With a new grading system, freshmen have different ways to show subject competency.

The time-honored tradition of awarding a letter grade based on student performance has fallen by the wayside as school districts across Maine move toward awarding proficiency-based diplomas as required by state law.

While Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth schools have opted to take a two-year delay in implementing the new diploma requirements, the South Portland School Department is moving ahead.

This school year, all freshmen at South Portland High School are being taught and evaluated under the new proficiency-based system in four core classes – English, World History, Earth Science and Algebra I – according to Ryan Caron, the school principal.

The goal is that by the time these students reach their senior year, all of their classes will conform to the proficiency-based curriculum, which evaluates students on their level of competency in eight content areas, or essential learning targets.

Only students who show an adequate level of proficiency in all eight areas will receive a diploma. Under the proficiency-based system, students are assessed on a 4-point scale.

The scale is based on the ability of a student to demonstrate an understanding of the content of various subject areas, along with skill development and habits of work.

For example, a 4 on the proficiency scale would equal “exemplary work,” while a 1 would indicate “no progress toward meeting the essential learning target,” and a 2 would show a student has partially met the expected standard, according to documents provided by the South Portland school system.

In order to graduate from high school, students will have to show proficiency in math, science, English/language arts, social studies, world language, visual and performing arts, health and physical education and career and college development.

“We believe that a proficiency-based learning system of clear expectations of what we want all students to know and be able to do is better for student learning and achievement,” said Rebecca Brown, the director of curriculum, instruction and assessment in South Portland.

She added, “For years educators have struggled with the fact that one grade (for example, an overall average of all tests and quizzes) in a class does not adequately reflect the strengths and areas for improvement that we want students and parents to get as feedback about a student’s progress in learning.”

Overall, Brown said, “the impact to teaching and learning when this system is fully implemented promises to be greater rigor and stronger student outcomes.”

In addition, the new proficiency-based model encourages students to be more self-motivated and responsible for their own learning, according to an overview document created by the South Portland School Department to better explain how proficiency-based learning works.

Although the proficiency-based model is based on the core goal of showing skill in a specific subject area, many of the assessment tools being used are similar to those students were accustomed to under the letter grade system.

For example, teachers will still give quizzes or worksheets, and essays, research papers and lab work will all still be required. However, there will also be a greater emphasis on “performance tasks,” such as presentations, oral interviews and exhibitions.

The new habits-of-work assessment will focus on three criteria – “preparation for learning, engagement with learning and interaction with teachers and peers,” according to the school department document.

One of the benefits of the new proficiency-based model, according to Brown, is that “instruction is (now) focused on providing rich, full, innovative learning opportunities, so students can explore their interests and reach their full potential.”

She acknowledged that this new way of assessing student progress “is a significant change in how parents have received information” in the past, “so they naturally have questions.”

Brown said the school department has already held several public sessions designed to explain the proficiency-based diploma to parents and the wider community, and said the district would continue to hold such meetings and roundtable discussions throughout the school year.

She said one of the major concerns for parents under the proficiency model is how students will be recognized for academic achievement.

“While a proficiency-based learning system does not promote rank order of students, we are (in the process of) defining ways to provide endorsements on a student’s (individual) diploma that shows proficient or higher advanced study in certain areas,” Brown said.

In Scarborough, Monique Culbertson, the director of curriculum, said the school district is “focusing on a student-centered learning system that ensures all students graduate college-, career- and civic-ready.”

She said Scarborough asked for and received an extension from the Maine Department of Education on the deadline for awarding proficiency-based diplomas and said the goal now is to target the class of 2021.

While every school district is required to move to the proficiency-based model, how the school districts implement that model and how the eight content areas are taught is up to them.

In Scarborough, Culbertson said, “We are focusing on a continuous improvement model” and “to do this well, the improvements will need to run across K-12, as we are looking to redesign the (entire) learning system.”

Although Scarborough has asked for more time to implement the proficiency-based diploma, Culbertson said that time will not be wasted.

“We are working as hard as our resources allow,” she said. “We have sought additional time (such as additional late start days this year) and additional funding to help support our improvement efforts.”

In Cape Elizabeth, Ruth Ellen Vaughn, the director of instruction, said the school department is taking its time to ensure that staff have a system in place to properly collect evidence of a student’s proficiency, as well as determining how best to “capture that without creating a huge paper trail.”

Vaughn said the Cape school district doesn’t want its assessments of student progress to be “just a checklist,” but a process that will inform parents and students in a meaningful way.

She said Cape schools took the two-year extension before implementing the proficiency diploma in order to “work out all the bugs before we go live.”

As in Scarborough, Vaughn said the goal is for students in the class of 2021 to be the first to graduate with a proficiency diploma.

Back in South Portland, Caron, the high school principal, said his staff is still figuring out just how to implement “a larger scale rollout” of the proficiency-based model to ensure students are able to earn their diploma.

He said the initial plan was “to roll the system out year by year, (but) we found that at the high school we provide such a variety of student choice and acceleration that we could not move year by year as we had originally planned without drastically reducing student choice in classes.”

That’s why the four core freshmen classes are the only ones that have moved fully into the proficiency-based curriculum this school year, Caron said.

Even so, some freshmen “that have accelerated into higher-level classes in specific areas are not in the proficiency system in all four areas,” he added. “For example, we have 30-plus ninth-grade students that are in Honors Algebra II as their math class.”