The Prichard Committee is collecting stories from parents, students and teachers about grading practices in Kentucky’s K-12 education system. Through Zoom meetings, citizen research and surveys, Prichard Committee staff and volunteers will examine how grading practices differ between classrooms, schools, and districts, and how students’ grades have been impacted during remote learning.
Following a period of data collection, the Prichard Committee will release its findings and recommendations in the Spring.
On Feb. 11, we hosted the first roundtable discussion on this topic and nearly 40 Kentuckians contributed their voices. Some parents voiced concern that their children who received good grades during in-person learning are now receiving failing grades during non-traditional instruction. Teachers who participated said NTI exposed the inequities that existed before, showing that kids who have parental support for their learning can thrive in the NTI environment, while others, with little to no support, are floundering.
Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership Fellow Candidate Valerie Frost has been conducting interviews with parents and educators to support this work and has found that parents are experiencing a wide range of scenarios.
“My high school daughter has a couple of classes she’s failing. My son has a bunch of classes he’s failing. Neither was failing before COVID. My son’s grades weren’t the best but my daughter has always done really well in school. She doesn’t like to learn on a computer. She wants a teacher. It has clearly affected their grades,” said a parent from Bowling Green.
Another parent reported that her child is thriving.
“I think my child has thrived with being able to be at home. It’s varied right now by the household. I think if anyone is having issues it would be the younger ones. For some kids who haven’t done [schoolwork], I think their grades have gone down. That’s not allowed in my house. There are no excuses for bad grades with the amount of hands-on we do with schooling,” said a parent from Russellville.
Read more from Valerie Frost’s research on this topic here.
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