Stop MBL/SBG in Moscow Schools

“At its heart, though, it’s a familiar tale in American school reform — the story of how a small band of well-intentioned education and business leaders, backed by wealthy foundations and armed with optimism and a few early success stories, sold state lawmakers on a largely untested theory of change.” - The Maine Wire 4/2018 https://hechingerreport.org/inside-maines-disastrous-roll-out-of-proficiency-based-learning/ https://bangordailynews.com/2019/02/11/news/state/given-the-choice-more-school-districts-are-dumping-proficiency-based-diplomas/

Apparently there needs to be additional training. These teachers have 200 students, lots of time to do and learn! NOT

Mastery based grading system is totally stupid, we don't even have an overall grade for a class. The teachers just pick what grade you get on assignments instead of using math to figure it out (percentage). It makes it way easier for them to hack the system and give grades based on favorites.

The practices of TeacherEase, as I understand them, are not education but mollification.

Superintendent Greg Bailey AND his pet project of standards-based learning have to go. It is a failed experiment that recent data is proving to be a disaster for students. It has been rolled back in other areas where it was implemented. My straight A student is in jeopardy of not attaining scholarships or college admissions because of this "participation trophy"-style of grading, not to mention being de-motivated to push himself when others get the same grade for far less effort. We have even seen "grade yourself" worksheets come home this year that are based on the 1 to 4 grading scale but did not allow a student to grade themselves as a 4! This is beyond ridiculous. My straight-A student is being taught that no matter what, he is a B student so other kids won't feel bad. Superintendent Bailey needs to go, so does his low-standards system. If not, I will take my high-achiever elsewhere.

I don’t feel this is in the best interest of our kids.

Let's consider the outcome of a previous curriculum experiment conducted by the MSD.  In 2009, MSD introduced the Investigations math curriculum to its 2nd grade classrooms at McDonald Elementary.  Two years into the curriculum, McDonald's math ISAT (Idaho Standards Achievement Test) proficiency score dropped by about 18 percentage points.  This was explained away by administrators as an "adjustment period" and they assured us that proficiency would improve.  Five years into the curriculum, McDonald's math proficiency was nearly half was it was prior to adopting Investigations.  This change of curriculum was pushed through despite common sense and widespread opposition.  It resulted in measurable harm to our students yet there has been absolutely no accountability for it.   There is another disturbing similarity between the current SBG changes and the  Investigations change: a gag order was placed on teachers to prevent them from saying anything negative about the curriculum.  Furthermore, teachers were forced to teach Investigations "with fidelity", meaning they were not allowed to deviate from the curriculum whatsoever for a minimum of two years.  This prevented teachers from using their years of experience to fill the holes in the curriculum thereby mitigating some of its negative effects.   The current SBG changes and the manner in which they were rolled out is not a one-time lapse in judgement by MSD.  It is not merely a failure to communicate effectively.  It follows the same pattern as previous debacles: decision making that excludes teachers & parents, no accountability and a culture of intimidation.  It has been, and will continue to be, a recipe for disaster.  

Demotivating for my 4.0 daughter

I support

I have 4 children in this district and I am unhappy and concerned. If they continue we will change school districts, even if we have to move to Pullman.

Remember Common Core? Remember how it was sold by educators like Greg Baily? Trillions of taxpayer dollars spent and an entire generation of children who deserve not to have been guinea pigs in a failed national experiment. This generation of kids are not only not prepared for college, they are the worst prepared of any graduates in almost two decades. https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/31/first-common-core-high-school-grads-worst-prepared-for-college-in-15-years/ The people that are pushing yet another education fad are credentialed but not educated.

I hate this its stupid i go here and i hate this

We are told that the high school (though not MMS) will retain letter grades as they're needed for college admissions, though in other districts those letter grades have sometimes become far more 'subjective' by teacher as the data (think % on tests, etc.) is not recorded as often or present on the system. Thus, grade inflation and deflation have been causes of study in other districts, even when letter grades have been retained.

I have a senior and a sophomore at MHS this year, in addition to the issues others have brought up with this system there are major concerns at the high school level. College admissions boards and scholarship committees are all built on a traditional letter grade system. So our kids who have worked their tails off to achieve those A’s are now given a number grade that does not translate are going to be pushed further down the line in consideration for future opportunities compared to competing students in other districts. My students are saying that the highest “letter” grade these numbers can translate to is a B... is this right?? I have kids taking AP classes, which traditionally could allow for above a 4.0, now that advantage is being taken away. This get really real when you are looking at future education opportunities.

C'mon dude, that's uncool

Perhaps a vote of no confidence is in order.

This is a derivative of the "everyone gets a gold star" culture. When the bar is set high, those with initiative will strive to reach that bar. When it is set low, everyone will trip on it and fall flat on their face.

Admins ramming thru their own personal agenda is not how a functional school district runs. Communication with parents and open dialog about big decisions that effect our kids, are signs of functioning leadership.

Could the more egregious charges be provided with citation? "document contains false claims, dated information, and lacks information on actual outcome data." This link was my source material when I was learning about it. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/nyregion/mastery-based-learning-no-grades.html . All the criticisms I could access were from .orgs that have a clear agenda. I heard about Maine, but what about New Hampshire and New York? You can dismiss by saying you don't like it, but the ipetition doesn't feel strong enough to tell me I was wrong in my first assessment. I accept this might be more work for teachers, so I think we should look at paying them more. But there was support from at least some parents for this idea, and I was one of them.

Seems like with every change the only thing that suffers is Student knowledge and skills. Although these programs seem like a good idea they seem to come at the cost of a great education.