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Baltimore County parents should receive progress reports this school year that go beyond the typical As, Bs and Cs. An online program that has been in the works for several years will allow teachers to detail students' specific skills, such as whether they can describe what running water does to the Earth's surface in science or know how to work with variables in math.
"You can't sum up a child in a letter grade - you need more," said Barbara Dezmon, assistant to the superintendent for equity and assurance, who developed the program as a teacher in 1989. "You're trying to document what the children know, what they don't know and what they need to know. ... This is about what's good for children."
Training for teachers and administrators started this month, school officials said, and parents should receive the progress reports in the spring semester. Now that it is being implemented throughout the county, the copyrighted program is to be shared at no cost with all of the state's school systems, Dezmon said.
David Ward, whose son is a seventh-grader at Woodlawn Middle School, received the progress reports several times during the last school year as part of a pilot program. Ward said he found them to be very useful and informative.
"It helps us as parents focus in on what we need to help our children with, so that they can do better," Ward said. For his son, Brandon Biggs-Ward, that meant being able to recognize his strengths in English and reading - and to focus on working with him on math, where he struggled with more abstract concepts such as perimeter, volume and area, Ward said.
In addition to the detailed progress-reporting system, the program consists of a digital version of the entire curriculum - including class activities and questions that could guide teachers in crafting lessons, quizzes and tests.
The program was a source of conflict and controversy a couple of years ago - particularly for the county teachers union.
"Teachers don't have enough time to do this," said Cheryl Bost, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, pointing to "all of the data collection demands," including regular report cards and another program used for periodic benchmark tests.
The progress report "adds an even greater burden," Bost said. She and Superintendent Joe A. Hairston have met to discuss the matter, and both said they hoped to work together to simplify the process.
For Hairston, the program - called the Articulated Instruction Module - serves to respond to an extensive independent audit of the district, released in March 2007, that found a disconnect between what children need to learn and what is taught.
The county has spent the past couple of years computerizing the curriculum and checklists for the module. A child should be able to go from one part of the county to another and "have access to the same curriculum," Hairston said.
The program "tends to tie it all together, provide greater structure for us," Hairston said.
"We just have a large organization, and it tends to become impersonal," Hairston said. "We're at a point now where we have to make an adjustment ... from being the factory to a more personal, customized environment for teaching and learning."
The program documents what students do know and don't know throughout their educational career, maintaining a continuing record to inform every instructor they have. The concepts they have yet to master follow them from grade to grade, or from one county school to another.
Parents can also access course information to see what their children should be learning.
The progress report features a list of key course objectives, with more detailed skill indicators under each element. Teachers rate their students on those various knowledge and skill indicators on a quarterly basis. An "A" would mean the need for "acceleration," or intense help in a particular area; an "I" would indicate a child needs further "instruction"; and an "M" would show a student is at or near "mastery."
Teachers at all levels who have worked with the module say they think it will be a useful tool that puts everyone on the same page, throughout the county.
"The teacher knows, from day one, what the child is proficient in, what the child needs extra support in," said Jamie Basignani, an instructional coach at Dundalk Elementary.
Tracey Zimmerman, a sixth-grade English teacher at Pine Grove Middle, taught herself how to use the program. While the progress reports are likely to take a bit more time, she said, "they don't take as long as everybody's thinking they take."
And parents will probably appreciate the depth of information they provide, she said.
The resources also can be used to give parents guidance on working with their kids over the summer - a commonly asked question, said James Marthe, who oversees reading at Southwest Academy, where the module was used in eighth-grade reading and math last year. "It lets the parents be more active in their children's education."
Ward, the Woodlawn parent, said he went over the reports with his son's teachers during a parent-teacher conference.
"I need as much information as I can get to help my child, and sometimes you really don't know what questions to ask," he said. "The questions are already asked for you. And it covers more things than the average person may have thought of to ask."
That kind of detail is more than welcome, Ward added. "Can it ever be too much when we're talking about our kids?"
"You can't sum up a child in a letter grade - you need more," said Barbara Dezmon, assistant to the superintendent for equity and assurance, who developed the program as a teacher in 1989. "You're trying to document what the children know, what they don't know and what they need to know. ... This is about what's good for children."
Training for teachers and administrators started this month, school officials said, and parents should receive the progress reports in the spring semester. Now that it is being implemented throughout the county, the copyrighted program is to be shared at no cost with all of the state's school systems, Dezmon said.
David Ward, whose son is a seventh-grader at Woodlawn Middle School, received the progress reports several times during the last school year as part of a pilot program. Ward said he found them to be very useful and informative.
"It helps us as parents focus in on what we need to help our children with, so that they can do better," Ward said. For his son, Brandon Biggs-Ward, that meant being able to recognize his strengths in English and reading - and to focus on working with him on math, where he struggled with more abstract concepts such as perimeter, volume and area, Ward said.
In addition to the detailed progress-reporting system, the program consists of a digital version of the entire curriculum - including class activities and questions that could guide teachers in crafting lessons, quizzes and tests.
The program was a source of conflict and controversy a couple of years ago - particularly for the county teachers union.
"Teachers don't have enough time to do this," said Cheryl Bost, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, pointing to "all of the data collection demands," including regular report cards and another program used for periodic benchmark tests.
The progress report "adds an even greater burden," Bost said. She and Superintendent Joe A. Hairston have met to discuss the matter, and both said they hoped to work together to simplify the process.
For Hairston, the program - called the Articulated Instruction Module - serves to respond to an extensive independent audit of the district, released in March 2007, that found a disconnect between what children need to learn and what is taught.
The county has spent the past couple of years computerizing the curriculum and checklists for the module. A child should be able to go from one part of the county to another and "have access to the same curriculum," Hairston said.
The program "tends to tie it all together, provide greater structure for us," Hairston said.
"We just have a large organization, and it tends to become impersonal," Hairston said. "We're at a point now where we have to make an adjustment ... from being the factory to a more personal, customized environment for teaching and learning."
The program documents what students do know and don't know throughout their educational career, maintaining a continuing record to inform every instructor they have. The concepts they have yet to master follow them from grade to grade, or from one county school to another.
Parents can also access course information to see what their children should be learning.
The progress report features a list of key course objectives, with more detailed skill indicators under each element. Teachers rate their students on those various knowledge and skill indicators on a quarterly basis. An "A" would mean the need for "acceleration," or intense help in a particular area; an "I" would indicate a child needs further "instruction"; and an "M" would show a student is at or near "mastery."
Teachers at all levels who have worked with the module say they think it will be a useful tool that puts everyone on the same page, throughout the county.
"The teacher knows, from day one, what the child is proficient in, what the child needs extra support in," said Jamie Basignani, an instructional coach at Dundalk Elementary.
Tracey Zimmerman, a sixth-grade English teacher at Pine Grove Middle, taught herself how to use the program. While the progress reports are likely to take a bit more time, she said, "they don't take as long as everybody's thinking they take."
And parents will probably appreciate the depth of information they provide, she said.
The resources also can be used to give parents guidance on working with their kids over the summer - a commonly asked question, said James Marthe, who oversees reading at Southwest Academy, where the module was used in eighth-grade reading and math last year. "It lets the parents be more active in their children's education."
Ward, the Woodlawn parent, said he went over the reports with his son's teachers during a parent-teacher conference.
"I need as much information as I can get to help my child, and sometimes you really don't know what questions to ask," he said. "The questions are already asked for you. And it covers more things than the average person may have thought of to ask."
That kind of detail is more than welcome, Ward added. "Can it ever be too much when we're talking about our kids?"
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Baltimoresun.com's 
have to agree with "mathteacher314" - the math does not add up. More time will now be spent on tracking data instead of lesson planning or helping kids. To "Jojo1212" while some teachers might spend their time teaching their students how to "pass MSA" the majority of teachers work to help students be prepared for the real world, teaching critical thinking skills, organizational skills, social skills, not to mention content knowledge. To "VirgilforDante" I invite you to teach for a year, and let me know how you spend your "free time". I can promise you that most teachers spend snow days, winter and spring holidays working - not to mention our weekends grading papers, and preparing motivating lessons. Many teachers have to work during the summer since we do not get paid then. You have to remember that the time we spend at school is spent with the students - there is very little down time where we have time to work on our own. Planning time is spend working with other teachers to plan lessons, meeting about students. Many teachers often give up their lunches to help students who need extra help or were absent and need to catch up. We dont just sit at a desk all day and surf the internet, we are working non stop from the time students walk in the door to the time they leave. It would be nice to have more time to concentrate on what really matters - the student
luckycharmer2282 (09/15/2009, 6:06 PM )