With new grading software on the horizon for the Sippican School, Principal Evelyn Rivet believes the time is right to talk about how best to grade students without discouraging them from learning.

Next year, the Sippican School will adopt a new grading component of their PowerSchool system called PowerGrade. Both software systems track the student’s progress online where parents can view their child’s attendance history, teacher comments and grades. With PowerGrade, parents can view their child's grades and assignments online more extensively than before.

PowerSchool has been used by the school for the past year, but Rivet said the current grading system should be reviewed before going live with PowerGrade next year because of the program's capability in accommodating a variety of grading systems.

Sippican School's grading system, as it is now, is based on a 1-4 scale for kindergarten through grade 3, and letter grades for grades 4 through 6.  Rivet said she questions whether assigning a low grade such as a “1” to the lower grades, or a “D” to the higher grades, is beneficial to the student’s development.

“The research shows that giving a child low grades doesn’t stimulate learning,” Rivet said. “We need to bring a child to proficiency, and when they are not at that level of proficiency, it’s our constructive feedback that brings them where they should be.”

Rivet said this is not an effort to sugarcoat the grades by eliminating bad scores out of fear the students will lose interest in learning, but rather a chance to get a consensus on how others believe the current system is holding up before the new software is put in place.

Rivet said she would like to get feedback from the school community on ideas they may have on a grading system that would encourage more student and parent participation.

“Right now we are looking at what a child should learn at the each grade level,” Rivet said. “We want to see how do teachers communicate what students know at the end of the year to parents.”

Rivet said she initiated the discussion about the grading system because she wants the grades given, as well as the constructive feedback the grades come with, to reflect the student’s understanding of a subject.

“We need to give the child room to grow,” she said. “Even if the child is given an ‘A’ or a ‘100,’ their natural reaction is, ‘here’s the grade now I can file the paper away.’ All of the constructive criticism is lost.”

Rivet said she wants both students and their parents to be able to get a comprehensive assessment of how the student is doing in classes, especially given the capabilities of the PowerGrade software.

Elise Frangos, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the district, agreed with Rivet during the Dec. 7 meeting with the School Committee that giving a student a bad grade can be detrimental to their learning.

“We need to use grades as a way to empower kids and not as a weapon,” Frangos said.

School Committee member Christine Winters said a change in the system might help parents better understand the areas that their child may need work in.

“Parents are looking for clarity,” Winters said. “They want to know where their kids stand so they know what level of engagement they need to have with their child at home.”

Rivet said the potential changes to the grading system are only in the research stage while school officials determines how best to communicate to the students and to their parents how they are doing.

“This is just preliminary but we want to share with all of the interested parties in doing this – teachers, parents and members of the community,” she said.

Most of the teaching staff of Sippican School, she said have been open to the discussion.

“All are partners in the learning process,” she said. “We have some people who love the way we already do business and some who think we can do business better. We’ll have to see where the discussion takes us.”