Dear Catholic Academy and Parish School Families,
Let me begin by trusting that you and your family are safe and healthy as you read this letter. I also want to express my gratitude for your patience and understanding, as we continue to move through remote learning, during this pandemic crisis. We have experienced drastic changes over the past months and through your tremendous assistance, continue to be able to provide joyful student learning. Our goal is to provide continuous educational opportunities and practice for our students, while school buildings continue to remain closed.
Teachers have been working tirelessly, providing students with instructional work tasks and activities, however, grading student assignments, tasks and projects completed online at home is inequitable. Translated, grades collected are likely to be an inaccurate reporting of student learning. There are factors outside of the control of the student and the school, with learning being moved off site; therefore, the aim is that student grades would be flexibly calculated as a result of remote learning.
While assessing for student learning informs understanding and mastery, grading refers to the reporting of student’s final proficiency. For third trimester report card grading, the Office of the Superintendent~ Catholic School Support Services will be moving to a modified model. Since two-thirds of the academic year had been completed before the shift to distance learning, and teachers continue to record data on student progress, a final grade average will be determined by the averaging of the three Trimester grades while factoring the change to Distance Learning in the Third Trimester. The recommendation on grading is based upon the belief of no educational harm to any child. COVID-19 and the suspension of on-school-site instruction, the first in modern history, has impacted our entire society.
The Early Childhood report cards in Pre-Kindergarten (parish programs) and Kindergarten will continue to reflect the Progress Codes (1-4) for the standards and an “X” code for “Not Introduced or Assessed” for the Third Trimester Report Card.
The Pre-Kindergarten-3 or Nursery report card is a narrative, developmental report card.
Special Subjects will continue to implement a Progress Code (1-4)
Grades 1-8 will shift to a modified model, with the following levels of reporting for the Third Trimester:
High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, Fail for the major subject areas of: Religion, ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies (And Spanish for Grades 5-8)
- The level of High Pass (HP) correlates with the numerical grades of 90-100
- The level of Pass (P) correlates with the numerical grades of 80-89
- The level of Low Pass (LP) correlates with the numerical grades of 70-79
- The level of Fail (F) correlates with the numerical grades of 69 and below
The yearly average (AVG) on the Student Report Card will be the average of all three trimesters for the major Subject areas and Special Subject areas.
We are most appreciative of all the hard work and diligence of our families during these difficult times. Just as was done before COVID-19, our teachers and school leaders will continue to work diligently to ensure all students are learning and growing spiritually and academically.
Continued prayers for your health and safety. May God, Our Father, provide us with the faith, hope and love, we all need to see this through.
Sincerely,
Thomas Chadzutko, Ed.D.
Superintendent~Catholic School Support Services
