{"id":6662,"date":"2015-09-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-22T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/what-i-learned-from-my-daughters-first-c\/"},"modified":"2020-02-27T14:45:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:45:16","slug":"what-i-learned-from-my-daughters-first-c","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/what-i-learned-from-my-daughters-first-c\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned From My Daughter\u2019s First \u201cC\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"C\"This post originally appeared at Getting Smart<\/a> on September 15, 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that I\u2019m an advocate for competency-based learning models. I\u2019ve gone\u00a0on the record<\/a> lots of times as just that. I shared my thoughts on Montessori education<\/a> as one of the original competency-based models and until very recently, I had two daughters who were learning in competency-based, Montessori learning environments.<\/p>\n

This year our third grade daughter transitioned from the only formal learning environment she\u2019s ever known\u2013a no-grades, no-desks, pick-your-own-work Montessori classroom\u2013to a gifted, STEM magnet in a large traditional urban school district.<\/p>\n

We really sweated the transition, but it\u2019s been mostly a breeze for us and our daughter. She bounces off to school every day, even though she has to get up more than a full hour earlier. She dutifully and cheerfully does her nightly (much more challenging) homework. She tells stories about how funny her teachers are and every day she mentions a new friend. She\u2019s learning new things in new ways and even described her new school as \u201cmore like a Learning Camp\u201d than a classroom.<\/p>\n

In other words, all signs point to \u201chappy, thriving, learning child.\u201d So, why on earth did I let one grade, her first \u201cC,\u201d totally shift my perception of how she was doing in her new school?<\/p>\n

Coming from the world of no grades where we\u2019d been living for the past five years, when I saw that \u201cC,\u201d everything ingrained in my head about what learning looks like was telling me that my daughter\u2019s first reading comprehension grade of a \u201cC\u201d spelled trouble \u2013 even though the \u201csmart parent,\u201d<\/a> education researcher and competency-based learning advocate in me knew that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n

The matter was only further complicated by the conversation I had with my daughter as we went through her folder of graded work together. It went something like this:<\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cOh look, these are your first grades! Let\u2019s go through these and see how you\u2019re doing.\u201d (Read: My first mistake; I already knew she was doing great! Everything else was already signaling that.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Confused Kiddo: \u201cI\u2019m doing great!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cYeah, but I mean, we can look at your actual<\/i> scores and see your actual <\/i>grades to know if you\u2019re\u00a0really<\/i> doing well.\u201d (Read: My second mistake; I just prioritized the grade over everything else \u2013 even her own perceptions about how she was doing in school.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Confused Kiddo: \u201cUmm\u2026 what do you mean?!\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cLike this homework, you got 24\/25. That means you got an 96% that\u2019s an \u2018A.\u2019 That\u2019s good!\u201d(Read: My third mistake; \u201cA = good\u201d set up \u201cthe grade\u201d as \u201cthe goal.\u201d)<\/i><\/p>\n

Confused Kiddo: \u201cCool. \u2018A\u2019s\u2019 are good. Got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cUh-oh. Look at this. Your first reading test. Whoa. You got a 24\/30. You got six things wrong. That\u2019s an 80%. So that\u2019s a \u2018C\u2019 for your grade. Not good.\u201d (Read: My fourth mistake. Are you sensing a pattern here? No joke; I attached an \u201cUh-oh,\u201d a \u201cWhoa,\u201d and a \u201cNot good\u201d to that \u2018C.\u2019 Ugh.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Confused Kiddo: \u201cWhy is a \u2018C\u2019 bad? Is that the same as an \u2018F?\u2019 I know those are bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cOh, no, um it\u2019s not the same as an \u2018F.\u2019 \u00a0That means you totally failed it. A \u2018C\u2019 just means that you could\u2019ve done better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confused Kiddo: \u201cOh so the \u2018C\u2019 is good. Like it means you can keep practicing and get better until you get the A. That\u2019s just like my old school then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cWell, not exactly. You don\u2019t get to take this test again until you get an \u2018A.\u2019 I mean you can get higher grades on other things so you could still end up with an \u2018A\u2019 or \u2018B\u2019 on your report card but this grade will always stay a \u2018C\u2019 in the grade book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Confused Kiddo: \u201cWhy?! That\u2019s not fair. At all!\u201d (Then her tears came.)<\/i><\/p>\n

Well-intentioned Mom: \u201cI mean, the grades don\u2019t really <\/i>matter. I mean they do, but they don\u2019t. I mean what matters is that you\u2019re learning. I mean you don\u2019t want to get all \u2018C\u2019s\u2019 probably, but it\u2019s okay if you get some, but I mean it would be better if you didn\u2019t. But I mean we\u2019re happy as long as you\u2019re trying your best, but you know your teachers might expect better than that, but I mean that\u2019s only their perspective\u2026.\u201d (And this bumbling went on until Confused Kiddo finally said \u201cI\u2019m cool with the \u2018C.\u2019 What\u2019s for snack?\u201d)<\/i><\/p>\n

So where does that leave me as a parent and where does that leave us as advocates for competency-based learning with one foot still firmly in traditional classroom structures \u2013 are we cool with the \u201cC?\u201d Yes, we have to be.<\/p>\n

This is especially challenging because in my estimation, no one has it perfectly right just yet. At least the purely competency-based, Montessori school she was in didn\u2019t. In that environment, it was all individual progress without the broader context of developmental targets or goals. Because all progress (no matter the pace) was treated equally, we never had a clear picture of learning strengths or weaknesses. And that wasn\u2019t good either.<\/p>\n

So, what did I learn from my daughter\u2019s first \u201cC\u201d\u2013besides the fact that she needs a little extra help with reading comprehension?<\/p>\n

I learned there\u2019s a fair amount of \u201cunlearning\u201d that still has to happen before we will all feel comfortable in completely competency-based learning environments. As more and more schools shift from letter grades to levels of mastery, we would all do well to continue challenging the assumptions we all have about how we define and describe when learning is or isn\u2019t happening.<\/p>\n

See also:<\/p>\n