A student was promised a shopping trip, phone and other rewards if he made all A’s and B’s. After getting the reward, it was back to C’s, D’s and F’s.
Park School fourth-grade teacher Dorothy Leidig shared her frustrations with the school board at the beginning of its meeting on Monday. She emphasized the need for baseline standards in education to prevent student complacency, and she suggested retaining elementary students in some cases – having them repeat a grade if they don’t “exhibit mastery of essential skills in reading, writing and math,” as stated in one list of district goals.
In the case of the student who stopped making A’s and B’s, Leidig asked what happened and was told, “I don’t have anything. You’re not going to give me anything; my parents aren’t giving anything. What’s the point?”
She cited examples of students who perform well with incentives but revert to poor grades when rewards are removed, highlighting the issue of instant gratification.
“I’ve had kids tell me, ‘I don’t have to do that. My mom says I don’t have to, you’ll still pass me. So why do I have to do that?’ OK, we need something, because this is leading into teacher burnout,” Leidig said.
“If we allow kids to simply go through – C’s, D’s, F’s – how it that mastery?” In her fourth-grade class, 52% are at a second-grade level or below when it comes to how many words per minute they can read; 57% are two grade levels below the fourth grade in reading comprehension and 48% are two grade levels below in math.
Leidig presented data for and against retention. Although she acknowledged data can support any position, she said most of it favored the practice.
She stressed the importance of setting standards to produce productive citizens and questioned the long-term impact of allowing students to pass without meeting basic requirements.
The teacher was not on the agenda but asked to address the board. With a timer going off after 5 minutes, Leidig’s time before the board ended. Board President Jacquie Disque thanked her for her comments. She provided a summary of the district’s policy for public forums, which is also on every agenda:
“Persons may present ideas or concerns regarding USD 428. The Board will take no action at this meeting. Such items will be referred to the appropriate administrator(s) for future information and researched and reported back to the board at a later meeting. ...”
Board member Sara Williams commented, “If we’re just advancing students ... this makes me feel like we’re essentially giving some of our students participation medals, rather than hold them to USD 428 standards.”
Leidig did not stay for the rest of the meeting, but the topic of grade retention came up again during the curriculum reports from Assistant Superintendent John Popp and Director of Teaching and Learning JoAnn Blivens. Popp reported that state assessment tests are going on now. Blevins talked about standards-based learning, sharing how the district monitors student progress in learning content standards set by Kansas.
Board member Williams pointed out that this is related to Leidig’s comments. Holding up some of the material the teacher handed out to the board, Williams said, “The goal of ‘mastery’ has not been met.”
The discussion among board members and administrators continued, with administrators supporting the Multi-Tiered Support System (MTSS) now used to help students who need intervention. The administrators do not support retention of elementary students.
“I’d be very careful of retaining kids at the third or fourth-grade level,” Popp said.
“Don’t punish or threaten to punish with retention,” Blevins agreed.
Board member Randy Wetzel, a former high school administrator, said “Threatening kids doesn’t work.”
On the subject of standards-based learning, Blevins said, “It might be time for standards-based grade cards.”
Williams brought the subject back to Leidig’s concerns about standards and burnout. “We need to make sure teachers like her are feeling heard.”
