April 26, 2007
Dear Students,
I thank you all for voting me into the position of Student representative to the School Board. I also appreciate all who facilitated my petition, as well as all those who signed it. I will give the students a voice in the board so that all of you can have a say into the running of your school. I have not forgotten my promises to you; I will meet regularly with the Leadership Team, the Student Senate, and will have a monthly news letter giving students full knowledge of the happenings of the school. I believe that Hall-Dale is a great school, and with input from the student body, the School Board can continue to make good decisions.
On Wednesday April 25, 2007, I attended my first School Board meeting and I will try to be unbiased with you and give accurate information as to what went on. This meeting was specifically to address the Standardized Grading system. However, no decisions were officially made; every one in the room was far more educated by the end. There were two slide shows shown. One was created by Superintendent Don Siviski showing statistics as to how this Standardized Grading system has helped the elementary school. One interesting bar graph showed the MEA scores of fourth grade, eighth grade, and eleventh grade. It showed that out of all fourth graders 70% Meet or Exceeded the standards, from there it went down hill ending with only around 40% of the eleventh graders Meeting or Exceeding the standards. Just looking at the numbers it seems like the Standards based grading system helped the fourth graders. However, we were not shown data from before the Standards based grading system was in place. It is possible the data could be the same without Standards based grading, for the mind set when taking the MEAs changes dramatically, and kids try harder in fourth grade then eighth.
It is the School Board’s intention to make every student college ready by the end of their secondary education (9-12). They also want to personalize the learning of each individual student, as well as have education student centered. To personalize a student’s education means to use many different teaching techniques and then fitting the right technique to the right student. Some students are active learners (hands on) where they need to be involved with what they are learning. Other students are passive learners and can learn from listening or reading information. It is said that currently we have a teacher based education where the teacher teaches and the student gets it. A student based system holds the teachers accountable for the education of their students. If a student does not get something, it will be the teachers responsibility to make sure that student gets extra help. These are great ideas in my opinion. However, I believe we lack the resources to do this; this will require more teachers, and more of teachers time.
With the Standardized grading system they wish to eliminate the credit system, where you need to have a certain number of credits to graduate. They explained that a credit alone is meaningless, all it means is that you sat through and survived a number of classes. They also wish to have more Standardized assessments, as there may be less home work. In Mr. Chapen’s slide show he demonstrated how this system is more specific giving examples like “What is a C ?”. He showed how many things a “C” can mean and how far more specific the grade is when graded “Meets the Standard.” The standard can be easily read and a parent or college can easily tell where the student is strong and were the student is weak. Much is unknown by the School Board as to exactly how they will do some things, they have yet to determine how valedictorian and salutatorian will be decided. But they say they will continue to work on it, and it will be ready to put into effect in September of 2007. This system will mainly affect the middle school and incoming freshmen, but will also influence our education, as many teachers will transition to this new form of teaching and grading.
I am not at all against this new system of teaching. It is very Idealistic, but I believe that it could be done without dramatically changing the current grading system. When you combined Standards, rubrics, and the 1 to 100 grading system you come out with a very accurate, specific and likable grading system. I believe this decision to step forward with this system is closely related to a deal with the State. For every student under this new system the school receives about 80 additional dollars. You may call it coincidence, and it quite possibly may be, but I believe it is a prominent reason for rushing this to Hall-Dale.
If you have any questions about this, you can generally find me before and after school in the art room; if I am not there you can seek me out at first lunch. I really want student opinions so that I can fairly represent all of you.
Respectfully Yours,
Student School Board Representative
Dylan Sirois
