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Different schools are taking different approaches to proficiency-based learning. File photo by Jennifer Hauck/Valley News
This article By Kayla Collier was published in the Stowe Reporter on June 14.
In Stowe, proficiency-based learning has removed the sense of competition among students, according to a survey of the students themselves.
Competition has been a major motivation for students who strive always for an A in class, and in some cases proficiency-based learning has dissolved the motivation students need to succeed, the students say.
Proficiency-based learning, mandated by the state government, is intended to track and report whether a student has mastered a concept, and to provide extra support to students who need it.
It replaces the time-honored system that graduates students based on the number of classes they’ve passed.
A few weeks ago, a survey was conducted by Stowe High School freshmen and sophomores. Of the 68 students who responded — nearly half of the 138 total students in the two grades — 60.3 percent said they don’t feel motivated to do their work under the new grading and learning system.
Last November, a group of students, including sophomore Forest Laporte, said that, under the new system, “there is less competition, and it doesn’t separate those who want to be valedictorian from those who don’t aim that high.”
That’s actually what the system was intended to do.
Pick your method
The lack of motivation was an unintended consequence that will require a culture shift to fix, said Krista Huling, who chairs the State Board of Education. She believes motivations should be internal rather than external.
“Proficiency-based grading is not about competition,” Huling said. “It’s about everyone reaching a certain level of proficiency.”
Added state board co-chair Bill Mathis: “If we can get everyone at a 4 or 5 level, isn’t that what democracy asks of the public school system?”
Stowe’s new grading system is based on a 1 to 5 scale, with a 1 signifying “getting started” and a 5 “proficient with distinction.”
Stowe decided to get rid of the common A through F, 100-point grading system altogether — which is part of the problem — though Huling says Stowe wasn’t required to do so.
South Burlington High School, where Huling teaches, opted for a hybrid model, reporting proficiencies alongside letter grades.
The result is that students still go for the highest letter grade, but Huling’s not sure that is a good thing when the state is trying to promote lifelong learners.
Eventually, she thinks the school will move to reporting only proficiencies, but says residents aren’t ready for that change.
“In our system, you can show that you are not proficient, but also have a passing grade,” Huling said. “So, if you’re shooting for an A, what does that really mean? I think putting the proficiencies next to the grade gives a clearer picture.”
Different strokes
Mount Abraham in Bristol has embraced the idea is how to improve, rather than what each student’s grade is, she added.
Northfield High School gave up grades and opted for the same report card from kindergarten through 12th grade, offering a closer look at how a student has progressed over the years.
There’s no one way to do it, and while it would be easier to require every school to have the same system, state law gives supervisory unions the power to establish their own schools’ curriculum, which would inform the new proficiencies.
Proficiency-based learning is about defining what the school system wants students to learn and honing in on that without having to make everyone slavishly follow a textbook, Mathis said.
Creating school curriculums at the local level is one of the few powers local boards have left.
A teacher’s view
“I think proficiency-based learning is intended to work by eliminating the possibility of failure,” said Peter Berger, an English teacher at Weathersfield School who authors a regular column, “Poor Elijah’s Almanak.
“I don’t think eliminating competition is the worst of it,” he added.
Berger has had students in his class ask, “Why should we work when we can’t fail?”
Rubric-based learning and grading has been an abysmal failure in the past, Berger says.
“How can you judge whether an essay wanders versus meanders?” he said. “How do you determine whether a student receives a 4, 3, 2 or 1 on something like ‘solicits and listens to feedback’?”
The premise is that the 4 or 5 numbered grading list is more accurate than the letter grades, but Berger doesn’t think that’s true.
The lowest score you can get on a proficiency is a 1, so “somebody who hasn’t even started may get the same score as somebody who is trying hard, but struggling? How can you have individual learning plans and standardized grading?” Berger said.
Berger thinks that the proficiency-based grading 2020 mandate is unreasonable and his guess is that it will eventually be abandoned.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Proficiency-based learning fails to motivate some students.