Simi Schools Swap Letter Grades for Checklists

In Simi Valley, not one student in kindergarten through second grade received an A this reporting period.

But no one received an F either.

Instead, the youngest students in the Simi Valley Unified School District went home with a new report card--one with a checklist of 171 skills, instead of the usual handful of letter grades. The report card, developed last year by educators and introduced districtwide this year during parent-teacher conferences, won support from many parents, who said it provided a more thorough account of their children’s capabilities.

“They explain in more detail how a child is doing, where his strengths and weaknesses are,” said Cindy Kime, mother of a first-grader at Justin School. “You don’t have to guess.”

But a few Simi Valley parents would like to return to the traditional grading system. “You want to have some kind of knowledge of where they fit in,” said Coleen Ary, who has three children at Hollow Hills Fundamental School. “This is a competitive world.”

Educators, however, say removing competition in the younger grades is precisely the point of replacing the A through F grading method.

“You start labeling them and sorting them, and kids begin to see themselves as less capable, even though it’s mainly developmental differences,” Deputy Supt. Susan Parks said. “A year makes such a difference at that age.”

With the new report cards, the Simi Valley district joins several others in Ventura County that have adopted the approach of presenting parents not with grades but a list of what their child does in class.

One Simi Valley elementary school, Park View, has used the new cards for three years for kindergarten through sixth-grade students. The school board agreed last spring to expand the program to kindergarten through second-grade students at all schools.

Park View Principal Robin Hunter said the rating system prevents schools from merely sorting children on the basis of their ability. He said it forces teachers and parents to evaluate exactly what their child is learning in school so that they can work on problem areas and encourage strengths.

“As educators, it is important to help all kids learn as much as possible,” Hunter said. “The weeding-out process is going to take place all their lives.”

The schools still are ironing out some of the glitches in the new system. At Hollow Hills, administrators bought a stamp stating “consistently” after some parents complained that the words rarely, sometimes and usually were not thorough enough to describe behavior traits such as “interacts well with peers and adults” and “returns homework promptly.”

Teachers said the new cards take longer to fill out than the traditional ones. Marsha Cutler, a first-grade teacher at Justin School, said it takes about 20 extra minutes per card to go through and circle descriptions of student skills ranging from “holds book upright” to “uses a variety of math strategies and tools to solve real life problems.”

But Cutler believes the extra time is worth it.

“I’m hoping that it shows parents the skills they need to be working on with their children,” Cutler said. “It allows children who are maturing a little bit later to feel part of the group.”

The new grading system is the result of a survey in which the district’s teachers said they were willing to try a new approach of rating students’ abilities.

The Ventura Unified and Pleasant Valley school districts already have moved to a developmentally based method of grading their youngest students.

The Conejo Unified School District does not use traditional A-F grades, but does rate children on a similar scale using O for outstanding, G for good and S for satisfactory. The card does not break down achievement into smaller categories such as the Simi Valley card. Meadows School is the only school in the Conejo district that has scrapped grades altogether in favor of the more personalized evaluations.

The Oxnard Elementary District still uses letter grades, but Richard Duarte, assistant superintendent of educational services, said he would like to see the district adopt a checklist similar to the Simi Valley district.

“We would like to eventually, but it’s something that’s difficult to do,” Duarte said. “It’s difficult to explain to parents. It’s a whole new learning process for them.”

Simi Valley educators are still awaiting the results of a survey of parents to determine whether they like the new report cards. But slips returned during parent-teacher conferences and parents interviewed in recent weeks indicate that the new grading system is catching on in Simi Valley.

“You can keep a better eye on your kids,” said Jody Sieska, who has a son at Justin School. Sieska said she would like to see the more detailed report cards introduced to students in the higher grades as well.

“They say, ‘Oh, I’m doing great in school,’ and then you see their report card. This way you can tell exactly what they can do.”