4 News December 2010www.thewestwordonline.com

Claire HowlettNews Reporter

In recent months, Dr. Judith singer, Director of Research for the stamford Public schools, es-tablished a committee of depart-ment heads, teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators with the objective of standardizing the high school grading system. As committee head, singer organizes and leads the group, which meets twice monthly.

Nearly every high school stu-dent has encountered discrepan-cies between the grading methods of teachers within the same sub-ject and class level. Though dif-ferent teachers of the same course usually follow one curriculum, evaluation systems tend to vary from teacher to teacher. For in-stance, a student in a College Preparatory (CP) Biology course may receive a higher grade than a student taking the same course with a different teacher despite their equal comprehension of the concepts. students and teachers alike are forced to question meth-ods of evaluation—how is a stu-dent’s understanding of material best evaluated? How can compre-

hension be measured equally by different teachers?

The role of the committee, according to committee member Principal Ms. Figluzzi, is not to alter the difficulty of classes but to equalize the grading meth-ods used by teachers of the same subject and course level. “The ultimate goal is for an ‘A’ in one tenth grade Honors english class to mean an ‘A’ in another tenth grade Honors english class,” Ms. Figluzzi said.

The committee includes the following members from westhill: english teacher Mr. von wahlde, Math Department Head Ms. Del-Grande, History Department Head Dr. Forbes, english Department Head Mrs. strom, Guidance De-partment Head Ms. Deluca, Ninth Grade Administrator Mr. Manka, and Ms. Figluizzi.

Committee members, who represent the staff of all three dis-trict high schools, are responsible for collecting and analyzing data pertaining to student evaluation. Immediately following the first meeting last spring, each member took on a small research project within his or her school to iden-tify the chief causes of variation in

grading method. By collecting materials dis-

tributed to parents at Open House Night, which typically include a course syllabus and description of grading protocol, committee mem-bers were able to identify basic differences in evaluation methods. These documents helped to clarify major contrasts between teachers’ grading processes; for example, quizzes may count as 15 percent of the final grade in one physics class and 25 percent in another physics class.

Ms. DelGrande noted that evaluation procedures can often amount to more than rough per-centages. “Teachers have much more than percentages to clari-fy…Though math teachers of the same subject usually count the same grade percentage for tests, one might give more tests than the other, which could change a student’s final course grade,” Ms.

DelGrande said. In short, the num-ber of projects and exams given during a single quarter is often as important as their grade value.

Perhaps the most difficult task of the committee is standardizing evaluation without restricting the personal teaching styles of educa-tors. “There must be some leeway for teachers to be creative and have freedom in their assignments,” Ms. DelGrande said.

Recently, the committee draft-ed a survey pertaining to individual teachers’ evaluation protocol. De-

partment heads obtained input from educators within their schools be-fore writing a final questionnaire. The revised survey, which requests information on the approximate number of tests, quizzes, and proj-ects given per quarter as well as their grade percentage value, will be distributed to high school teach-ers throughout the district on De-cember 15.

The group has also compiled information on the standards of neighboring school systems and districts across the country. “Na-tionwide, there are many school systems in the midst of address-ing the same problem,” Ms. Del-Grande said. The committee hopes to apply effective strategies used by other districts to the standard-ization issue currently facing stamford schools.

The key to making such sig-nificant change is collaboration within a department, another goal of the committee. In creating guidelines for grading, members hope to consistently appeal to indi-vidual educators for contribution. “Teachers should take advantage of the available opportunities for input,” Ms. Figluzzi said, citing the important role of educators themselves in establishing effec-tive evaluation systems.

Though committee members may differ in opinion on the best way to evaluate students, they agree on the importance of stan-dardization. “[The committee] is one of the most important com-mittees I’ve been involved in as an administrator,” Ms. Figluzzi said.

Committee seeks to standardize grading

The annual Holiday Bazaar took place on December 9 during periods 1-4. Jewelry, food, CDs, and Robeks smoothies were sold to students. The Holiday Bazaar was run by the Entrepreneurship classes.

Shaina Shaulson / Photographer

Students sell goods at Holiday Bazaar

“The ultimate goal is for an ‘A’ in one tenth grade Honors English class to mean an ‘A’ in another tenth grade Honors English class.”

—Principal Ms. Figluizzi