As promised, the school district has organized a parent information meeting where they will update parents on standards based education and the grading system that goes along with it.

“Our goal in this is to make sure we communicate with parents and teachers and eliminate the confusion,” said Mary Kay Kirkland, assistant superintendent and curriculum director for the school district.

In tomorrow’s meeting, parents will learn more about the measures taken by the school district to address concerns voiced last spring. Several parents expressed their frustration, saying the new grading scale is difficult to understand, and in many cases, affected student motivation.

Multiple parents also said teachers shared their sentiments, but did not feel comfortable sharing their opinions with the district.

The school board compiled a brief survey in the final hours of the school year to give teachers the opportunity to express their feelings about standards based education and the grading issues they had encountered throughout the year. The school board received more than 90 percent participation on this survey, which was analyzed by volunteers.

Using comments from the survey and from parents, administrators have been working through the summer to expand on the program and make improvements.

The school district made it very clear that teacher participation is both welcome and needed in the process of expanding upon what they started last year. In addition, parents have been invited to participate in teacher meetings and added to advisory committees.

Darin Nielsen, who also works in the curriculum department, said many of those parents were selected from the community councils in the schools.

In addition to more teacher involvement and more participation from parents, the school district has also added a page to their website that addresses “frequently asked questions” about standards based education and the Ruberic grading scale. That page can be found at http://www.besd.net/curriculum/standards.php.

The district originally planned to hold a parent information meeting in June, but postponed it after learning that Chris Chournos, principal at Adele C. Young Intermediate, had already scheduled a series of committee meetings with teachers. Board members wanted to allow time for those teachers to meet a few times before bringing parents back for additional suggestions.

Both meetings will take place on Thursday, August 6. The first will be held at Adele C. Young Intermediate at 5 p.m., followed by a second meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Alice C. Harris Intermediate in Tremonton.