The New Grade Reporting System of 2023
More than two years have gone by since September 2023, when the British Columbia Ministry of Education and Child Care had announced plans to replace the letter grade system with a proficiency scale system for grades reporting from kindergarten to Grade 9 in all B.C. schools.
Replacing the clear-cut scale of A, B, C, D in evaluating students’ performance, the new proficiency scale system adopted descriptive terms when conducting the evaluation. The new system introduced four terminologies – “emerging”, “developing”, “proficient” and “extending” to depict students’ learning performance alongside teachers’ comments.
According to Rachna Singh, the former Minister of Education and Child Care, “Report cards will continue to update parents and caregivers about students’ progress, while also effectively preparing students to succeed, whether in post-secondary education or in the future careers of their choice.”
However, when first introduced in fall 2023, the new system also confronted mixed reviews.
Mixed Feelings
Supporters of the new system, such as Brian Leonard, president of British Columbia Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association, commented that “this next step in B.C.’s refreshed approach to supporting student learning shifts the emphasis from assigning marks to a recognition of a student’s ongoing and future growth, and this approach will provide clarity for teachers and families in every district.”
Opposition against the new system, exemplified by the Fraser Institute, criticized that “55 per cent of B.C. parents said the descriptive grade extending was unclear and difficult to understand and 66 per cent either did not know what extending meant or were unable to identify the meaning of the term from a list of options.”
BCEIC’s Follow-up Research
To find out how British Columbian parents and guardians feel about the proficiency scale system two years after its implementation, BCEIC has conducted a province-wide poll involving 542 parents and guardians across all school districts province wide. All respondents have at least one child currently enrolled in a grade from kindergarten to Grade 9.
Our poll focuses on three questions that respondents can score from a score of 1-5, with the score of 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.
Our three questions and poll results:
A. Do you feel the proficiency scale system provided you with sufficient and reliable understanding of your child’s academic performance in a school subject?
- Completely insufficient 12%
- Somewhat insufficient 24%
- Neither sufficient nor insufficient 37%
- Somewhat sufficient 14%
- Highly sufficient 13%
B. Do you feel that terms like “extending”, “proficient”, “developing” and “emerging”, accompanied by teachers’ comments, provided your child with good reflection about his/her learning progress at school?
- Not at all 8%
- Somewhat helpful 27%
- Neither helpful nor unhelpful 39%
- Somewhat helpful 20%
- Very helpful 6%
C. Do you feel that terms like “extending”, “proficient”, “developing” and “emerging”, accompanied by teachers’ comments, provided your child with greater confidence and promoted his/her level of engagement at school?
- Not at all 11%
- Somewhat unhelpful 17%
- Neither helpful nor unhelpful 31%
- Somewhat helpful 29%
- Very helpful 12%
BCEIC’s Data Summary and Analysis
Parents like the old way
Across all rankings, Option 3 – the most neutral choice – was the most frequently selected. In contrast, the most extreme rankings of 1 and 5, were the least preferred choice.
It is noteworthy that out of all three questions, none of the two extreme options exceeded 15%. This tendency perhaps suggests that, after two years of experiencing the new proficiency scale system, most parents and guardians feel indifferent to the change in comparison to the old grades reporting system.
In addition, it should be noted that less than one-third of the respondents find the new system more reliable and informative, as only 27% of respondents scored favorably (Option 4 and 5) in Question 1. In contrast, since 36% of respondents scored unfavorably against the new proficiency scale system and 37% took a neutral stance, our research suggests that most parents and guardians continue to hold faith in the clear-cut A, B, C, D system when it comes to reporting academic performance.
Students find the new method more encouraging
On the other hand, it is also important to acknowledge the positive impact of the new proficiency scale system on the students. As shown by the responses of Question 3, most respondents agree that the new proficiency scale system does a better job in empowering students with greater confidence and promoting engagement. 41% of respondents scored favorably towards the new system, while merely 28% disagreed.
In conclusion, our poll suggests that the replacement of the definitive letter grade system by the descriptive proficiency scale system seemed to place greater emphasis in empowering students with more encouraging language, rather than reporting to parents with a concise scale of measurement.
By BCEIC