Sometimes I feel like I should be sending notes of appreciation to the Madison school district. They never stop providing me with topics.
This morning it’s grades. They’re getting rid of them. No more letters, only “advanced,” “proficient,” “developing,” and “emerging.” Only four categories — apparently no one will fail.
Actually, this is nothing new. MMSD has had this system for elementary and middle schoolers for a while and it was being “piloted” (read: phased in) at East High School. Now it will go districtwide at some point in the next couple of years.
For elementary students I’m not sure this is such a bad idea. No reason to crush the souls of little kids with D’s and F’s. But when a kid gets to high school he should start to get a taste of the real world, where there is, in fact, such a thing as failure. And dealing with those inevitable failures is something adults need to learn to do. Shielding kids from disappointment is a bad idea — especially when it’s disappointment in himself.
So, to equate the dismal performance of a D with “emerging” is not such a great idea by the time a student reaches high school. To make matters worse they won’t take into account attendance or behavior. There are different kinds of D’s (sorry, “emergers”). There are kids who are trying hard but just haven’t been able to master the material yet. And then there are kids who don’t try, don’t even show up and are disruptive when they do. There needs to be some way of making that distinction.
And, of course, there’s also a hint of silliness about it all. Because high schoolers need grade point averages for college admissions purposes, the words will be translated into grades at semester’s end. So, every kid knows that when he’s “emerging” he’s blossoming into a D.
This isn’t the worst thing this district has done. Dismissing cops from high schools, the notorious Behavior Education Plan, the crummy performance on standardized tests, the rampant absenteeism, the growing and inexcusable racial performance gap, the arrogant disregard of taxpayers and the general bad management are all worse than doing away with grades.
But, all in all, it’s just another brick in the wall. Hey, teachers, give those kids a grade.
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
Thank you for the great commentary on the MMSD fiasco Dave.
Though it could be cloaked in enlightened educational theory, this smells like adjusting the goal posts so that the responsible parties can void themselves of their responsibilities.
And the superintendent still says nothing. Maybe he’s an AI ghost and not a real person.
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{“Advanced,” “proficient,” “developing,” and “emerging.” Only four categories — }
Actually there is one more category, even lower than “emerging”. And it applies to your School Board, and all others running your public schools. And that is —- “Comfortably Numb”
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I agree that we have a deeply flawed group of people on the school board. Am I remembering incorrectly that school boards used to have at least a few Chamber of Commerce types who maybe included folks who knew about finance and running a large business?
I encourage you to identify a couple of ways to attract those types to run for office and get elected. I suggest that the current board looks more like a student council whose agenda and limits are controlled by the administration.
Ken Streit
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I think the best thing we can do is to go to districts. Right now every board member runs citywide. I’ve run citywide campaigns. They take a lot of money. As a result, this puts a lot of power in the hands of the teachers union. Districts would give other candidates a shot and, moreover, less liberal parts of the city might send more moderate members to the board.
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