The District Parent Advisory Council in Prince George says most parents feel the shift to the proficiency scale model over letter grades for K-9 students is an unwelcome change.
The move was announced on Friday by the provincial government where words like “extending” will become the new A+ starting next year.
Chair, Laura Weller says former SD 57 Superintendent Cindy Heitman was communicating proposed plans to DPAC in January before being removed and discussions since that time have been limited with acting superintendent Pam Spooner.
“It’s a different style, different priorities are coming up. I know that they are working on this because the innovative curriculum and instruction are working on it. But again, it isn’t really being communicated back to us as to how it is happening.”
Weller added those leaving grade 8 and moving to grade 9 will be the most impacted as they had letter grades last year but could flip to the scale next year and then back again to a letter grading system in 2024-25.
She’s calling for a more phased-in approach.
“It depends on how the board would like to implement that or what direction they provide to the staff on this one through the superintendent but they could delay the implementation for that cohort entering grade 9 now if they wanted to prevent the flip-flop experience.”
Weller also mentioned times have changed based on how kids learn and decipher information when compared to decades previous so getting with the current times is crucial.
“The perception of what education means in this day and age and why would we change what worked really well for us. Unfortunately, the world is changing and we can’t just expect kids to get 98% on a test by regurgitating information and then be successful in the workplace.”
“We need to recognize that we’ve got pocket calculators on our cell phones, we’ve got access to the internet from our cell phones and in the workplace of today we need more inquiry skills, critical thinking, and understanding the information we can look up and verify.”
PG District Teachers Association President, Daryl Beauregard told Vista Radio while elementary school students have experienced proficiency grades for nearly a decade, it will certainly add to the workload for teachers in the older grades.
“There are 24 and maybe up to 30 students in a class that is getting report cards. Grade eight or nine teachers are preparing 120 of those reports so it takes a lot more time to prepare anecdotal prescriptive feedback in written form.”
Beauregard was equally as critical of the province’s government software MyEdBC calling it poorly designed citing too many clicks and drop-down menus.
He acknowledges while some parents may have some concerns Beauregard is quick to remind those that elementary-aged kids are well used to this by now and allows educators to use more of their judgment when evaluating students.
“It allows for the professional judgment of an educator to be applied to grading. You can get far better, communicative practice with parents, meaning they simply know more and understand better where their students are at.”
According to the province, roughly half of K-9 students were already using the proficiency system.
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