With the Perry School District wrapping up their first quarter parent-teacher conferences, the administration was able to examine how the new grading system has gone.

Elementary Principal Ned Menke said his school has gone to a standards-based grading system, which is a three-point scale that better categorizes the subjects students are learning. At the recent parent-teacher conferences, Menke found they had mostly positive feedback on the new system. “We want those parent-teacher conferences focused on the student. How they’re performing on not just the overall aspects of a subject, say math, but all those little parts of it. And now with the standards-based report card, we really feel like those conversations are happening. Really pleased with how it went.”

Menke added, they will continue to tweak and add to the standards-based grading system, so they can improve how they measure the progress of students. At the middle school, Principal Shaun Kruger reported similar success with their version of the system, called standards referenced reporting. The high school is the only level the standards-based system hasn’t been implemented, but Principal Dan Marburger said their situation is more complicated.

For students going on to college, many admission guidelines and scholarship programs require students to meet certain grade-point average standards. Because of that, Marburger said the high school will likely always have to use some form of GPA system. The trick will be to find a way to meld it with the standards-based system, but he’s hopeful that they will have solved the puzzle by the start of the 2018-19 school year.