Manhattan Beach Unified this month adopted new grading policies for its schools, implementing a pass/fail system at the middle school level and allowing Mira Costa High School students to choose either letter grades or a pass/fail assessment on transcripts for the trimester of distanced learning.
Some middle school parents, however, want the board to reconsider giving their students the same options as the high schoolers do.
The district in April sent a survey to staff, parents and high school and 8th-grade students, gathering grade policy preferences.
“We have heard from many students that it is a welcome relief,” Superintendent Mike Matthews said via email. “The policy is intended to reflect our teachers’ concern of adding stress to their students’ lives in an already stressful time, and to allow everyone to focus on learning rather than worrying about a grade,” Matthews wrote in a statement to concerned parents.
More than 650 people have signed a petition to change the Manhattan Beach Middle School grading policy to an optional pass or fail for students.
Parents who chose the letter grade preference, however, did not feel heard, said Tiffany Wright, a MBMS parent who created the petition. While students may be relieved, those parents are more concerned about their children seeing the full outcome of their work, especially during a crisis in which some may have put in more effort than they would otherwise.
“It really does set a different standard” for work ethic expectations, Wright added. If children’s middle school grades don’t matter to them, she said, they won’t be able to flip the switch when entering high school–it’s about developing good habits now.
For Ed Balazs, who has an 8th grader at MBMS, the new grading system adds more potential for lack of focus to the already difficult virtual education.
Middle school classes only meet every other day and recently cancelled school on Fridays, Balazs said, so in the best-case scenario, kids are getting half the education they normally would if they were in classrooms.
“I don’t quite understand why the middle school wouldn’t be allowing (both options) considering they are posting grades on the (online) portal,” Balazs said.
Teachers will give students feedback letting them know exactly how well they are doing and what they need to do to excel, Matthews said. Percentage and letter grades for assignments will be posted throughout the trimester, he added, the only difference is that the report card will indicate only a pass or fail.
“We want students to know whether they are achieving the standards of a class or if they have work to do,” Matthews said via email Wednesday, “But we also want them to take that report card grade off of their stress meter.”
Eighth grade MBMS parent Geoff Long would have preferred that the board had at least presented the option of middle schoolers being able to choose the grading method that works best for their individual situations.
“You need to encourage people of all ages to work their hardest to achieve the best,” Long said, “I think this policy is totally contradictory to what I believe should be a goal.”
Students “should get whatever recognition they’re entitled to for working hard this year,” Long said.
“We want to continue to incentivize our child to work hard,” he added.
Rosalie Patel’s 6th grade daughter has been motivated by keeping up her grades during the time of isolation, Patel said. With A-F no longer on the final record, she added, she’s worried her motivation will decrease.
Removing the A-F grading scale is like taking away tools from parents and teachers that keep their students motivated, Wright said.
There’s “more on us to hold kids accountable,” Wright added. “All they know at end of day (is that) those grades will be wiped away and replaced with a ‘pass’.”
If it turns out — and he hopes it doesn’t — that virtual education will endure into the next school year, Matthews said, leaders will re-evaluate the policy.
By then, he said, teachers will have learned more about the best practices in distance learning, he added, and students will be better prepared as well.
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May 25, 2020 at 08:00PM
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Some parents want measurable grades for Manhattan Beach middle schoolers - The Daily Breeze
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