Grading policy overhauled in Quebec. Larry Braden posted this item from the Montreal Gazette (October 29, 2003) to a mailing list. Quebec's educational reform, which was started in 2000 in grades 1 and 2 of the elementary schools, is approaching secondary schools, and some observes are befuddled.
"The policy is definitely progressive and brilliant," said Elizabeth Therrien Scanlan, executive director of the Quebec Association of Independent Schools. "But it still isn't very clear."
And that appears to be a supporter speaking. The reform includes grouping two grade levels together into two-year cycles, and this was started in 2000 when Grades 1 and 2 became Cycle 1.
Evaluation: Evaluation is no longer just about giving out marks, or determining whether a student has learned his or her stuff. Now, evaluation is defined as a way of helping students learn better.
Students can only be held back at the end of a two-year cycle, rather than at the end of the school year. And students are to held back only in extreme cases, such as missing classes for most of the year.
It seems that the fuzzies are in charge of education in Quebec.