THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 6, 1996 TAG: 9610060049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 34 lines
When elementary school students here get their report cards next month, there will be a bit of a change.
Instead of separate grades for language arts skills such as reading and spelling, all of those skills will be combined into one category with one grade. The category will be labeled ``English.''
Parents were notified of the change this week, when letters were sent home with students' interim progress reports.
Progress reports are issued halfway through each nine-week grading period.
School system spokesman Tom Cupitt said the change in the way students' grades are reported was made to reflect the newly revised state Standards of Learning. The new standards, which went into effect in July, emphasize a broad range of language arts skills for all students.
Report cards for students in the sixth through 12th grades already reflect those standards.
Cupitt said the change does not affect the classroom instruction elementary school students will get. Students still will be taught spelling, reading and writing, he said.
``The reading and the spelling, that's all still there,'' he said. ``That hasn't been changed at all.''
``All it is is changing the reporting of the grade; it's not changing the grade itself.''
Teachers have been instructed to work with parents who want to know how their children are progressing on specific skills, Cupitt said.
The new report cards and interim progress reports may also be revised later to give teachers space to make note of specific strengths and weaknesses, he said. by CNB