‘Nobody’s Called Off School’: State Gives Wilkes New Grading Guidelines
Board hears about promotion plan, changes to grading scale
NORTH WILKESBORO-The spring semester’s report cards could look a bit different for Wilkes County students this year. On Monday night, the Wilkes County School Board learned about new grading guidelines ordered by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
“For the first two weeks that we were out of school, we asked [teachers] not to grade, to review and have enrichment time,” said Dr. Donna Cotton, Chief Academic Officer for Wilkes County Public Schools. “It wasn’t a time to grade. Now that we’ve moved into remote learning, we are in an area where we can grade.”
But assignments will be graded slightly different right now, as Cotton explained to school board members. Last Thursday, the Department of Public Instruction provided districts with new methods that are to be used for the rest of this semester. Students in kindergarten through 11th grade will be under one set of guidelines and seniors will be under another, as we reported here.
If the semester ended today, final grades would be based on a student’s score in class as of March 13. But nobody called off school, Cotton told the school board. Since the semester isn’t over, the grade will instead be used as a starting point. For example, if a student had a B overall as of March 13, they start off the remote learning session with that grade.
“That doesn’t mean the grade they had on March 13 will be the grade they will have on the last day of school,” Cotton said. “Any additional learning or feedback or grades can enhance a student’s final grade. Anything that happens during remote learning can make that grade better and bring that grade up.”
That’s one of the other changes DPI put in place for remote learning. Under the new plan, no work produced between now and the end of school will lower a student’s grade.
“We have been told by DPI that there should be no negative impact on a student’s final grade because of remote learning,” Cotton said. “The only thing that can happen is that their grades can be made better.”
When Are Grades Given Out?
But how will that happen? How do teachers decide when to give graded work? Cotton explained that an assignment can only be given out for a grade if it meets several guidelines.
First, the assignment has to be accessible to everyone in the class, including those who have no internet. To set this up, teachers called each student and their parents over the last two weeks, checking if the family had access to the internet. They found an estimated 80 percent of students could get lessons online. Paper packets with the same assignments were sent to families who fall in the other 20 percent. As for how often those packets are updated? It depends on the school.
“That varies from school to school,” Cotton said. “Some are doing it once a week, some are swapping packets with meals [when parents pick up food.]”
The district also let middle and high school students come in and pick up their laptops during this time. All of the high school students picked up theirs and 50 percent of middle school students did the same, Cotton said. As for the lack of internet? Wilkes Communications set up a temporary solution, one that we talk about here.
In addition to making sure everyone has access for an assignment, there’s the issue of communication. Teachers can’t just give a packet and leave. There has to be consistent communication between the teacher and student for each assignment, with documented evidence to prove this. On March 27, district officials gave out remote learning checklists to Wilkes County principals, asking them to follow up and make sure these rules were followed.
“We asked principals to monitor teacher lesson plans, that they [make sure] teachers were documenting student contact, that teachers were also assessing student progress,” Cotton said.
Setting Up a New Structure
Beyond giving out assignments, many schools are also handing out meals each day for students. Marty Johnson, Director of Child Nutrition for Wilkes Public Schools, told school board officials that as of this week, 153,098 meals had been given out.
“That’s been done through our drive-thru car line service,” Johnson told the board, adding that they provide breakfast and lunch.
All of the district’s 20 sites will be operating during the upcoming Spring Break week as well. Even when they do take off for Good Friday and Easter Monday, Johnson said they’ll make sure students have enough food.
“We will not be operating [on] Friday, April 10, but we will be providing food for Friday and [the next] Monday on Thursday, April 9,” Johnson said.
Brian Carlton is the editor of NWNC Magazine. He can be reached at brian@nwncmagazine.com.
