B.C Premier Christy Clark responded to a report in The Globe and Mail with a tweet Monday that said: “To be completely clear, B.C. is not getting rid of letter grades for our students.”Ben Nelms/The Globe and Mail
B.C. Premier Christy Clark and her education minister say there are no immediate plans to implement grades-free report cards across the school system, even as some districts experiment with assessing students' work without traditional letter grades.
Several districts in the Vancouver region and Vancouver Island have launched small-scale pilot programs to use report cards without letter grades, primarily focused on Grades 4 through 7. They include Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, Comox Valley, Surrey and most recently Sea to Sky, where officials say they want to eventually use the new reporting system for all grades.
The specific details vary between district, but the new reporting systems focus on detailed feedback while including students, parents and teachers during in-person updates throughout the school year. The change is designed to give the students and their parents a better picture of their progress.
Ms. Clark responded to a report in The Globe and Mail about the issue with a tweet Monday that said: "To be completely clear, B.C. is not getting rid of letter grades for our students." Ms. Clark was not available for an interview to expand on her comments and her office directed questions to Education Minister Mike Bernier.
Mr. Bernier said the Premier wanted to assure parents that letter grades would not be pulled out from under them, especially for Grades 10 through 12, where students are often looking toward postsecondary applications.
"We wanted to send a strong message that if you're getting letter grades right now, that will continue," Mr. Bernier said.
He noted the province is currently updating the curriculum for Grades 10 through 12, including updating the reporting and evaluation practices. The ministry has been consulting with districts, teachers and parents about assessment practices and a report is due by the end of the school year.
"We are in the process of changing and modernizing our education system, we're global leaders and we want to stay there," Mr. Bernier said. "[But] there's been no decisions made yet, we're still in the process of gathering info."
The Premier's reaction came as a surprise to the province's teacher's union, which has been working with Education Ministry officials on developing a grades-free system.
"The Premier's [message] today is completely at odds with what senior ministry officials have been saying in the field and encouraging school districts to try," said Glen Hansman, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation.
The experiments with grades-free report cards, and the political response, have highlighted concerns from parents about moving to a system without letter grades, which has been in place for more than 100 years. The push toward grades-free reports has been an uneven process that looks different from district to district and school to school.
Janice Sowden said her children's school, Pacific Heights in South Surrey, has not communicated the process properly. Her oldest is in Grade 4 and has been getting a grades-free report card for about two years. Ms. Sowden is still angry and frustrated with the new system, following meetings with her school's principal and the Surrey superintendent of schools.
"People were blindsided," she said. "We as parents were furious. … We have felt that our argument falls on deaf ears. I did not see any effort to truly engage [us]."
Ms. Sowden said that while she understands the intent of the new grading assessment is to provide more feedback, she's finding that, in practice, she and her children are receiving less.
"I think this effort is doing an incredible disservice to our kids," she said.
For some parents in the Maple Ridge school district, the transition has been smoother. Holly Elson, a teacher and mother of three, said she was "very grateful" to Maple Ridge for the district's leadership in developing its new grading system.
"I'm very happy with the way that our kids' reporting has gone at the school. So far I think it's fabulous. It's incredibly powerful for the students because it puts them in the driver's seat."