What the Report Card Really Means
Is your child's progress report more complex than your tax return? Here's how to read it — and respond to grades both good and bad.
Is your child's progress report more complex than your tax return?
A, B, C is no longer as easy as 1, 2, 3. Today's student report cards go way beyond the simple letter grades of years past. Now, many school districts send home detailed accounts of each subject's content, student progress, social behavior, work habits, learning skills, and more.
Reading, writing, science, social studies, and math often have separate grades for the various skills (also known as standards) required to learn each subject. Each state's department of education develops its own set of standards to reflect the curriculum in each grade. In one Kentucky school district, for example, the 1st grade report card lists 11 standards under reading. Among them: identifies upper and lowercase letters; recognizes commonly used words; reads fluently and self-corrects when the text does not make sense. Connecticut's 1st grade reading standards include: uses picture clues; retells a story in sequence; demonstrates comprehension. New Jersey has a standard for oral reading ability in 1st grade.
Standards-based report cards are found across the nation, says Rosemarie Young, Ed.D., past president of the National Association of Elementary School Principals. The new progress reports reflect the education reform movement's emphasis on providing data. "Schools generate a lot more information for parents, educators, and administrators to use," says Young. "Student report cards are intended to document what's being taught and to make schools and teachers more accountable for student proficiency."
The Letter Lineup
Don't expect to see traditional letter grades until 3rd or 4th grade. Prior to that, schools usually describe progress with a scale such as D for developing, E for expanding, S for satisfactory, and N for needs improvement.
Dr. Young, principal of Watson Lane Elementary School in Louisville, KY, likens the kindergarten report card to a checklist of skills crucial for early learning. Sharing and self control are typically evaluated in a "social development" category. Holding a pencil correctly and using scissors competently are important motor skills. In my kindergartener's first public school report card, I'll learn how well she cooperates with adults, participates in group activities, follows direction, and forms upper and lower case letters.
Parent reviews on the new report cards vary. Some like the detail; others find it confusing. Caroline Petrie, a mother of two, welcomes the insight her New Jersey school's report card provides. Although her daughter Kate is a whiz at spelling, she has trouble understanding the meanings of words. "I didn't realize the difficulty until I saw the report card," Petrie says. "Kate got an E (excellent) in spelling, but received an N (needs improvement) for 'uses spelling words correctly in a sentence.'" As a result, Petrie started emphasizing the words' definitions when helping Kate prepare for her weekly spelling test.
Where Deedee Jacobsohn's sons attend school in Rockville, Maryland, there are four different grading scales — a mix of letters and numbers — on each quarterly report card. Traditional subjects are graded according to test scores; effort on homework and in class is evaluated in a "learning skills" report which uses the letters I (independently), LP (limited prompting), FP (frequent prompting), R (rarely) and NI (not enough information to report at this time). Reading and math have a separate scale — L (learning) or D (developing). Specials like art, gym, and computers have yet another measure.
Alphabet soup or useful information? Jacobsohn finds all the detail unwieldy. "I don't care about the educational jargon and the specific county objectives for each grade. I care about my child!" But what bothers her most is the absence of teacher comments. In this district, teachers are discouraged from writing personal comments since the report card is so comprehensive. "Teacher comments have always given me the most insight regarding my child's strengths and weaknesses," says Jacobsohn. "Even a formulaic message is more helpful than sorting through all the rows of information."
The Right — and Wrong — Way to React
Even in a sea of As and Bs, disappointing marks always stand out. Mary Pat McCartney, elementary-level vice president of the American School Counselors Association, cautions against getting emotional about low grades. Here, her advice on how to handle the academic news.
- First, be enthusiastic about whatever's good. Acknowledge the positive. Even if there's only one A, say something like, "Wow, you did really well in art."
- Deal with bad marks in a caring and calm manner. Talk together about the report card and help him come up with an improvement plan. Ask your child what he's going to do to bring up low marks, and support his efforts. They're his grades and he needs to take responsibility for them. His teacher didn't give him the D in math, for example. He earned it over the course of the marking period.
- Never use a report card to be punitive. "I've known parents who ground their child for weeks at a time. That's really not effective discipline," warns McCartney.
- Instead, figure out what motivates your child and provide incentives. Some parents get results by threatening to take away extracurricular activities or computer access. Others promise gifts or pay for achievement. "I know families who pay $10 for an A and $5 for a B," says McCartney. "But, if a subject comes easily to a child, it doesn't make sense to pay for the A." Other children aren't capable of As so that scenario just sets them up for disappointment. A better approach is to establish some goals and reward improvement, not necessarily As. Your child may be more interested in your company than your cash. Acknowledging effort with an outing to the movies or a game of checkers might be all it takes. For students whose hard work still falls short, be sure to applaud the effort. Some children simply aren't capable of all As and Bs.
- If you feel a grade is unfair, contact the teacher for more information. Be matter-of-fact in your approach. Don't promise your child that you'll get the grade changed; instead, say that you'll help figure out what went wrong. Once you've discussed the situation with the teacher, the three of you can work together to put an improvement plan in place.
- Consider including your child in a parent/teacher conference, if the teacher is agreeable. For children in upper grades (3rd, 4th and 5th), this can be an effective strategy. Expect the teacher to pull out samples of class work, tests, and quizzes and show you her grade book. Teachers today have lots of documentation; a conference that includes the student can have a powerful impact.
- Finally, convey to your child that school is important. Post her work on the refrigerator. Keep papers she is proud of in a portfolio. Explain that her report card makes a statement about her. Tell her that in your family hard work and good effort are what's valued most.
