Administrators announce revisions to report cards
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO Staff Writer

FREEHOLD - Elementary school pupils in the Freehold Borough K-8 School District will soon have a chance to be more like the "big guys" in the Freehold Intermediate School - at least where report cards are concerned.

A new system of grading students will be in place in district schools in the 2008- 09 school year in order to have the format more closely resemble state standards.According to Joseph Jerabek, principal of the Park Avenue Elementary School, the new system will mirror the report cards at the Freehold Intermediate School.

The model for the new grading system was presented at the May 12 Board of Education meeting.

The project to change the report cards began in September 2007 and included a team of 14 people, including Jerabek, Curriculum Director Ronnie Dougherty, Freehold Learning Center elementary school Principal Donna Johnson, literacy coach Erika Jiminez and other teachers from grades K-5.

The panel reviewed report card formats from other school districts and found exactly what it was looking for in the Atlantic Highlands School District.

Jerabek said Freehold Borough administrators did not want to make drastic changes in the design of the district's report card. He saidAtlantic Highlands' system best met the needs of the Freehold Borough student population.

Jerabek said the system the school district currently uses as a data base for student records and information, called Genesis, will now be capable of storing all the grades in a paperless fashion. Teachers also use the system to record student attendance. This method will eliminate what he called the "report card shuffle" in which the report card itself must "travel" to various teachers in order to have grades recorded. With the inclusion of the grades into the data base, teachers will simply log in and record their students' grades.

One major difference in the kindergarten, first and second grade report cards that students and parents will recognize immediately is that the best and worst grade numerals have been reversed.

What used to indicate a student working above grade level, the number 1, will now be indicated by the number 4. The old method of indicating that a child was working below grade level, the number 4, will now be listed on the report card as a number 1.

In other words, according to Jerabek, the higher the number on a pupil's report card, the better that child is doing in school.

Children in grades three, four and five who receive letter grades on their report cards will see an even bigger change. The grading scale will now include the plus and minus system similar to the one that is in place at the Freehold Intermediate School and at Freehold High School. According to Jerabek, this grading system will give parents a better indication of where their child is performing within the letter range.

Another change will be the inclusion of spelling, which has always been a separate subject, into the language arts grade, specifically in regard to writing. Whereas spelling was previously just word memorization, it will now be used in conjunction with other skills such as writing and reading as a practical application.

Also up for a change in format is the district's student progress report, which until now has always carried a negative connotation, according to Jerabek. He said the idea is to make the progress report more of a positive statement which will address a student's strengths as well as a teacher's concerns.

The progress report is not a part of the Genesis system right now and will maintain a paper system, but Jerabek said he is hoping that Genesis will soon incorporate this into the system as well.