SLA Media

SLAMedia is a publication of the news for the Science Leadership Academy community. Writers come from the student body in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades. We work in unison to create a functioning paper with biweekly postings on a variety of events.

Op/Ed

Roundtable: Standards-Based Report Cards

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At Science Leadership Academy, students receive narratives from teachers along with their report cards on the first and third quarter. However, the school began to implement standard-based evaluations along with report cards for the other two quarters. Standards are used by the teacher to evaluate the student’s performance based on a set of explicit skills. The goal is to measure the students’ progress in those skills.

We have selected two students and one teacher to weigh in on this topic. 

Junior Manna-Symone Middlebrooks 

Science Leadership Academy provides a unique learning environment centered around the success of its students. Apart of this environment is a non-traditional approach to grading students.

Standards-based grading makes learning more accessible to students of every learning type.  Because core classes are broken down into intermediate goals, students are able to work toward accomplishing each goal.

Take, for example, a United States History class, where gaining the skills to properly analyze and apply information found in primary sources is a standard. Through a variety of assignments and activities, students have the ability to grow this skill and make improvements when needed. At no point in time is fully reaching this goal unobtainable for students. This is due to the standard being assessed multiple times in a variety of ways, that cater to a variety of learners.

 The accessibility of gaining these skills are more more evident in math and science classes, where the number of standards is far greater than in humanities classes. Students are afforded the opportunity to retake all standard for reasons of their own discretion. This may mean that one student may retake a standard because their first attempt failed to meet the requirement, and another retake simply for practice. The overall goal is making sure that the student has far more room for success than failure.
The average high school does not cater to students individually. As introduction to a course, students are simply given a syllabus that describes what will be learned in the course. The syllabus does not, however, break down the class into basic skills that students can take and apply in further studies. This method focuses on what specific content is learned rather then grooming a skill set. A student with a wealth of information without a knowledgeable skill set is far less marketable then a student with both information and a knowledgeable skill set.

Having the ability to get the best of both in this situation, is unique to Science Leadership Academy. This opportunity sets a path for success for students and makes them more marketable in their  endeavors.

Senior Matthew Scuderi 
Whenever I think about standards and standards-based grading, I can’t help but wonder if they are the best system for assessing students in schools. Personally, the A, B, C, D, & F grading system, not standard based grading, has made up my education and my grades were always based on them, so I don’t feel as though standards are a bad thing to grade upon, but they aren’t always the best things to grade upon.
Schools in every state are funded by the Federal Government, but only under one condition; that schools implement the standards issued by the Federal Government into the education that they provide at their schools. The Federal Government is a major financial support that is crucial to each state’s educational funds and so schools are forced to implement the standards into their curriculum.
Standard based grading therefore can be a tricky thing because it is good that schools grade based on these standards, but there are some students that simply cannot work this way. Standards-based grading ignores things like effort, creativity, collaborative work, extra credit, and all the other things that don’t fall under standards. However, standards-based grading allows for students to observe areas of needed improvement and where they are doing well.

            SLA has implemented the standards-based grading in with the “old fashioned” system of A, B, C, D, & F grading, which I believe is the only possible way to still count the beneficial things from both grading systems. If the things like effort, creativity, etc. can be intertwined with standards based grading, then we have a winning grading system that allows for students to do better in areas that may not be included in standards in order to improve their grades, while also being able to observe areas that need work and areas that they do well in for each class.

There is no one perfect grading system, but the mixture of both the standards and the elements that lie outside of the standards, is simply excellent and very effective. If we don’t evaluate the necessary skills of students, then it is harder for them to improve, but if we totally ignore the extra efforts and skills that don’t fall under standards, then we don’t evaluate correctly.

History Teacher Juan Gabriel Sanchez 
From this teacher’s perspective, Standards-Based Grading (SBG) is a worthwhile endeavor. We understand that SBG is still a work in progress. In many ways it’s an idea, or maybe an ideal, and we’re working the kinks out. Believe me when I say, teachers would not invest our time unless we deemed the investment important. We are very purposeful in implementing new procedures at SLA.
By necessity, we discuss and debate what we feel is best for our students. To a person, this faculty is committed to doing right by our students. That needs to be very clear. Standards-based grades are no exception. As a faculty, we felt that the potential benefits – when we get it right -outweigh the costs, which we are very realistic about.
Let me be candid. I’m a big supporter of SBG’s. Yes, they’re more work for me and as such, can be a bit of a pain. Some students don’t appreciate them. As a faculty, different departments have very different standards – some more skill-based, others more content-based. I think we can do a better job with transparency and explaining to students why that is, both as teachers and as advisors.
To me, SBG’s are not just an aside to your grades. Similar to narratives, they are supplements that give you a clearer picture of what you do well and what you can and should improve on.
For example, the history department has very specific skills that we want students to develop: “Sources (meaning analysis), Research, Perspective, Discussion and Content”. These are the basic tools required to study history. We framed each standard according to how students should be able to use these tools in different grade levels.
Whereas grades amalgamate so many factors, SBG’s focus on specific items. A student who works hard and does well grade-wise might still be deficient in some skills or knowledge. SBG’s would give this students an idea of what he/she needs to do to continue their success.
I believe that with proper framing, students will start to see the value of SBG’s. I also believe that we as teachers need to make SBG’s more relevant and practical. Teachers should provide examples and use language that’s reflected in SBG’s. We should not only follow up with reflections but also preemptively discuss with students why we’ve created the system, what we’re trying to show, and why it’s important.
Building a common language will create more buy-in from students. It will also make teachers better at utilizing SBG’s as a teaching tool. As we bring more students into the discussion, we’ll learn collaboratively how to make it a better system.
That’s the beauty of SLA. We really listen to students and use that knowledge to improve our practices. If we are committed, intentional, and follow through in good faith, then SBG’s can really be something special and valuable, provided that students must do their part too of course – they must attempt to learn from the direction and feedback of their teachers, just as with any other tool, practice, or pedagogy.

Editorial: Don’t Limit Us Online

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Science Leadership Academy is well-known for its project based learning in integration with a 1-to-1 laptop program. The school accesses the internet via the School District of Philadelphia’s network, which uses extensive filters to both block certain websites and “quarantine” students if they use questionable programs.

Recently, a number of SLA students and teachers have been quarantined from the district’s network from accessing peer-to-peer file sharing online that operate under BitTorrent — and they were trying to watch President Obama on CNN.

Although the quarantine has interfered with the community’s learning environment, there is a larger issue in question regarding the freedom of access for SLA community.

Here is what we know at this point:

– Art teacher and technology coordinator Marcie Hull has been constantly requesting the District for a set list of restricted sites and programs but has received no answer.

– There is a process of paper work to be filed in cases of quarantine to gain reentry to the District’s network. However such process could take anywhere from a week to infinity.

– The District blocks all peer-to-peer file sharing, while in fact there is content that is distributed legally via this method. History teacher Diana Laufenberg was quarantined for accessing a CNN news clip for her class.

– When the district prohibits access to websites or programs across the board, it hinders the inquiry potential of the SLA community. Our learning goes beyond textbooks, and our access to resources should reflect that.

SLA will continue to maintain our core values of inquiry and research by utilizing the unrestricted sites. However, we are frustrated that our capability to learn has been limited. The dream solution would be that the district would stop restricting internet use, and trust teachers and students to make responsible choices in their schools. Assuming that SDP will not adopt this policy, we suggest that any and all of the following steps be taken:

– In order to prevent unnecessary quarantine, the District should share a complete list of sites and programs that it chooses to block.

– Administrators do face the same restrictions when it comes to internet use. If this status was extended to teachers, they could share appropriate content and materials with their students.

– The district should give students and teachers a chance to voice their opinions and explain how the policy affects their learning.

Unsigned editorials are written and approved by the SLAMedia Editorial Staff. They do not reflect the opinion of Science Leadership Academy and its employees. 

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