The first time I opened my daughter's kindergarten report card, I found it filled with I's and V's instead of A's or B's (and, no, I wasn't expecting C's from my little smarty-pants). Then I flipped it over to the comments—and wondered why I was reading a description of what the class was up to when I already knew what was on the agenda. What type of report card was this anyway?
Actually, it was what's known in educator-speak as a "standards-based report card"—and I wasn't the first mom to be mystified by it. Since the No Child Left Behind law was passed, many elementary schools have said bye-bye to letter grades. Instead, they're using numbers or other types of marks to show how well students are picking up specific skills, such as being able to subtract two-digit numbers or read grade-level books.
Why the switch from classic letter grades? That type of grading system tended to compare each student's performance with his classmates', explains Thomas R. Guskey, Ph.D., a professor of educational psychology at the University of Kentucky and the author of How's My Kid Doing? A Parent's Guide to Grades, Marks, and Report Cards. "A 'C' just tells you that your child is in the middle of the class; it doesn't tell you what he's learning." Standards-based reports compel teachers to evaluate each student according to state-approved goals of what kids should know at each grade level, says Guskey. "Teachers base their assessment on how well your child is learning the things they think are important." Here's how to decode the new report-card lingo.
