Rethinking school report cards: A better way to measure students' progress

In a little over a month, parents across Chicago will receive their children’s final report cards and see a list of letter grades for multiple subjects. Letter grades A to F can trigger a Pavlovian response in some parents. An A is good; a C is sometimes considered bad.

What those letters fail to do is provide any understanding of what their child actually knows and is able to do. This is a problem.

A single letter grade cannot accurately explain a child’s mastery of topics and may inadvertently miscommunicate a student’s progress. Two years ago, a national study showed nearly nine out of 10 parents thought their child was performing at grade level in reading and math. That same year, data from national testing showed only 31% of fourth graders were proficient in reading and 39% were proficient in math.

In my first grade classroom, students receive a single letter grade for reading. A child may understand books read aloud but might not be able to yet sound out words themselves. Similarly, English language learners in my classroom cannot receive a grade lower than a C. While the district’s policy was created with good intentions to promote equity, it masks whether students need and deserve real help.

Adding to that confusion are inconsistent grading practices. An A in one classroom is never the same as in another class. In my experience as a classroom teacher for over a decade, grades vary a considerable amount depending on the teacher and school. Not to mention, grade inflation is rampant across the country. Even when grading is applied consistently, it's not necessarily a reflection of mastery.

Additionally, student behavior may unwittingly create bias in traditional grading structures, regardless of level of mastery. The current Chicago Public Schools report card does not provide insight into student behavior, or work and study habits. Students receiving poorer grades due to systemic issues are more likely to develop negative attitudes about school and struggle with self-esteem.

Detailed assessments

CPS has the power to change this and solve these problems. Other Chicago-area districts use standards-based grading, a system that provides parents with detailed assessments of how students are doing across a range of metrics. This leads to richer conversations between parents, teachers and students about what students know, as well as opportunities for growth. It is already happening in CPS kindergarten classrooms.

During spring conferences, my son’s kindergarten teacher explained the 1- to 4-point rubric with sentences like, “He has a 4 for this standard because he knows all his letters and sounds.” This gives a clearer understanding of a child’s learning. It also ensures teachers can then focus on assessments and assignments that help measure students’ progress.

CPS teachers are poised to make this change. Many teachers now engage in personalized learning in their everyday practice. CPS has begun developing proficiency scales to standardize measures across the district. Standards-based grading would be a natural progression to give the most personalized and updated information to students and families. It would force conversations to be about learning and progress versus a single score that often doesn’t reflect what kids have learned.

This will be a large undertaking and must be done with care and thoughtfulness, which can be a challenge in a district as large as CPS. I propose three starting points:

1. Start with elementary schools or potentially kindergarten through second grade. Kindergarten families are already familiar with this grading style, and growing a policy from the ground up allows for clear communication between families, teachers and students.
   
2. Allow schools to implement standards-based grading on their own within a district framework. School teams can customize “gradebooks” based on the standards they teach each quarter.
   
3. Create a standards-based grading learning community within each network. This would provide a place for teachers and administrators to work together toward a shared goal.

Some CPS schools are beginning to pilot some form of standards-based grading, but it is incredibly scattered, and there is no unified system. Over a decade ago, I worked at Hamilton Elementary in the Roscoe Village area, and we created our own standards-based report card that was used for several years until the district told us to stop.

CPS has relied for too long on a dated system that does a disservice to parents and students. Let’s make this the last year families are worrying about A's and instead have real conversations about student growth and development.

Paige Passman teaches first grade at Clinton Elementary and a CPS parent. She is a National Board-Certified teacher who is pursuing her doctorate in global education leadership at DePaul.