Do you understand your child report card when they are in elemantary school?

Oh yes the report cards. I don't know what the report cards are like in OH, butI teach in CA--and our report cards are "standards based" meaning we evaluate each curriculum standard, see if the children are making progress, then do this 1-4 marking thing--1 meaning "Not making progress toward standard" --2 meaning "starting to make progress to standard" --3 meaning "Making progress to standard" and-- 4 meaning "Met standard". I understand it--I am the educator. The thing I have issues with is that the parents dont' get it.

First, the standards the children need to learn are written in "teacherese" meaning they use the technical jargon that we teachers use. How many people understand what we are talking about unless we explain it to them? Not many.

Second, the reporting system on the report card is designed more for me to understand yet again. I cannot tell you how many conferences I have had with parents, explained the whole report card and the system for marking and they just look at me and say "So, is he doing ok or not?" I always write a lot of comments on the report card so parents understand how thier child is doing.

I understand that the state of CA wants parents to understand what their child is supposed to learn at each grade level--hence the curriculum standards--but if they are written in a way that is difficult to understand for the non-teacher, they won't help parents. Also, if the report card is difficult to understand, they you wont' know how your child is doing.

Since school districts won't change their report cards anytime soon, you are doing the right thing in contacting the teacher. It's not you--You aren't the only parent who doesn't understand the report cards.

In Kindergarten they don't get A B C D F grades. They typically are rated as satisfactory, needs help or unsatisfactory (or some similar system). Kindergarten kids don't get the number, average grade thing is why.

When your child's teacher sends home a check list of things that are marked off or commented on they are letting you know by checking them off what your child CAN do with mastery or satisfactory level of competence in school with the skills being taught. Unchecked areas are not necessarily bad, it could be they have not formally assessed the students yet in those areas for this point in the school year. If the teacher sensed a problem with your child's learning I'm sure they would have requested a conference with you at the time of the report card or before they came out to discuss the situation with you.

Kids usually start getting A B C grades in school in second or third grade.

In Kindergarten, most schools don't have letter grades. They tend to rely more on specific tests, rather then grading every single little assignment.

For example, your child probably has to know all 26 letters and their sounds. By marking just the letters he knows, you as a parent can see where he needs help.

The same with numbers and the way he writes his name. Also, he might have to know a certain amount of sight words (a, the, have, am, I, can, etc) The school might have a list of the words he needs to know in order to pass to first grade.

Instead of saying, he's an A student. The school tests for specifics, rather then percentages of information they know.

Most districts have clear cut guidelines for what a child needs to know before passing to 1st grade. Therefore, giving grades can't show the whole picture. If they say he's a B student; they don't say where. He could be great in math, yet lacking in literacy. If that's the case, he's not ready for 1st grade.

The kindergarten report cards will specifically name these content areas and talk about where deficiencies are happening.

It's much more effective then assigning a letter grade.

as you can tell from all the different answers, different schools do it different ways. check on the top of the report card or possibly on a cover page. somewhere it should tell you what the grades actually mean. if you can't find a key somewhere to tell you what the numbers or letters stand for, just ask the teacher or call the school office and ask.

In Australia they have just started the A-e grading. A lot of people have trouble understanding it as it is different to the normal A-E we knew as kids. (for many years it has been c-consolidating E- Established and B begiinning to get it)

C is good. This is where they are meant to be

B is 6 months ahead

A is more than 12 months ahead

D is 6 months behind

E is more than 12 months behind

It is a good idea to talk to someone with older kids that understands the report system and get them to go through it with you

My kids are graded 1-4, it has a little area on the report card that explains it. 4 is meets year end expectation and 3 is right on target for the time of year, 2 would be struggling and 1 would be below grade level, at least at my kids school.

And there is O for outstanding and S for Satisfactory and I think one for needs improvement.

The k-1st grade school in my town use the letters S, P, and N

S- satisfactory

P- progress is shown

N- needs improvement

Judging by the answers, it looks like it depends on what school your child goes to

here for elementary report cards they give number grades. Usually there is a code key someone that explains what each number means. Here a 1 is insufficient progress, 2 is progressing toward goal, 3 is on goal, and 4 is exceeding expected goal. Then they also give a + or - for effort.

if they are grading them with stuff like 90 or something (im pretty sure theyre not)then thats 100-90-A 89-80-b 79-70-C 69-0 is an F but if there grading with S and U and stuff then that is s-satisfactory u-unsatisfactory e-excellent(and the S and U and E stuff could be their grades,participation in class,or their conduct, or how they behave)

Our kids get ridiculous things like Satisfactory, Making progress toward target, on target, excels and so forth. Because instead of grading on what is being taught they are graded on what they should know at the end of the year. It's ridiculous. I don't even read them anymore. We get them at Parent Teacher meetings and I just go by what the teachers say.