Meadows Valley School Board Welcomes New Ag Teacher, Evaluates Elem. Grading System
The Meadows Valley School Board held their monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 11. Teachers Terri Smith, Katie Wright, Tashia Kerby and Rachael Melad, the new Ag teacher, were present along with a high school student, and two parents. Agenda items included introduction of Melad, approval of the budget, Superintendent’s report, and a presentation by Smith and Wright about traditional vs. standards based grading systems.
Superintendent & Principal Dee Fredrickson introduced the School Board to new Ag teacher Rachael Melad. After graduating from U of I, Melad taught at Murtaugh school and she will be a great addition to the New Meadows team. Agriculture as a subject is encompassing, so options for classes can include everything from economics, business, leadership, and speech to animal science, plant science, welding, and career exploration. To prepare for the wide array of classes, Melad is reorganizing work spaces including getting welding space ready and functional in the woodshop room and getting the greenhouse prepared to be even more productive. Melad is attending a Summer Inservice for Idaho Ag teachers, attending Farm Bureau meetings, and working on getting involved with the Adams County Fair and Fairboard.
Melad is also invested in starting an FFA chapter at New Meadows. As someone who grew up in FFA and did 13 years in 4-H, she has a passion for these organizations and is excited about getting students involved in the future. The first steps toward getting an FFA Chapter in New Meadows will be getting an FFA Alumni Charter started. Participants do not need to have participated in FFA to join. This is a support club for the FFA members and all are welcome. Community House Thrift Store has offered some funding to help with the new programs.
After Board introductions, Fredrickson began her Superintendent Report which included noting that Meadows Valley will be up for Federal Programs Review this next school year. This review occurs every five years.
Fredrickson then introduced the discussion on proficiency scales related to tracking student progress on grading. She said the teachers had asked about changing the elementary grading system from a traditional numbers based system to a standards based grading system. The teachers were seeing that the standards based system offered significantly more useful information to them regarding student mastery on each subject. The standards based system also would give more information to students and parents on report cards. Fredrickson asked the teachers to report back on why they felt this change was important and valuable for the school, community, students, and parents. Teachers Smith and Wright then introduced a video to the board about traditional vs. standards based grading put together by Nampa School District.
The goal in standards based grading would be to grade skills and knowledge within each subject with more detail so that at the end of each grading period, the teacher, students, and parents have a clear idea of whether the student has met, exceeded, or needs more work on individual skills. Each school subject could have multiple standards for student performance and measurable benchmarks that could be assessed by any teacher or evaluator. Smith explained that a standards based system would put all of the teachers on the same page as far as grading and would give teachers proof of what makes up each grade and score. In subjects like English and Math, many components make up the overall grade. In English for example, some secondary subjects involved are fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, and spelling. Having measurable data on each secondary subject would allow teachers to see where students need further support and communicate more specifically to parents.
To move forward with this grading change, the school board will need to adopt a Grading Policy at their next meeting in July. The teachers would then formulate the grading system based on the policy. The teachers have previously come up with essential standards for each subject that they could utilize. Wright noted that they will continue to include a key on the report cards to help explain the grading levels. She also affirmed that the school will continue its intervention programs to help individual student mastery. The first time grades would come out with this new system would be at Student Led Conferences in the Fall, so parents would be able to get further individual explanation in person about the changes.
Fredrickson gave a few more brief updates to close out her report. The employee housing is cleared out and ServPro should be starting their work soon. Research and hiring of a contractor for the front entrance access control door installation is still ongoing. Fredrickson is working to get a quote to the board for approval along with having a contractor scheduled. The door installation would take less than a week and to put in the monitoring system should take less than two days. A candidate for the secondary science position was recently interviewed.
School Board Chairperson Barbara Dixon reported that a high quality drum set was donated to the school. This will be a great asset for the music program.
The public meeting was adjourned for the executive session following a vote of agreement. The next school board meeting will be held on Tuesday, July 9th.
