<p>I detest the number system we have in elementary school, mostly because all the teachers do not use it the same way.</p>
<p>1) For some teachers, a grade less than 4 simply means that the class hasn’t covered enough material yet for the child to have mastered the subject area completely. In other words, no one had the possibility of getting a 4 because the subject hadn’t been taught in its entirety yet. The next marking period, almost the whole class gets promoted to 4’s. The phys ed., music, and art teachers tend to give most kids 3’s the first half of the year, and then move them up to 4’s, irrespective of actual knowledge or performance (They see too many kids each week to want to truly assess that and so just give everyone the same numbers. I laugh that my 2 older kids, who had taken music lessons for several years prior, based on their grades supposedly did not understand basic musical concepts. Didn’t keep them out of advanced band, though!)</p>
<p>2) Other teachers use the 4 to mean an A, the 3 a B, etc.</p>
<p>3) Lastly, some teachers assign those numbers based on effort. My special ed. kid gets great grades. I’ve complained to the child study team that if we were to change disticts, I’d have a hard time justifying services for D since she’s getting all 3’s and 4’s! This method irks me the most. I’ve asked if D’s 4’s are equivalent to the 4’s of other children, and they’ve admitted that they aren’t. How stupid is that?</p>