LEWISTON – After hearing Lewiston High School parents complain about problems with how freshmen are being graded this year, support for a proficiency-based diploma for the Class of 2018 diminished among some School Committee members Monday night.

Two asked about delaying implementation. Superintendent Bill Webster asked for two more weeks allowing time for a report. No action was taken Monday night.

Parents complained that freshmen grading is so inconsistent, incomplete and confusing that students don’t know where they stand. Some have lost incentive to do well in school.

Lewiston High School Principal Shawn Chabot, who just started the job Feb. 9, said parents’ complaints were valid. Mistakes have been made. “We need to do better. And we will,” Chabot said.

Parent Tina Hutchinson, who said she was speaking for freshmen parents, asked the committee to file for a waiver delaying implementation because teachers were not fully prepared or trained at the beginning of the year, there’s too much incorrect information about grading, “teachers are creating assessments on the fly,” and trust in the administration has been lost.

Performance-based learning is good in theory, she said, but the way it’s been implemented has been harmful, she said, calling it “incomplete” and “a mess.”

State lawmakers created a new proficiency-based diploma for the Class of 2018. The goal is to make high school diplomas more meaningful and only graduate students after they’ve demonstrated they know what they need, rather than after they’ve achieved a certain number of credits.

But the new diploma means schools have to development new ways of assessing and grading, which Lewiston freshmen teachers have worked on. Progress is being made, but they aren’t there yet, Chabot said.

Some districts, including Auburn, have asked for waivers allowing implementation to happen several years after 2018. The state has granted those waivers.

After hearing eight or nine parents complain Monday night, School Committee member Linda Scott said she “feels a little duped.” Committee members have been assured that things would happen that have not, she said. “I’m not comfortable with that.”

She and committee member Tom Shannon asked about a waiver.

Webster said a waiver was possible. “Whatever we want to do, DOE will work with us.” But, he added, “I would like to give Shawn a little more time to come back to you in a couple of weeks.”

Parent Tony Morin said grading information he’s received about his student showed there were 25 standards his daughter was to meet. Nine of those standards had some mark, “the remaining lines were blank.”

Morin said he’s “left feeling like, ‘Where is my student with the other standards and how do I get that information?’”

The year is more than half gone, he said.

Chabot agreed. “I’m the parent of an eighth-grader. When he goes next year, I want to know how he’s doing in school. … We need to do a better job.”

Parent Olivia Gauthier said she’s always encouraged her daughter in school. This year, “I have no evidence of how she’s doing. Her grade in English says ‘not yet.’ Is she close? Is she far? I don’t know where she stands and we’re well over half done this year.”

Teachers need time to develop standards and assessments, Gauthier acknowledged. “My daughter doesn’t have time for them to figure this out.”

Chabot said faculty members are working to make improvements. The system is new and will take time to be developed, understood and accepted.

For instance, he said, freshmen are no longer graded on homework. Some freshmen have interpreted that to mean they don’t have to do homework. They are now beginning to understand why they need to do their homework, that if they skip homework they won’t do well.

It’s like learning to parallel park for the license. If you don’t practice parallel parking, you won’t do well on the exam, Chabot said.

Lewiston resident and chairman of the Maine State Board of Education, Peter Geiger, said the Department of Education can help.

While there are problems now, “in the end, I really think we are moving in the right direction,” Geiger said. “The intent is to have a diploma that has meaning.”

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