Teacher Tom Rye, center, during an honors pre-calculus class. young kwak photo “They didn’t have to do homework. They were supposed to do it, but they weren’t penalized if they didn’t,” Blehm says. “It was unfair to the students — they were developing really bad habits.” Her son stopped doing his homework and had to spend the first semester of high school, she says, getting back his work ethic. But in Idaho, the wide variety of charter schools has resulted in broad variation. Boise’s Anser Charter School, for example, came up with a solution to the work ethic issue. As it moves toward standards-based grading this year, teachers will grade students on both academic standards and “character standards” like “responsibility” and “compassion.” In Spokane, O’Dell says when he shifted over to standardsbased grading, students didn’t get any lazier. “I was terrified that some kids wouldn’t do it unless we gave them points,” O’Dell says. “We grossly overestimated the love of points that students have. … There’s this myth that we give a kid an F and thinking that’s going to motivate him.” Lily Makarov, an eighth-grader at Shaw, says that most students do their work anyway. “There are a few students who slack off, but then they don’t get a good grade on their test,” she says. Redinger says several Spokane parents are worried the new model may hurt their kids’ college chances, despite assurances of admissions counselors. She assures them that, no matter what, the district won’t get rid of letter grades. In the last week before winter break, Redinger met with all the middle and high school principals about standards-based grading, confirming that teachers and administrators district-wide are in very different places with standards-based grading. Soon, she says, she’ll publish an official statement assuring them that Spokane isn’t yet ready for a district-wide shift. “We really haven’t set a timeline up,” Redinger says. “I’m not a fan of having parents and teachers struggle through systems that you don’t have developed.” n danielw@inlander.com
JANUARY 3, 2013 INLANDER 15