Hello and Happy Holidays,
This is our first day of vacation. I do hope that you are
enjoying your respite and perhaps are not even reading this until next year -
2012.
ABI Gradebook for Grades 6-12. What is the message for
January from Board President Scriven? Can you mandated to use ABI
Gradebook? YCTA continues to agree with the Board that communication with
parents and others about the progress of students towards educational goals is
a high priority as is the delivery of the overall quality of the educational
program for all students. However we disagree whenever there is a
unilateral imposition upon our members. Instead we do and shall strive
for a mutual resolution of interests and concerns to find collaborative
solutions.
YCTA has placed a demand to bargain. A decision cannot be implemented
until the impacts and effects have been bargained. We need to ascertain
the impacts and effects of the decision.
As we move
forward, I would like to encourage you to try
ABI gradebook beginning second semester. I suggest that you might try using
the gradebook already opened for you and update the grades as often as you
choose. You may still maintain your full gradebook in the program
you are already comfortably and effectively using to monitor student progress,
but update the ABI gradebook at some regular interval. Your
currently selected gradebook program may currently better serve your needs and
style of grading as you make professional decisions regarding your students and
their progress. We have some people, who maintain their grades in their
current program and then update ABI gradebook every three weeks. If
nothing else you could use the gradebook at the end of the first six weeks
and then submit those entered grades to complete the task for six week progress
reports with ease.
There are
some features you may find very helpful, in the ABI Gradebook such as the email
function. This allows you to easily email parents regarding student
progress. You could select to email all students and parents or filter to
send emails to only students with low scores or missing assignments. In
addition, you can set up assignments in advance so that parents and students
can be aware of due dates and expectations. You can upload the
assignments directly within abi so that the student and parent can view
the original assignment. You can make notations for each student on each
assignment such as "Assignment copied from another student" or you
can enter notes about the assignment as it appears for the entire class, such as
“completed in class”. These little notations will allow you to
communicate with a parent both positives as well as concerns. Parents
appreciate the communication and ease of obtaining information from one site
about their children.
There are other features that may frustrate you such as the seating chart function or
the extra time required to enter assignments due the absence of some default
features. You can only access and update grades while on-line. You
have no control of your electronic back-up of grades. You may find
that the system encourages unreasonable expectations such as a student or
parent who checks hourly to see if you have graded that test that was just
completed. Or the parent who wants to know why Jimmy only got a 6 out of
10 on this assignment and 8/10 on that one. Your gradebook
will be accessible to any school personnel with ABI access for your students:
administrators, counselors, special education teachers.
We need
to work to address the second set of issues that may lead to increases in your
work time or diminish your flexibility in setting your grading policies.
But we need to hear from you as to those impacts. Your use of
ABI gradebook and feedback will allow us to work with the District to
address the issues and find solutions.
We anticipate working on a common set of expectations for parents such the one attached
that may be found on the Vacaville Unified website for parents using the
electronic grade reporting system.
We also anticipate sending forth the attached ABI survey in January to gather additional
input regarding the impacts and effects of any mandated use of ABI
gradebook. We ask that you try ABI gradebook in January so that you
can respond to the survey and we can bargain the impacts and effects of any
mandate to use ABI gradebook.
You may remember receiving the letter from Board President Scriven
regarding a Board priority to increase the usage of ABI gradebook. It is
YCTA's position that you cannot be mandated to use ABI gradebook until we
have bargained the impacts and effects of that decision. We also maintain
that your gradebook is within the purview of your professional decisions .
You may be directed as to how you determine grades (see Ed Code 49066 below)
49066. (a) When grades are given for any course of
instruction
taught in a school district, the grade given to each pupil shall
be
the grade determined by the teacher of the course and the
determination of the pupil's grade by the teacher, in the absence
of
clerical or mechanical mistake, fraud, bad faith, or incompetency,
shall be final.
(b) The governing board of the school district and
the
superintendent of such district shall not order a pupil's grade to
be
changed unless the teacher who determined such grade is, to the
extent practicable, given an opportunity to state orally, in
writing,
or both, the reasons for which such grade was given and is, to the
extent practicable, included in all discussions relating to the
changing of such grade.
(c) No grade of a pupil participating in a physical
education
class, however, may be adversely affected due to the fact that the
pupil does not wear standardized physical education apparel where
the
failure to wear such apparel arises from circumstances beyond the
control of the pupil.
Please don not
hesitate to contact with your concerns, questions or comments.
If you have read
this far and it is still 2011, I hope that you have enjoy the holidays with
family and friends. And that your new year will be filled with all the
promise and joy of yet another new beginning.
Thank you for
choosing to make a difference by educating young people in these demanding
times. You are everyday heroes and deserve a wonderful break.
Best Wishes for
the new year,
Dina