New Report Cards Won’t Make Grade : Los Angeles district has changed its system for elementary schools. What it has done is to lower standards by instituting vague categories.

In my desk, I have a folder marked “Jessica” that holds the history of my 13-year-old’s education, first at Canterbury Elementary in Arleta and now at Porter Junior High in Granada Hills. This time of year I find myself taking her folder out to glance at the years gone by.

The K-6 grade report cards were very helpful to me as a parent. But this year, parents of Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schoolchildren will get a new report card. And I’m glad my daughter is too old to get one.

This is a crucial time for public education, with criticism coming from nearly every corner. Given such pressure to improve, I would have hoped the schools would be raising standards. Instead, they did the opposite, after years of study and a $90,000 price tag.

In 1987, the district staff gave the school board a teacher/administrator study titled “Children Can No Longer Wait.” It recommended a change in the elementary curriculum, from one that taught concrete skills to one that emphasizes thinking and problem-solving, according to Assistant Supt. Amy McKenna. It urged that report cards be revised to match the new curriculum.

In 1989, a 30-member committee of parents, teachers and administrators started researching report cards. The new version was field-studied in schools for two years until a final version was approved and went into use this year.

In connection with the new report cards, there are training videos for teachers in English and Spanish, parent and teacher handbooks explaining what the grades mean, teacher-training packets and in-service programs. The cost for this, not including salaries and expenses of the original committee, was about $90,000.

I could have supplied a copy of my fourth-grade report card from 1961, which my mother and I easily understood, and saved the district lots of money.

Is there any parent out there who thinks the real problem in the classroom was an easy-to-read report card, requiring years of study to fix and nearly $100,000 better spent elsewhere? I’m convinced that the new report card is simply too much solution for a nearly nonexistent problem.

The 1993 report card is full of vague goals that, unfortunately, seem to have little to do with mastering subject matter. Pupils in grades 1 through 3, for instance, get grades in three categories under social science. These are “understands the historical connections between past, present and future,” “develops cultural awareness and respect for diversity” and “develops skills and understands concepts in Social Science.”

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How teachers are ever supposed to determine grades for these categories is beyond me. Is cultural awareness something we now expect teachers to explain and, worse yet, grade children on?

The feedback to parents in these categories can be S (area of strength), G (shows growth) or N (needs improvement). I’m not sure these letters tell parents what they need to know about a child’s progress.

That system is used in grades 4 through 6 with one big difference. If a student gets an S in “a majority” of all social science categories and no Ns, a letter grade of A for social science is called for.

Students used to get two grades in social studies and most other subjects, one in achievement and the other in effort. What was wrong with that? Parents and kids knew what the grades meant. An A in social studies meant the child was excelling.

What does an A mean today? Here is what teachers are told: “Overall marks of A or B should be used only when a student is working . . . at or above grade level.”

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So an A does not necessarily mean excellence--work above grade level--as a parent might assume from experience. A child learning exactly at the prescribed grade level can get an A. So can a child in the same class who is way ahead, setting the pace.

According to the LAUSD, the new system makes grade-level achievement not only the grading guide but also the ceiling where A grades sit.

Parents may be baffled by the complexity of the report card, but kids will quickly figure out the basic lesson: Why work for grades when OK is A? Recalling the commercial, Good Enough Is.

What will happen when today’s cheap-A students get to middle school, senior high and college? Having been coddled in the elementary grades, they’ll be lulled by grade-level comfort rather than preparing to work hard for the highest academic achievements.

Students will find they’re like the emperor in the story--proud of the ride through town while unaware of being naked.