By Dave Branco

Making the grade

This Fall, Grades K to 9 won’t see letter grades

Jun 27, 2023 | 3:31 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – BC’s Ministry of Education is moving ahead with plans to do away with letter grades from Kindergarten to Grade 9 starting in the fall.

Locally the Teachers’ Association and District Parent Advisory Council give the new reporting system a passing grade; however, they say there is room for improvement.

Parents are embracing the update to the report card system coming in September for grades 8 and 9 students, which will mean the end of letter grades and the introduction of a new proficiency scale. The scale will use the terms emerging, developing, proficient and extending.

But Teachers say the change will mean a dramatic increase in their workload for those teaching grades 8 and 9.

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“Up until now, for elementary years, you were doing this work, which is heavily based on a person’s professional judgment, descriptive feedback, and prescriptive-based commentary that takes a lot of time that you were doing for 24 to 30 students when you hit grade eight and nine next year. With this model, those teachers could now be doing or will be doing this work for up to 120 students. So it’s a significant amount of time.”

Daryl Beauregard, Prince George District Teachers’ Association

Parents also want the current School Board to do a better job communicating to parents the student reporting system, so parents have a chance to digest the changes.

“ The communication could be better. Our district has been distracted by other things. So getting that communication in front of parents before that first report card comes for grade eight and nine students in the fall would be great, but they have other priorities, it seems”

Laura Weller, SD57 District Parent Advisory Council

The province will stick with the letter grading system for grades 10 to 12.

Email: Dave.Branco@pattisonmedia.com

TikTok: @DaveBrancoVJ