[Newsbot]

Title: B.C. dropping letter grades in public schools
Category: Misc CDN
Posted By: Strutz
Date: 2023-06-24 16:24:24
Canadian

[Strutz]

If my memory serves me correctly I do recall that in elementary school one was graded in each subject as "average" "above average" and "below average". However, starting in grade 8 you got letter grades. Seems weird that they have decided grade 8 & 9 students can't be assessed this way nowadays.

$1:

The ministry says proficiency scale report cards use terms such as emerging, developing, proficient and extending to describe student learning, assessments that are supplemented with teacher comments.

The new buzzwords I guess.

[herbie]

I hired some Honour Roll students that couldn't read a round clock or count change back in the day. And "F for f***ing idiot" ones that didn't need a kick in the ass to pick up a broom, too.

Although kids will miss the rewards from Mom & Dad. My daughter says her Mom still owes her about two grand for all those As and Bs she never paid up for.

[Thanos]

It's almost like a headline from the local paper in The Simpsons, "Schools Abandoning All Standards, "what's the f***ing point of any of it anymore" sez Skinner, "when they're all just too stupid to learn anything".

[DrCaleb]

"If the kids could read, they would be very upset."

[Thanos]

Makes one wonder what it is the schools spend most of their time teaching these days. Definitely not reading, writing, or basic math. Or any form of civics either, given the number of vids that get posted to TikTok and Twitter of students doing two/three/four on one beat downs on each other ("the knock-out game is an urban myth"), shooting off fireworks inside buses, or of teachers getting cold-cocked because they wouldn't "gimme my phone back".

So what exactly is it they're teaching, from K all the way through 12/13 anyway? Wait, what commemorative month is this again, the one that features all the rainbows and bondage gear? Oh, that's right, that's the most important thing of all time that they're now concentrating on teaching. Mass illiteracy & innumeracy combined with a worship of endless sodomy? Huh, doesn't seem like much of a foundation to put a society upon.

[Strutz]

/\

This reminded me of an article I read a few days ago:

Cursive writing to be reintroduced in Ontario schools this fall

$1:

Relegated in 2006 to an optional piece of learning in Ontario elementary schools, cursive writing is set to return as a mandatory part of the curriculum starting in September.

[xerxes]

Why though? What does learning g handwriting teach? Handwriting is useless if the students can’t spell or use grammar properly which too many can’t do these days. It just smacks of some boomer thinking it’s a good idea because they did it “back in the day”.

Being able to communicate effectively should be more important than learning to write in a funny way that increasingly less people use. And I say that as a holdout who still handwrites.

[herbie]

>Why though? What does learning g handwriting teach? Handwriting is useless if the students can’t spell or use grammar properly which too many can’t do these days. It just smacks of some boomer thinking it’s a good idea because they did it “back in the day”.<

How to write your thoughts down without a phone in your face. I know people who can read multiple languages in multiple scripts. Too lazy to even learn your own.
Like wouldn't it be nice if the Internet was down and you could read your Mom's recipes?

[Thanos]

Wouldn't it be even nicer if the internet never existed at all and humans were still like they were before a daily diet of keyboards and touchscreens turned everyone into some kind of bush league version of the Borg engaged in a non-stop scream-a-thon at each other? What would that kind of world have been like?

[Tricks]

herbie herbie:

>Why though? What does learning g handwriting teach? Handwriting is useless if the students can’t spell or use grammar properly which too many can’t do these days. It just smacks of some boomer thinking it’s a good idea because they did it “back in the day”.<

How to write your thoughts down without a phone in your face. I know people who can read multiple languages in multiple scripts. Too lazy to even learn your own.
Like wouldn't it be nice if the Internet was down and you could read your Mom's recipes?

that's what a local database is for.

[bootlegga]

I stumbled across a report card from when I was a kid, it used A/B/C/D/F, but Edmonton Public School no longer uses letter grades, instead it now uses Exemplary, Proficient, Adequate and Limited...basically A/B/C/F. In junior and senior high, they do give out number grades and use the A/B/C/D/F ranking for determining which courses you should take next year.

I thought it was odd when I first saw it, but I don't see the big deal really. The BC grades, however, do seem odd and don't seem indicative of how well a child is doing.

[Strutz]

bootlegga bootlegga:

I thought it was odd when I first saw it, but I don't see the big deal really. The BC grades, however, do seem odd and don't seem indicative of how well a child is doing.

Elementary school maybe but in grades 8 & 9 letter grades should still be given. Why wait until grade 10?

What's next, not bothering to mark tests but instead give everyone a "participation ribbon" just for trying?

[JaredMilne]

bootlegga bootlegga:

I stumbled across a report card from when I was a kid, it used A/B/C/D/F, but Edmonton Public School no longer uses letter grades, instead it now uses Exemplary, Proficient, Adequate and Limited...basically A/B/C/F. In junior and senior high, they do give out number grades and use the A/B/C/D/F ranking for determining which courses you should take next year.

I thought it was odd when I first saw it, but I don't see the big deal really. The BC grades, however, do seem odd and don't seem indicative of how well a child is doing.

As a schoolkid in 1980s/early 1990s St. Albert, we used descriptions like "Very Good", "Satisfactory", "Needs Improvement" etc. I didn't get percentage grades until junior high. Frankly, what B.C. is doing doesn't seem all that different from what Alberta was doing 30+ years ago.