Undertake Transition to Standard-based Report Cards to Bury Grades

Report card grades are problematic. There is no standard for an A. Teachers weight quizzes, tests, projects, and homework differently. Some drop lowest scores or offer extra credit. Grades do not tell you what a student is able to do. Too often grades are rewards for effort, behavior, or inflated to minimize parental complaints. After all, if a parent sees an A they assume their child is doing well.

Even when teachers attempt to use grades fairly, they still suffer from their inherent flaws. Grades may shift the focus from the journey to the destination, they reward students that learn something first, they are often inflated, and they carry no weight with the state. It is not uncommon for a student on the principal’s list to be identified as partially proficient on annual standardized tests.

Report cards should be standards-based. This basically means that instead of letter grades there should be a list of skills and whether or not they've been mastered. These skills should be standardized statewide so report cards would become authentic indicators of achievement. If there was a reliable standards-based report card, the push for standardized testing would be reduced.

What's in a Grade?

Report card grades are meaningless.  New Jersey doesn't put any value in them, and you shouldn't either.  If report cards were consistent, schools would have a legitimate argument against state testing.

Unfortunately an A from one school means something completely different than an A from another school.  An A from one teacher in the same school means something completely different than an A from another teacher in that same school. It's ridiculous.

The following scenario is repeated every year.  Parents see inflated grades and assume their child is doing well until a statewide assessment reveals their honor roll student is not proficient.  Grade inflation has many causes;  perhaps a teacher innocently chooses to reward positive behavior or effort without results, or perhaps a teacher wants to silence the parent that knows their child deserves an A (because of previous grade inflation).  If we get rid of grading (not evaluation) we can focus on the learning.

Report cards should be standards based.  This basically means that instead of letter grades there should be a list of skills and whether or not they've been mastered.  These skills should be standardized statewide so report cards would become authentic indicators of achievement.

If report cards had real value, results of the NJ ASK wouldn't be a surprise.  In fact the NJ ASK wouldn't be needed.

No more NJ ASK!  Now that deserves an A.


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List of schools using a form of standards based grading:
Middletown Public Schools
to be continued...

The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement

The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement

Grades Don't Matter

It's been several years since I've had a confrontational parent teacher conference.

When the grade is the focus instead of the learning, which one suffers?

In any case, when the parent heard their child say, "My teacher said that grades don't matter" it didn't go over too well because grades mattered to him.

High grades often just reward the student who learned the skill first. I sought to encourage instead of discourage by shifting focus from the report card, to what skills the student had learned.

This post is going to require a follow-up because there is much more to this. Grades probably mean much less and do more harm than many will care to admit.