First graders at West Central Elementary School will no longer receive letter grades on their report cards.
Superintendent Don Street says the school board last week approved a switch to a standards-based report card, as part of an update to the student handbook. “So it will be a plus indicates ‘mastered’ or ‘at standard;’ a check, ‘progressing towards the standard.’ A minus means ‘below standard,’ and a star indicates ‘Not evaluated at this time,'” Street explains. He says the change will bring first-graders’ report cards in line with those currently used at the kindergarten level.
Street adds the updated handbook will also require middle and high school students to pass all their classes to be eligible to take part in athletics. “That would be a change because we had followed the IHSAA guidelines,” he says. “So now, we’re making it a little bit stricter, and students have to have passing grades in all of their classes to participate.”
Last week, the West Central School Board also selected science textbooks for next school year and voted to keep book rental fees the same at the elementary school.
