District 300 to change middle school grading policy

Community Unit District 300 is considering adopting a new grading policy for middle schoolers to prevent them from "failing," and establishing credit requirements for promotion to high school.

The changes are proposed for next school year at the Algonquin-based district's six middle schools.

Officials say the current grading policy, which awards letter-based grades of A, B, C, D, F and zero, is not addressing students' needs. The proposed policy shift would eliminate the "zero" grade given to students for a poorly completed, incomplete or missing assignment.

"We are eliminating the option for the student to basically ignore the assignment," Superintendent Fred Heid said. "We're not going to allow that student to get a zero. We are ratcheting up the accountability."

A zero grade makes it harder for a student to pass the course. Students would be forced to redo assigned work until they get an acceptable grade, Heid added.

"It's really a philosophical shift to increase accountability," he said.

Under the revised policy, 40 percent of a student's grade would be based on summative assessments, 40 percent on formative assessments, 15 percent on practice, and 5 percent on academic behavior, such as being prepared for class and being on time.

"We will put accountability measures (in place) to make sure the student is doing his or her best to make up and catch up with that assignment," Heid said.

Heid said the proposed policy change is in line with national studies conducted on learning in middle schools, which is a critical time for developmental, physical and social/emotional changes.

"We're recognizing that middle schoolers are different," he said. "We can't continue to hold kids to the same expectations we had 20, 30 years ago. I don't think it's acceptable to let a child fail."

The second major change is a shift to credits in middle school, which would affect only incoming sixth-graders next year.

The district's current retention/promotion policy allows school officials to promote a student who fails two academic classes per year.

"The problem with that is which classes they are failing," Heid said.

Students technically can fail English and math every year for three years and still be promoted to high school.

"We are revisiting it to say, you can only go to high school if you successfully earn 3 credits in math, English, social sciences and science," Heid said.

If students fail a subject in sixth grade, they would still be promoted to seventh grade but would have to do remedial work to make up for that lost credit either through extended learning time during the school day, online curriculum before or after school, or by attending summer school at their own cost.

"The goal is to make sure that students are literate and have numerous competency skills before they get to high school," Heid said.

Officials also want parents' input on moving to a blended report card that would include letter grades and a rating based on how students fare on state standards and benchmarks.

"Standards are what students will be assessed on ... we want to blend the letter grade with a standards-based report card so that parents and students get explicit feedback on how the child is doing according to state standards," Heid said. "It gives parents a tool to see where their child is exceeding or failing."

The blended report card would not be rolled out until the 2016-17 academic year, he added.

The district will conduct two town hall meetings this week for parents of incoming sixth-, seventh- and eighth -graders to gather feedback on these proposed policy changes. The forums are 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Dundee Middle School, 4200 W. Main St., West Dundee, and Wednesday at Hampshire Middle School, 560 S. State St., Hampshire.