The Board of Education of Anne Arundel County will hear more information regarding its decision to offer students in second-semester high school level courses the choice of a letter grade or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory designation at its next virtual meeting, scheduled for Wednesday, May 6, 2020.
On April 15, 2020, Superintendent George Arlotto informed the Board of his intent, due to the coronavirus pandemic and onset of eLearning, to make changes to Administrative Regulation II-RA, Grading. The changes would result in students receiving a Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory designation in both the third and fourth marking periods and as a final grade. Student grades would not factor into GPA.
The Board did not support Dr. Arlotto’s plan and approved the motion to offer the choice for students. Given that Anne Arundel County Public Schools’ current gradebook system cannot currently support automated customized student choice, the Board further directed Superintendent George Arlotto and his staff to work with PowerSchool, the manufacturer of the system, to explore options that could allow for the motion approved by the Board to be put into place as well as any other options.
To date, Dr. Arlotto and his team have identified three possibilities that either align or closely align with the Board’s motion:
- Option 1: AACPS would purchase a PowerSchool application to collect and document the choice of students and parents/guardians for each course for the second semester. Families would be required to use the PowerSchool portal to complete their choices. Installation and activation would take approximately four weeks and come at a cost (the most beneficial to the district being a three-year, $321,750 contract, plus a customized calculation program expected to cost $7,000). Teachers would be required to spend time reviewing student/family choices and manually overwrite fourth-marking period grades for each student in their gradebook based on the choice each family makes for each course. Other school staff would have to assist families currently not enrolled in the Parent Portal.
- Option 2: An automated option in which a customized program is developed in PowerSchool to examine every student’s situation and determine, course by course, whether a letter grade or a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory designation would best benefit the student’s grade-point average (GPA). Students who have letter grades as a final second semester grade would have that letter grade figured into their GPA. Students who have an “S” or “U” as a final grade would not have that grade figured into their GPA. The cost estimate for the customized calculation is $7,000 and the project will take approximately one week to complete.
- Option 3: A student’s final second semester grade in a course would be equivalent to or one grade higher than the third marking period letter grade. A student who engages in eLearning and earns a Satisfactory designation in the fourth marking period would have their third marking period grade raised by one letter grade. A student who earns an Unsatisfactory designation in the fourth marking period would receive the third marking period grade as the final grade for the semester. Letter grades would be calculated into a student’s GPA as they would in any other semester. The cost estimate for the customized calculation is $7,000 and the project take approximately one week to complete.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, Dr. Arlotto will recommend extension of the 2019-2020 school year to June 18, 2020, to account for five of the 10 student instructional days missed at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. AACPS would then be eligible to apply for a waiver of the remaining five student instructional days. The five-day waiver, if obtained, would not impact teacher work days.
The Board will also hear a summary of the impact of County Executive Steuart Pittman’s recommended Fiscal Year 2021 Operating and Capital budgets on the school system.
The Board will meet virtually in a public session at 5:30 p.m. for the sole purpose of voting to immediately go into closed session, during which time it will discuss confidential matters as permitted by the Maryland Open Meetings Act including, but not limited to, legal advice, personnel, and negotiations. Closed session is not open to the public. The public session of the meeting will resume at 7 p.m.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY SIGNUP PROCESS
To ensure the opportunity for public input at the meeting, the Board will accept written public comment for those items that appear on the agenda. Such comment can be sent via email to BoardOffice@aacps.org. or dropped off at the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis, by noon on Wednesday, May 6.
Testimony will be read into the record at the meeting and must be 250 words or less. Testimony longer than 250 words will be partially read into the record but the full version will be provided to the Board.
Testimony on any topic can also be submitted to the Board of Education via email at any time at BoardOffice@aacps.org.
A complete agenda for the meeting accompanies this news release. More information on agenda items will be posted on the AACPS website in the Board Docs section under the Board of Education tab. The Board may choose to change the order in which agenda items are heard to meet the Board’s needs. Unless changed by the Board, items will be heard in the order in which they appear on the agenda.
The general session of Wednesday’s Board meeting will be broadcast live on AACPS-TV, which can be found on Channel 96 on Comcast and Broadstripe, and Channel 36 on Verizon. High definition broadcasts can be seen on Channel 996 on Comcast, Channel 496 on Broadstripe, and Channel 1961 on Verizon.
The meeting can also be viewed live on the Internet here.
Archived videos of Board meetings can be found online here.
BOARD BUDGET COMMITTEE TO MEET
The Board’s Budget Committee will hold a virtual meeting at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, May 4. The meeting is open to the public, but no public testimony will be taken.
The Budget Committee meeting will not be broadcast on Livestream or AACPS-TV. Those wishing to listen to the meeting should call 301-960-3676 and enter access code 862 341 788 followed by the pound/hashtag symbol.