Wisconsin School District Abandons ‘A-F’ Grading Scale to Prevent Stress

A school district in Madison, Wisconsin, has made the controversial decision to abandon the common “A to F” grading system based in favor of a system that is “kinder” to students. Now, top students will be graded as “exceeding” while failing students will be “emerging.”

According to a report by the College Fix, the Madison Metropolitan School District has announced that they are doing away with the traditional “A-F” grading system in favor of a new system that is gentle on students.

The report, which was written by Christian Schneider, a parent in the school district, claims that the district has introduced four new categories to replace the traditional grading scale. Schneider noticed that his second-grade daughter’s report card featured words like “exceeding” and “emerging” instead of letter grades.

“Exceeding” – Student consistently exceeds grade-level expectations for the end of the year.

“Meeting” – Student consistently meets grade-level expectations for the end of the year.

“Developing” – Student is developing understanding and is approaching grade-level expectations for the end of the year.

“Emerging” – Student begins to show initial understanding of grade-level expectations for the end of the year.

Schneider points out that the new grading system doesn’t apply directly to a student’s performance in each subject. Instead, students are graded on their ability to work in groups and tell stories.

The two scales don’t match up largely because the new grades assigned don’t address a specific class or subject – they deal mostly with behavior. The “Exceeding-Emerging” scale applies to 40 different classifications. Instead of being graded on “math” or “science,” my daughter is being graded on “Tells a story or describes an experience,” “cooperates with partners and in groups,” and “understands and identifies stages in the life cycle of insects.”

Breitbart News reported in January 2019 that a guest speaker at American University told faculty members that it was racist to judge the quality of a student’s writing when grading a paper. The guest speaker, a professor in the University of Washington system, argued that traditional grading practices perpetuate “white supremacy.”

How do any of those kids get into college when they dont have grades?

This isn’t new... in the early 70’s starting in I think 3rd or 4th grade, my elementary school dropped grades with a similar scale as the above. We all survived and turned out OK.

Charlie

Dumb them down so you can control them....

My son's school district which is always ranked near the top in the state every year does this method. I am not fan of it, but I guess it works. He is only in 3rd grade so will see where it goes.

You can put a pig in lipstick, pearls, and a dress, but ya still got a .....?

Education today is a loosing investment. Spend thousands and thousands and get pennies return on the investment.

What happens when you do that long enough? Exactly!

Dumb them down so you can control them....

This isn’t new... in the early 70’s starting in I think 3rd or 4th grade, my elementary school dropped grades with a similar scale as the above. We all survived and turned out OK.

Charlie

Washington DC spends 30k per year per student and look what they got............oh my but they still want more money.

Public School as we know it needs to go away. After 6th grade(maximum) most kids need to go a different way than more school and more sports.

I don't want my money going to sports. Let those parents that do pay for it all on a private level.


Now its just another govt run fiasco/quagmire waste that costs more every year and gets us less in return.