Revised Current Events

Surrey is deciding if they should get rid of letter grades. The new program is being called constructive feedback. 39 schools have joined and they are expecting more to join this program. The plan is to take out letter grades and replace it with in-depth feedback. They want to give more information on projects and tasks.

Instead of using letter grades like A, B, and C they want to give more knowledge to the parents and students on how their projects and tasks were done. It would give a better understanding of how the students are doing. With this new system it will help parents and students see where their strengths and weaknesses and where they also need help. The principle of George Vanier Elementary in Surrey said that letter grades are good but if you see an A they know that the student is doing well but it limits how students and parents connect over their education. They are hoping that with removing grades it steers people to more descriptive feedback.

Some people don’t want to get rid of the letter grades. When someone sees a good letter grade it strives them to keep on doing well. Or when someone isn’t doing that well they get motivated to do better and try to get higher letter grades. Some people also think that if they need help on something the teacher should talk to them and their parents straightforward.

My opinion is that they should keep letter grades. Letter grades give more motivation for some people to do better. It would probably be easier for teachers too because they already have a lot to do and writing a paragraph for every student in every subject would be difficult and a lot more work. Letter grades are better to see if you’re doing good or not. If the teachers give you the feedback you will know what you have to better but not how well you’re doing and what your grades are.

With this new system it will help give parents better feedback. It will be better for parents because they will know more on how their child is doing in school. The district will decide during the summer if they will change to the new program permanently.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/surrey-school-district-extends-its-no-letter-grades-program-1.2485832

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Surrey+Maple+Ridge+schools+letter+grades/9365634/story.html

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/dozens-more-surrey-schools-consider-scrapping-letter-grades-1.1630197