Manhasset elementary school students will be graded next year using a new report card system developed by members of the school district’s administration that coincides with the rollout of the Common Core education standards, officials said Thursday.
The new report card will evaluate students based on a four-point scale that district officials said will more closely resemble the letter grades they will receive in middle and high school.
“More important than anything else, though, is that we needed to make a report card that was going to be readable by parents,” said Charles Leone, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “It has to clearly communicate a student’s academic achievement.”
Leone and Munsey Park Elementary School principal Jean Kendall analyzed the new report card in a presentation to the Manhasset board of education Thursday in which he said that students who receive a “4” grade are thought to be exceeding the district’s standards, while students who receive a “1” are perceived to be not meeting standards.
Sixth-grade students will be graded based on a fifth level, for a student who “far exceeds the standards for this marking period” and “clearly demonstrates superior work.”
Students will be graded on their participation and effort using the terms “outstanding,” satisfactory” and “needs improvement,” Leone said, while an asterisk on one’s report card would indicate “individual achievement based on student’s needs.”
The report card was constructed using models from several Nassau County school districts, including Garden City, Mineola, Port Washington and Roslyn, Leone said. Committees comprised of parents, teachers and administrators from both Munsey Park and Shelter Rock elementary schools met bimonthly for several months to collaborate on the new report card, Leone said. Updates on the report card’s construction were frequently presented to teachers at each elementary school.
The district will begin a rollout process of the new report card toward the end of the current school year and continue in September, when teachers will be trained on how to enter grades electronically, Leone said.
In other developments:
• Trustees on Thursday approved two increases to its 2013-14 general fund to cover unanticipated expenses to its Common Core-aligned textbooks and district security.
The first transfer, for textbooks, was for $338,057, which trustees said would be funded from $291,676 out of its unassigned fund balance and $46,381 from its anticipated unassigned fund balance.
The second, a $105,320 expense for security hardware and software enhancements for classrooms and access doors at Shelter Rock and Munsey Park elementary schools, would also come from the district’s anticipated unassigned fund balance account, trustees said.
• The board also unanimously approved the Nassau BOCES’ 19.9 million operating budget for the 2014-15 school year and voted for Deborah Ann Coates, Eric B. Schultz and Stephen B. Witt for election to three-year terms on the Nassau BOCES board. The terms begin on July 1.
• Prior to the start of the meeting, the district honored several Manhasset students who were recipients of the Presidential Service awards, which recognizes sophomores, juniors and seniors who complete at least 100 hours of community service per calendar year.
• The board will next meet on May 8 at 8 p.m. for its annual budget hearing, its final public meeting before the May 20 vote.
Trustees in mid April approved an $87.9 million budget whose 1.84 percent tax levy increase falls within the state-mandated tax cap.
Reach reporter Bill San Antonio by e-mail at bsanantonio@theislandnow.com, by phone at 516.307.1045 x215 and on Twitter @ Bill_SanAntonio Also follow us on Twitter @theislandnow1 and Facebook at facebook.com/theislandnow
