From: www.lubbockonline.com
By Karen Michael A-J Media
Lubbock-Cooper Independent School District is increasing the number of weeks per grading period from six to nine in the upcoming school year.
Sandra Beilue, director of curriculum and accountability, said district officials hope this change will give students more time to master concepts, and give teachers more time to reteach or reassess the students’ progress. Teachers will also have some additional time to think of special projects.
Beilue said this should also help students and teachers because some of the six-week grading periods actually get shortened to five weeks.
The increase to nine weeks is not expected to have any impact on the district calendar, the number of hours in a school day, the curriculum, state-mandated testing or graduation requirements.
It also won’t affect UIL eligibility, because students will continue to be accountable for grades after the first six weeks of the school year and eligible to return to activities after three more weeks. After the first six weeks, grades will be checked at the end of the grading period, whether it is 6, 9 or even 12 weeks in length, according to a guide from the Texas Education Agency and UIL about eligibility for extracurricular activities.
Lubbock-Cooper reached out to parents before making any decisions.
“This year, we surveyed parents and teachers and just got feedback,” she said. Parents and teachers voted in favor of the change.
Next year, parents will continue to get progress reports every three weeks, but on the ninth week, the report cards will go home.
“They’ll still get information on their student every three weeks, just like on a six-week period,” Beilue said.
Parents can also use Skyward to check their students’ grades even more often if needed.
“They don’t have to wait for the three-week progress report,” Beilue said.
Jana Rueter is the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for San Angelo ISD, which recently made the switch to nine-week grading periods.
“This provides our campuses more time to work on customized interventions for individual students to determine mastery of standards,” Rueter said. “We find that with the incorporation of three-week progress reports, we are able to provide parents with the feedback regarding their child’s success, as well as areas of need. We then have time to work with the child and parent to provide interventions and additional opportunities to exhibit mastery.”
Beilue noted that before she came to Lubbock-Cooper ISD, she taught at Humble ISD, which had the nine-week grading system.
“As a teacher, I did like having that extra time before giving a student a final grade,” she said. “I see more positives than negatives.”
Beilue said as the district also reached out to other school districts which have made the switch, such as Prosper ISD, McKinney ISD, Pearland ISD, Round Rock ISD, Killeen ISD, Socorro ISD, and and Spring ISD, among several others.