VAGUE MARKS FAIL FAMILIES

Apush to put percentage grades on more report cards, so families can better understand students’ math abilities, is 100 per cent worthwhile. Percentages are used in high school report cards, but in lower grades, the Calgary Board of Education simply rates students’ math abilities on a scale of one to four. To meet learning expectations, students only need to score two or more, leaving families in the dark about students’ actual math understanding.

That vague assessment system has allowed CBE administration to conclude that 91 per cent of students met “learning expectations as measured by student report cards” in 2016-17, an improvement from 86.6 per cent in 2011-12.

The rosy claim is contained in a report to be debated by the public school board today, and quite rightly, some trustees and parents are skeptical of administration’s findings.

“This report does not reflect what is actually happening at all,” said Sarah Bieber, a mother of four schoolchildren and a member of the Kids Come First parent advocacy group.

“I regularly speak to a lot of parents who are saying their kids are struggling and they feel they have to find other supports for them outside of school, because teachers keep telling them everything is fine.”

Althea Adams is among the trustees who want to bring back percentage scores to junior high school report cards.

“Kids are coming in to high school with twos or threes out of four in math, and teachers have no idea where to place them. And then they are put in the wrong class, and then several weeks into the course, they have to switch.”

Parents and trustees have reason to be suspicious of administration’s all’s-well tale. Student results for Grades 6 and 9 provincial achievement tests and Grade 12 diploma exams showed math scores to be consistently lower than for other core subjects in 2016-17, with little to no improvement from previous years. And more than 25 per cent of students in Grades 6 and 9 failed the provincewide math exams.

Math is among the foundations of an education, so it’s essential that families receive the best information about young people’s grasp of the subject as possible.

If percentages can be attached to math performance in high school, there’s no reason why they can’t be a feature of report cards in other grades too.

Math, after all, is an objective area of study, unlike other subjects, such as some elements of English. If any course assessment can be relied upon to produce a percentage grade, it’s math.

Improving report cards will earn trustees a better grade.