Joplin Trip: Day 3

For our last bit of our trip in Joplin we had the opportunity for a question and answer session with some more Joplin Administrators.  One of the major points that we discussed was Standards Based Grading.  They have piloted this program at two elementary schools over the past two years.  This year they added East Middle School.  They are fine-tuning the system before they roll it out district wide.  One of the best things that they have done with the system is have parent meetings.  In these meetings they have gone over the system with the parents.  At these meetings have been parents of students that have come from other districts that had standards based grading and helped explain why they liked it over the traditional grading system.  They said this has helped with the transition.

To finish out our trip, we as an NNNC group came up with some interesting ideas or points from our trip.  What questions did we still have? And, how do we move forward?  There was good discussion in the room and we have continued those discussions on the bus.  We have a place to start, but getting there is going to be the key.

Later this week I will post my reflection of the trip.  I want to get my initial thoughts down and then process those thoughts into a good blog post for all to read.  I want to thank those that have followed the blog and Twitter on this journey.  I know it has been very informative for me and I hope that I have shared that with those of you who were not able to join us on this trip.