My daughters’ father has been absent from their lives for most of this past school year. I recently talked to him, and was trying to catch him up on all that’s happened and their futures. Naturally, he asked about their report cards. I had only received my 4th grader’s at that time, and I honestly couldn’t tell him what it said.
Her report card has 10 headings, and she is graded on 43 different categories. I read the comments section, but whenever I try to focus on the rest of it, I think my head will explode.
The most I can get out of the report card is, did her grades progress or regress? At the elementary school level, there isn’t even a GPA to give an overall sense of how things are going. During the year, I can get more out of parent-teacher conferences, by learning where she’s struggling, where she’s thriving, and getting the teacher’s input on what I can do to help. At the end, though, all that matters is she’s moving on.
As a parent, all I really want to know is that she’s learning something, and that she’s trying. The only negative comment was that her reading fluency is still a little slow. Frankly, I care more about comprehension than how many words she can read per minute. So all in all, I guess I can call it a successful school year.
I used to be a lot more concerned with report cards, but after dealing with them for the last 8 years with both my girls, I see them simply as one aspect of their annual growth and development. I got over worrying about elementary report cards long ago when someone pointed out to me that they have no long-term consequences as long as they’re passing.
My older daughter’s middle school grades are more valuable. As we are looking into alternative high schools, her GPA will matter to a few so she is more focused on it, as she should be. Still, in the end, what I care about most is that she’s trying. She doesn’t have to be a straight A student for me to be proud of her. And again, I tend to get more out of the comments than I do the actual grade.
Grades are subjective. Some teachers use a curve, some don’t. Some praise regurgitation while others value thoughtful questions and valiant efforts. There’s a lot more to take into consideration than the end result. Particularly when the end result has 43 different answers.
What are your thoughts on the current grading systems?
