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Sup’s Vlog

Question – Standards Based Grading

Dear Superintendent Bates,

I enjoyed your last message about the Granite Way for Everyone, and agree that having a plan is essential to our progress. With the end of term fresh on my mind I have been thinking a lot about report cards and how they represent student’s progress toward their individual plan for leaning. I have never liked the A,B,C grading system because I don’t think it provides enough information for the teachers and the parents. I think our online grade-book for parents is a great tool to help dig a little deeper into the data behind the grade, but even that can be sometimes be vague. For example, if my child got a 70% on a math test as a parent I wouldn’t know enough from that score to help my child. What I want to know is which areas and concepts do I need to help my child with. For that reason I have been a big fan of standard-based grading, and my question is this: is the district exploring this approach to grading? What problems do you see with transitioning to such an approach, and how would those problems be addressed?

Response – Granite District began exploring standards-based grading almost four years ago. With our focus on teaching the Utah core standards and commitment to regularly assessing student mastery of them, communicating students’ progress toward that end via report card grades has been the logical next step. A secondary standards-based committee was convened in 2011 and has continued ever since. We decided to concentrate on junior and senior high schools first given the current disconnect between proficiency on standards and the high-stakes nature of credits, GPAs, and graduation. We are also well aware that many individual elementary teachers, grade level teams and, in fact, whole schools, have intuitively and/or strategically already moved toward standards-based grade reporting at the elementary level.

Currently we are creating standards-based grading models to be piloted in various secondary situations. We are working on both implementation and communication plans for eventual movement to standards-based grading district wide.

Thanks for your question and to the Teaching & Learning Division for their help in responding.

Question –

Superintendent Bates – I have noticed, especially the last few weeks that many teachers have had a difficult time finding substitutes to cover their classes while they are away, especially if it is an emergency and they put a sub request in the morning of the absence. Is there a way to help with this? I know there are many substitutes available that are not taking jobs. I also know several people who have tried to apply for a job as a substitute, but were told they cannot because they do not possess a college degree. Why is this? Why do the teachers have to come to school when we are sick or our family members are sick because we cannot find a substitute? It does not make sense to me that the district is turning away people who do not possess a college degree, but many teachers cannot get their classes covered when they need it? Are there any plans to help change this?

Response – Thank you for your question. Last spring the decision was made to lower the degree requirement from a bachelor’s degree to an associate’s degree in an attempt to attract additional substitute teachers. We currently have approximately 900 substitute teachers, but still struggle filling classrooms, especially when the substitute is requested the morning of the absence. Principals may recommend the hire of emergency substitute teachers for their school only. Emergency substitutes work in only one school and do not have a degree requirement. Please check with your principal to see if your school has a list of emergency substitute teachers.

Thanks to the Human Resources Department for their assistance in responding to this question.

https://www.graniteschools.org/superintendent/2015/11/1556/

Winding Down

Hi everyone!

We’re getting really close and I’m starting to believe that the light at the end of the tunnel is something other than a train. Frankly though, I don’t truly breathe freely until the morning after graduation when all the graduates appear to have made it home safely after their celebrations.

I did a snapshot a couple of weeks ago where I talked about watching my son run the mile at a meet over at Taylorsville High – how during the first three laps the kids seem to be running at an impossible pace and then they speed up even more for the last lap, and then collapse after crossing the finish line. I know that’s how many of you (us) feel, that we kept an impossible pace going all school year long and then ratcheted it up into an all-out sprint for this final quarter. I sincerely thank you for the races you’ve run.

As I’ve thought about how far the metaphor can be stretched, I’d like to tug it a bit further. After he ran the mile, I watched my son limp over to the tree where the rest of his team was. There were hugs and high-fives all around, then he sat down and guzzled some water and ate a snack of some kind. After that he kind of collapsed and covered his face with a smelly t-shirt for a bit and I think he may well have been sleeping. After a long while he popped up and called on a couple of team members so they could warm up in preparation for the 800 meter run.

I’m extremely hopeful, as the next 72 or so hours pass, that we’ll give beleaguered and wearied hugs and high-fives to each other and then go crash for a while, doing whatever it is that fills our own personal buckets (or sharpens our saws etc.). For most of our teachers, eight to ten weeks from now you’ll hunt up some peers and start warming up for the next race. Many of our support staff have a much shorter turn around as they jump into deep cleaning, refurbishing of facilities and equipment and other kinds of preparation activities – I hope all of you take the time to stretch tired muscles and have time to really refresh. You deserve it.

I think most of you know by now that once ratification is complete, Granite appears to have the best settlement of all the districts in the state. The board of education really stepped out to do right by employees. Thanks to the associations for all their great work as well. For the many of you whom this affects, we’re likely going to be able to have a reduction in the number of district assessments next year as well (with your participation and feedback this past year we think we will be able to modify the tools to get the information needed to inform teachers, parents and students in a better format, more quickly and with fewer administrations than in the past). I’m also greatly pleased that in virtually every category our SAGE scores improved significantly over last year, your efforts and focus – and I mean everybody’s efforts and focus – really have paid off. The game changed rules and we’ve all made adjustments to compete and win in the new context. You all deserve all the credit and I couldn’t be prouder!

Thanks for all you do – have a great summer and we’ll see you in the fall!

Martin

Superintendent Snapshot – Chess & Volunteers

Welcome to the latest Superintendent Snapshot. To submit a question, send an email to supsblog [at] graniteschools [dot] org.

Superintendent Snapshot – The Finish Line

Welcome to the latest Superintendent Snapshot. Send your questions to supsblog@graniteschools.org and Dr. Bates will answer them on the blog or in video snapshots.