The Wake County school board's student achievement committee is expected to get into the issue today of what behaviors might be excluded from academic grades under proposed revisions to the grading policy.

At the last work session, the committee agreed to back restoring letter grades for grades 3-5. But some committee members expressed skepticism over changes such as counting retests, allowing late work to be handed in at a reduced penalty and eliminating extra credit.

Some committee members also want more discussion about how the policy revisions would handle cheating.

The committee will also discuss academic acceleration under policy 5532, dual enrollment for high school academic enrichment and expanded learning opportunities.

The Middle Creek Elementary bell schedule change, the new student assignment plan and the magnet school review make up most of the topics for the 22 speakers at tonight's Wake County school board meeting.

Former school board member Beverley Clark went right after Superintendent Tony Tata during her three minutes. She charged that teachers and principals say that Tata has created a "culture of fear and intimidation" and is only "paying lip service" to listening to teachers and principals.

Clark also charged that Tata has created an assignment plan that says "let's only teach the ones who mater." She said that group consists of families who apply to "esoteric academies" or who spend hours researching where to go.

Clark also urged the school board not to separate behavior from academic grade.

Some Wake County school board members want to have more of a direct say on proposed changes to the way grades are given to students.

Most of the contentious points of a proposed change in Wake's grading practices are in the R&P that administrators would use to implement board policy. That includes the banning of the use of extra credit, allowing retests to replace scores and limiting the penalty for late assignments.

But school board attorney Ann Majestic said today that the board could move items from R&P into the grading policy revision to determine what it considers to be the "non-negotiables" for staff to consider. That caught off guard administrators who thought the changes were in their purview.

The Wake County school board's policy committee will deal today with dual enrollment, family leave and the grading policy.

The dual enrollment policy deals with students who are simultaneously attending other institutions such as colleges for academic enrichment. The board leadership asked the committee to look at the policy.

The discussion on extended family professional leaves revolves around whether to hold spots at schools for families that may temporarily leave Wake. As it now stands, they'd lose their spot and have to apply in the selection process when they return.

The policy committee will pick up the discussion begun by the student achievement committee over whether to go ahead with changes in the grading policy and R&P that would separate classroom behaviors from academic grades. On a somewhat related note, the student achievement committee already backed returning to letter grades for grades 3-5.

The leadership of the Wake County school board may have changed, but staff is still advocating changes that would eliminate classroom behavior from academic grades.

As noted in today's article, staff came back with the same recommended changes that stalled before the prior board in August. Staff is seeking the new school board's approval to go ahead with this revised grading policy and new R&P.

During Thursday's student achievement committee meeting, board member John Tedesco was the main proponent of the changes. Board member Jim Martin was the main critic.

It looks like there's support for at least partially returning to letter grades on report cards in Wake County elementary schools

The school board's student achievement committee voted today in favor of a section of this draft grading R&P calling for letter grades to be used on report cards in third-, fourth- and fifth-grades. The committee also told staff to use a 10-point grading scale for those grades with an A being 90 to 100, a B being to 80 and 89 and so on.

That's different from the seven-point grading scale used in middle school and high school. The committee discussed moving to a 10-point scale in middle school. They have to leave the seven-point scale in place for high school because that's mandated under state law.

The proposed move to "standards-based" grading will be the main topic at today's first meeting of the reconstituted Wake County school board student achievement committee.

Ruth Stedinger, senior director of middle school programs, will give the committee an overview of the grading review and the recommendations that have been made. Recommendations such as reducing the value of homework, counting retests and letting students hand in work late caused the prior board to put the idea on hold.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children has been advocating Wake to implement the recommendations.

The grading review has gained new attention since the Panther Creek High cheating scandal. Panther Creek has been one of the schools that been pursuing the grading changes on its own, such as not giving zeros and allowing students who've cheated to take alternative exams or assignments.

The Coalition of Concerned Citizens for African American Children says that all Wake County students deserve the same second chance that's been given to the Panther Creek High School students who were caught cheating.

In this press release today, CCCAAC points to school officials having called the Panther Creek students who were allowed to take an alternative exam instead of getting a zero "good kids." The CCCAAC asks "how many children have received 0’s when caught cheating and failed the class for the year because they were not given a second chance?"  

The CCCAAC alleges racism in Wake not moving ahead with the grading review, writing that "discrimination, SEGREGATION occurs when students do not receive the same opportunities for achieving mastery and equity when being evaluated on graded activities."

"Are these students at Panther Creek more deserving of a second chance because they are from an affluent family and viewed as UPPER Middle Class students who attend one of the top schools in the nation?" the CCCAAC writes. "...All students deserve the same opportunities even if CAUGHT CHEATINIG (sic)!!"

The Panther Creek High cheating incident and the school budget proposal dominated much of the discussion today's news conference held by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Tata said he stands behind how Panther Creek issued short-term suspensions and in-school detentions for the five students who were caught cheating. They were also required to take an alternative exam to see if they knew the material.

Tata was asked how fair it was for Panther Creek to give an alternative exam when some schools would give zeros for cheating. Tata pointed back to the ongoing grading practices review and how principals have autonomy to make decisions within the broad framework of board policy.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

With cheating and grading being up for discussion now in Wake County, let's look to the situation at Panther Creek High School.

As noted in today's article, Wake County school officials said that five Panther Creek juniors were implicated in up to three incidents of cheating, including distributing copies of an exam. Students and parents say some of the students cited for cheating had been among the top 10 percent in academic rank in the junior class.

In terms of consequences, at least one student was removed from the National Honor Society. A student who distributed a test to several classmates received a short-term suspension and several students received detention as an in-school suspension.

Students also faced academic consequences such as having to take an alternative exam or do an alternative assignment.