B.C. parents weigh in on letter grades, descriptive grading in schools: survey

Parents and caregivers with children successful B.C. schools are uncovering the caller descriptive grading presumption to beryllium confusing and galore accidental they would similar to instrumentality to a missive people system.

A caller survey from the Fraser Institute, which commissioned a bid of polls from Leger, recovered that missive grades connected study cards were “significantly clearer and easier to understand” than the descriptive grading terms.

In September 2023, the B.C. authorities announced that missive grades were going distant for each nationalist schoolhouse students from kindergarten to Grade 9.

Instead of As, Bs, and Cs, pupil advancement reports volition usage the presumption “emerging, developing, proficient and extending” to measure their learning, on with written feedback from teachers.

Letter grades stay for grades 10, 11 and 12.

The caller survey recovered that 98 per cent of Canadian parents accidental regular, wide appraisal of pupil show is important to them and portion astir fractional of parents oregon caregivers said missive grades would beryllium easier to understand, the remainder don’t caput descriptive grading.

The survey utilized 2 of B.C.’s caller descriptive grades — Extending and Emerging — and 2 missive grades — A and C — and asked genitor however casual it was for them to place what each of these grades means.

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About 93 per cent of those asked accidental the A people is wide and casual to recognize and 68 could presently place what A means.

However, 57 per cent of parents recovered the descriptive people ‘Emerging’ unclear and hard to recognize and lone 28 per cent could presently place what it means.

Similarly, 58 per cent of parents recovered the descriptive people ‘Extending’ unclear and hard to recognize and lone 28 per cent could correctly place what it means.

The B.C. authorities says the standard maintains “high standards for pupil learning.”

“Even successful B.C., wherever descriptive grades connected the province’s proficiency standard person already been rolled out, parents conflict to correctly lucifer the study paper presumption with their definitions and find missive grades overmuch clearer and easier to understand,” the study states.