Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, November 7, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife Catholic Schools is using a new assessment system for report cards, to the protest of some parents, acknowledged superintendent Kern Von Hagen.

Using theories developed by Rick Stiggins, a U.S.-based scholar who works on improving assessment systems, the school board will stop assigning zeros for incomplete assignments, and lowering grades for bad behaviour.

Those habits will be reported separately from academic achievement.

"If you penalize on the knowledge side for learning habits, you're blurring the line," said Von Hagen as he presented the new assessment system to the school board Oct. 24.

"We're putting the penalty where it doesn't belong."

When the system was first introduced in schools, Von Hagen said they received some protests from parents.

"The concern was we weren't going to prepare kids for the real world," said Von Hagen.

The concern was that students won't be held up to the same standards and deadlines they will encounter when entering the workforce after completing school.

Von Hagen said that even in the workplace deadlines and work structure aren't as strict as some people may envision.

"If you tried to do to adults what we to do kids in school, there would be rebellion."

Since students are just developing their working habits, Von Hagen said there has to be some encouragement for children with difficulties to continue.

The intent is to give students a chance to turn a page during the year, even if they went through a bad period of poor work habits.

Teachers can choose to give students a chance to complete alternative assignments, or disregard the incomplete work if the student can prove they've retained the necessary knowledge.

To ensure that poor working habits are noted, the reporting system will have a separate area to evaluate behaviour.

The Stiggins system works with the theory that assessment is a part of the learning process, rather than just a report on the outcome of learning. The system included an interim report that was sent home to students at the beginning of October with feedback indicating the students' progress on learning habits, time management and progress to date.

Other than listing the number of absences and late attendances, the report doesn't include any grades, only descriptions of the student's behaviour.

The mid-term report card was sent home to high school students Oct. 29 and is coming to elementary school students the third week of November. The mid-term report gives a breakdown of marks and a description of the students learning habits and a detailed assessment of the students' learning habits.

The new system gives more freedom to teachers in deciding how to deal with poor working habits. Claudia Parker, assistant-superintendent of learning for YCS, said having a more interpretive assessment system should be especially useful for inclusive schooling.

Inclusive schooling keeps students at all learning levels in the same classroom, rather than having separate classes for students with learning disabilities

"One size does not fit all," said Parker.

"Not all people learn the same way, so how can we expect to show them how they're doing in the same way?"