Summary Of Graduation Standard Committee Work

Submitted by Kristina Downs

Project 1 of 2 to fulfill the requirement for a grade of A

This paper is a continuation of committee work that has been done throughout this school year to help implement the graduation standards for reading and writing at grade 4 (in Duluth).

This past fall , teachers were inserviced on how to implement the district approved performance packages in reading and writing . This spring, the focus of the inservice was scoring the products using checklists and rubrics. My role this spring was to help in planning the meeting ,with Becky Ardren (district reading specialist) and Mary Ostazeski (a 4th grade teacher) and then to facilitate by working with small groups at the meeting. Teachers brought in samples of student products and were lead through the steps they should take in order to score them. Work time was provided so that teachers could discuss the process and compare results.

The meeting was successful in that I believe teachers left knowing how to score their students work. I also felt that we all learned more about the value and process of scoring with rubrics . The disappointing part of the session, was the general frustration teachers expressed regarding the entire issue of implementing the Graduation Standards. Much discussion took place about whether or not the activities in the packages were really the best way to teach the concepts, or rather just a frustrating mandate. Many teachers felt that we are already teaching these skills ,and the graduation standards are just being pushed for the sake of accountability . All educators know that we do need to be accountable for what we teach , and for what the students are actually learning. The arguable point is, do the graduation standard packages warrant the time we must spend to implement them? Are they an accurate and efficient measure of what students are learning?

My own opinion is that the reading and writing packages take too much time to administer and to evaluate. The skills within the packages were already being taught. The legislature will decide the fate of the graduation standards. I hope they ask for a lot of input from teachers so that they can , at least , be revised into a more meaningful tool.

(Attached are the handouts used at the spring inservice.)

-- Anonymous, May 17, 1999