Spokane Schools Move Away From Letter Grades

Doug Nadvornick
11/19/2009

This week, school teachers in Spokane are meeting with parents to talk about students' fall grades. What's different this year, for grades four through six anyway, is that the traditional letter grades are gone. They've been replaced by a more comprehensive system of measuring student progress.

Sound: Students talking in a classroom.

In Linda Widman's sixth grade class, students are making folders. Inside, they'll place the papers that the students will present during parent–teacher conferences. Those include report cards.

Dr. Tammy Campbell is the Spokane School District's director of teaching and learning. She says these new report cards don't use one grade for one subject. Instead, they use a number system that scores students on several skills within individual areas.

Campbell: "So instead of just talking about math, there's a line that says 'geometric attributes.' There's specifics and the parents and the students know exactly where they are around that standard as opposed to the topic of math."

Campbell says the grades focus exclusively on academics. She says other factors, like behavior, are listed separately.

Campbell says several Spokane schools tested the new report cards last year, with positive reviews from parents. She says Spokane's middle and high schools still use letter grades, but may move to the new system in the future.

I'm Doug Nadvornick in Spokane.

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