November 30, 2014
Dear St. Raphael School Families and Parishioners,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. Now with Advent upon us, we begin my favorite time of the year – preparing our hearts for the birth of Jesus! Our students in Grades 4-8 will be presenting an Advent Prayer Service on Wednesday, December 17 ^th at 6pm in church. It will be an evening of music, readings, and prayerful preparation, and we hope that you can join us – All Are Welcome!
I’d like to continue talking about our new grading system this week by explaining why we are no longer averaging student grades. Most of us grew up with grading systems that included averages of points earned. So our grades at the end of a quarter demonstrated what we had averaged as learners, but not what we had ultimately learned. Many students learn slowly at first, but pick up speed as the instruction and practice continue, and have mastered the skill or concept by the end of the grading period. If we average those students’ grades, we include all the lower grades from the beginning of their learning, and it’s like we are penalizing them for not fully understanding right away. We are actually punishing students who are slow to start, but work hard to understand. Again, is this who we really want to be? If we are all about learning at St. Raphael, then our grading system should reflect LEARNING, NOT POINT ACCUMULATION. Rather than averaging, teachers keep extensive data about each student’s learning patterns, and then they study those patterns at the end of the quarter. Teachers make a decision about the student’s level of learning at that time, based on assessment and classroom data. Is this subjective? Yes, it is. Is it random? No, these decisions are based on real data. No one is better equipped to make a decision about a student’s level of learning than the teacher.

Some parents and students have interpreted this system to mean that they don’t have to try their best until the end of the quarter. However, that is not true. Remember, teachers look at PATTERNS OF LEARNING, not just the last grade posted. If a student is earning 1’s and 2’s all quarter, and then suddenly earns a 4 on the last assessment of the quarter, the pattern of learning does not necessarily show growth in learning. It shows one lucky grade at the end that will likely be thrown out! No grading system is perfect, including this one. The changes we have made are all in an effort to improve student learning by collecting and analyzing more accurate learning data, and reporting that data as clearly as possible to parents and students.

Our featured teacher this week is Mrs. Laura Berns, our 7 ^th Grade Homeroom Teacher. Mrs. Berns holds a Bachelors Degree and Teacher Certification in Middle School Math and Science from Maryville University. In her first year at SRA, Mrs. Berns has already started improving our upper grade math program. She teaches Standard Math to 6,7,8 Graders, and she teaches Math Workshop to all 6,7,8 Graders. Math Workshop has been very successful this year with students receiving help on math homework, and being retaught concepts with which they are struggling. Her teaching methods are clear and comprehensive, and she uses numerous contemporary math teaching strategies to get the most out of her students. Recently Mrs. Berns helped to set up a partnership with SLU, and has SLU college students coming to SRA twice a week after school to provide free math tutoring to upper grade students. Mrs. Berns also teaches 7 ^th Grade Homeroom and Religion, and will be preparing our 7 ^th Graders for the Sacrament of Confirmation later this school year (more details on that later!). We are so blessed to have Mrs. Berns join our St. Raphael family!

Please keep our students and teachers in your prayers during this Advent season, and thanks for all of your support!
Peace and Blessings,
Kim Vangel
Principal