Standards Referenced Grading Put on Hold

Kristy Duong, Reporter

There has been a pause in the timeline of SRG implementation.

“So because of the pandemic all the preparation and support and training we wanted to do with teachers we haven’t been able to do because of having to shift all last year to remote learning,” said Holly Ingram, Executive Director of Secondary Curriculum and Instruction.

COVID is part of the reason for the pause but many teachers feel like they are not prepared.

“I’m a little bit prepared but I don’t think our scale are really ready yet because I’m still kind of working out the bugs,” art teacher Gina Brillhart said.

“Like on a lot of the trainings they haven’t necessarily used English standards. They’ve just shown us other people’s. So that leaves me with a little bit of question,” English teacher Jacob Thimesch said.

The original plan was for SRG to be implemented for all freshman entry-level classes.

The new plan is another year of piloting it

“We are slowing down as far as implementing the grading. So not all Algebra 1 or all English 1 courses. It’ll just be based on individual teachers who might feel ready to start that in their course,” Ingram said. 

Many teachers are glad that there is a pause.

“I think overall we just need to stop and get everyone else more information so they better understand from what’s going on. Both teachers, students, and parents,” History teacher, Jonathan Buster said.

“So I think for teachers like that are like the singleton classes it’s going to be really helpful for them,” Thimesch said. 

“It’ll give me another year of being able to work with it and then maybe have some suggestions and a model for other art teachers to use,” Brillhart said. 

There could still be more changes in the future.

“Next year we will gather feedback from teachers and administrators again,” Ingram said. “So just see how it is and how we adjust back to how things are going right now. So there’s no set plan beyond the 22-23 school year. So what happens after that will be communicated next year.”