual areas of knowledge within a subject area or course and assign a level of proficiency or mastery to each area for each student. It also requires splitting grades into academic factors, such as assessment results, and process factors, such as behavior and turning in homework.

Education Professor Thomas Guskey stresses the increased honesty and meaning this brings to grading. With traditional approaches to grading that combine everything into a single symbol, a student may ace the Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) exams in calculus, for instance, but get a C in the subject because he didn’t do the homework, Guskey said. Another student also may get a C by turning in all the homework and being compliant with teacher requests without learning the subject and doing poorly on tests, he said. Read the full story

Kentucky schools and educators earned cash prizes recently for their participation in the fourth and final week of the Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning (TELL) Kentucky survey.

The winners are:

• School: Horizons Academy, Nelson County school district
• Educator: Prichard Elementary, Carter County school district
• School districts with 50 percent or higher participation: Boyd County (87.87 percent) and Erlanger-Elsmere Independent (91.16 percent)

Horizons Academy will receive $1,000 for the school’s use. At Prichard Elementary, a random drawing will be held to select a educator from the school to receive $1,000. Boyd County and Erlanger-Elsmere Independent each will receive $1,000 for the districts’ use. Read the full story

Miles Elementary goes to standards-based grading

By Matthew Tungate
matthew.tungate@education.ky.gov

Della Kemper helps 4th-grade student Chase Gilbert with fire safety questions during Kemper’s health class at Miles Elementary School (Erlanger-Elsmere Independent) April 26, 2010. Miles Elementary is going into its second year using a standards-based grading system that replaces traditional grades A-D and F with standards set by teachers and students. Photo by Amy Wallot

Yet teachers and the principal say students and their parents are better informed about what the children know – and what skills and information they still need to master.

Bryant Gillis, in his seventh year as principal, said he never figured out in his 36 years in education what an A really means. Read the full story