Michael Zwaagstra: BC Parents and Students Deserve Report Cards They Can Understand

Commentary

As the school year winds down, students across British Columbia will receive their final report cards for the year. And many parents will likely wonder: is it better to be “developing” or “emerging”? Or “proficient” or “extending”?

This is the gobbledygook B.C. students and their parents now see on report cards. Clearly, anyone not versed in edu-babble will be confused because “developing” and “emerging” mean similar things to most English speakers. And it’s not obvious whether “extending” is better than “proficient,” or vice versa.

For the last two years, instead of traditional letter grades such as A, B, and C, parents of grades K–9 students have suffered with these new reporting terms. By all accounts, the transition has not gone well. A recent survey found that while most parents had no problem correctly identifying what letter grades such as A and B mean, fewer than one-third could explain the meaning of terms such as emerging, developing, proficient, and extending.

In theory, report cards communicate accurate information about student progress to parents. But if parents need someone to translate their children’s report cards, many will ignore them. This problem becomes even more pronounced for parents whose first language isn’t English. Interestingly, tutoring agencies and parent resource organizations are posting articles online that try to explain the meaning of terms used on B.C. report cards. Again, this proves that the new terms are far from intuitive.

Sadly, B.C.’s new report cards are part of a broader “ungrading” movement, which seeks to eliminate, or at least minimize, the use of letter grades and percentages. Proponents argue that traditional grades are demotivational and that descriptive terms such as emerging and extending provide students with more genuine feedback.

However, ungrading is so nebulous that proponents cannot even agree among themselves what terminology to use. While B.C. has settled on emerging, developing, extending and proficient for its report cards, schools elsewhere also use terms such as “applying” and “mastering” and “progressing.” While the terms vary based on the school, they are all equally vague and confusing.

It’s no coincidence that today’s ungrading proponents are the same people who trumpeted policies that prohibited teachers from giving zeroes to students who didn’t hand in their assignments. Many people remember when the Edmonton School Board fired physics teacher Lynden Dorval in 2012 because he refused to implement his principal’s no-zeroes edict. In the end, Dorval was vindicated when an Alberta court ruled that his termination was unjust. This incident was the point when no-zero policies took a nosedive in popular support—which explains why only the most devoted advocates of ungrading dare to openly support them today.

There are many reasons why the Eby government should restore traditional letter grades to report cards in B.C. The most obvious is that traditional grades are easily understandable to nearly all parents and students (on the aforementioned parent survey, more than 93 percent said the letter grade “A” is clear and easy to understand). If the point of report cards is to communicate accurate information to parents, then it makes sense to use terminology parents understand.

However, while letter grades are good, percentages are even better. That’s because percentage grades make it possible to convey more levels of academic performance. For example, while a mark of 91 percent in science is very good, 99 percent is excellent. Similarly, while 49 percent and 24 percent are both failing grades, there’s no question that 49 percent is preferable to 24 percent.

At a minimum, the Eby government should restore letter grades to report cards. Ideally, however, it should mandate percentages on report cards like in Manitoba. In that province, teachers must put percentages on all Grade 7–12 report cards. B.C. parents deserve the same clear feedback that Manitoba parents receive.

B.C. students and parents have put up with too much ungrading silliness. This school year is winding down, but beginning in September they should receive report cards they can understand.

Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.