Whether letter grades will become a thing of the past for B.C. students as schools throughout the province consider changes for report cards might well depend on responses from parents and the minister of education.
The discussion about the move by two B.C. school districts, Surrey and Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows, to upgrade student-progress reports to include new tools for reporting and “richer” information for parents reminded me of the card I received in the mail — a report on my annual medical checkup.
“Geoff achieved a B based on widely held expectations for males his age,” it said. No mention of what I needed to do to become an ‘A’.
“Geoff should pay more attention to exercise and his dietary habits,” it continued, so I filed the report card where my wife couldn’t find it and subsequently argue that “dietary habits” probably included the elimination of that pre-dinner martini.
Of course, that’s pure fiction, intended to illustrate that report cards, which imply more questions and generalities than they provide answers, are not and have never been of much educational use.
Instead of a report card, my doctor provides a face-to-face individualized and detailed analysis of test results, blood work, potential skin conditions (I grew up surfing under the Australian sun) and a clear explanation of any aches or pains, real or imagined, that I might be experiencing.
I’ve never been a big fan of the report-card system in public education. It frustrates teachers, provides only the most general information for parents and is not a clear plan for the kids about what to do next.
Bear in mind that high school teachers meet upward of 80 adolescent kids each day. What might be more productive would be one or two after-school meetings between a teacher and each parent for a fuller discussion about that parent’s child.
That might take half an hour, but parents most involved with their child’s education would be there, ready to exchange information with the teacher, all of which would, I hope, lead to a better understanding about each child’s progress.
Traditional teacher/parent nights do not work well, either.
Which raises another aspect of the whole “reporting to parents” issue.
When I go to my doctor for my checkup, it is I who takes the notes about his analysis of my health and his advice about what to do about improving it. I don’t expect him to keep notes about each patient and send me a vague formal letter of advice. My doctor keeps his own notes, but we agree that my health is my responsibility and it is my responsibility to keep track of his advice.
If I follow up on that advice, well and good. If I don’t, I cannot attribute my declining health to his lack of ability to solve my problems.
A child’s progress is just as complicated and difficult to explain. It takes years of experience to understand how and at what rate each child learns, much less measure it in any useful way. All we know for sure is that each child is an individual.
Think about a complex dance of some kind that moves in circles across the floor, sometimes moving forward, sometimes actually regressing or not making any apparent progress at all, but always in motion. Not a lot different from your personal health, which is sometimes vigorous, sometimes something you want to improve.
All the fuss about report cards and the importance of letter grades supported by vague generic comments is a fuss about the wrong thing. As public education moves toward 21st-century individualized learning, systems of reporting progress will need to move with it and the traditional report card will become a quaint relic of the previous century.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
