Q: Mr. Federal Way, we have previously sent some information to you about our concerns regarding Federal Way Public School’s use of standards-based grading and how other districts are no longer using the system.

We are attaching the 2013 senior class survey from Quakertown, Pennsylvania. The results from this survey are the main reason that they have changed back to a more traditional system. It would be interesting to know what the results would be if Federal Way would send out a similar survey to students and parents. What do you think?

A: While Mr. Federal Way has opined and opined on this subject, the subject is still just as perplexing today as it was when it reared its ugly head here several years ago.

So Mr. Federal Way will go through all that has occurred with this grading system to bring everyone who may live under a rock up to date.

Education is now a standards-based world. In 2011, the state adopted the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics, kindergarten through 12th grade. When students take the state assessment, they are tested to the state standards. But it’s not just a Washington state requirement: the Smarter Balanced Assessment used here in Washington has been adopted by 18 states. Another assessment, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College Careers, is being used in the remainder of the states in conjunction with the Common Core State Standards.

“Here in Federal Way, we’ve been teaching to standards for the past two decades,” said Debra Stenberg, spokesperson for Federal Way Public Schools. “But with over 300 standards, no teacher could teach all of them in the 180 days that schools are allotted. So teachers were left on their own to guess which standards were the most important, and as a result, students left school with different sets of knowledge and skills.”

Starting five years ago, teams of teachers and administrators in Federal Way schools worked together to determine which state standards were the most important standards for a student’s future learning. They also had to look at how students were assessed in our schools.

In order to ensure students are being taught the standards adequately, they needed to assess their understanding of the standards. Assessments are not only paper-and-pencil tests, or online tests. Students are assessed all through the learning continuum: it could be as simple as a classroom conversation or a student presentation.

These ongoing assessments allow the teacher to determine if the student needs more instruction. If so, the teacher tries a different approach, which is referred to as differentiated instruction.

Stenberg told the Mirror that at the end of the semester or teaching unit, grades are given. Standards-based grading is based on the assessments of students’ knowledge of the standard.

In Federal Way, standards-based grading was implemented in the 2011-12 school year. In the 2012-13 school year, our new student information system came online and the gradebook from that system was used to calculate grades.  However, Stenberg said flaws in the algorithm were found.

“At that time, the district conducted a survey to assess parent, staff and student reactions to the grading system,” she said, noting over 3,600 surveys were returned.

The school board voted to discontinue use of the algorithm to determine course grades. Averaging was put in place for the time being. However, because averaging is not true to the standards-based goal of grades accurately reflecting a students’ understanding of a standard, the board and administration made it clear that averaging was simply a stop-gap approach until another solution was found.

Assistant Superintendent of Teaching for Learning Marie Verhaar was tasked with pulling together a committee to develop some proposals on various areas of the standards-based grading system that were causing confusion for students and parents. This committee has worked for a year to develop some proposals to present to the superintendent to enhance or improve the current system.

Stenberg pointed out that the committee accepted applications from staff, parents, community members and students and had over 30 people on it. They have met for the past year, and the various subcommittees are in the process of presenting their recommendations to Superintendent Sally McLean.

“McLean will take these recommendations to other stakeholders, including the board,” Stenberg said.

So to answer your question, they tried a survey and it failed, but they are discussing implementing a new one soon. In the meantime, Mr. Federal Way will be listening closely to the subcommittee’s recommendations and will most likely have more to say on the issue soon.

Q: Mr. Federal Way, I read the Mirror’s article online regarding the human trafficking event. What are your thoughts on that issue here in Federal Way?

A: Mr. Federal Way may or may not have attended this forum and thinks that Val Richey, King County senior deputy prosecuting attorney, did a great job of explaining how this was a human rights issue, not simply a woman’s issue. It’s easy to think that women being prostituted are choosing that life and are a part of the problem.

But Mr. Federal Way’s eyes were opened to see that these women often are desperate and have no choice. Some of them have escaped abused homes and are homeless and others have been manipulated and abused by pimps forcing them into this lifestyle.

Richey said that the prosecutor’s office is working to get police to arrest people buying sex and punish them in order to end the trafficking epidemic and to provide help to prostituted people. Mr. Federal Way agrees that it needs to be considered socially unacceptable for people to buy sex for this to stop.

The prosecutor’s office is attempting to do that by spreading the word about how bad it is to buy sex and to alert people of the consequences resulting from such an action.

Mr. Federal Way knows there were a number of Federal Way police officers at the event who expressed their desire to work with the county on arresting buyers. Mr. Federal Way hopes the Federal Way Police Department will implement a training program, if they haven’t already, to raise more awareness of the issue to ultimately stop criminalizing human trafficking victims.

Q: Mr. Federal Way, do you have children in the Federal Way school district?

A: None of your business.

Got a question for Mr. Federal Way? Email mrfederalway@federalwaymirror.com