It’s as Easy--or as Hard--as 1-2-3-4

Like neckties and hemlines, the school report card changes with the trends of the moment.

Of late, the fashion has been toward soft-toned--some would say fluffy--grading as educators have emphasized self-esteem and low-pressure learning.

But a new state policy requiring schools to flunk students who do not to meet academic standards is forcing districts to toughen their grading systems.

The promotion policy will go into effect across the state next year. The giant Los Angeles Unified School District, however, plans to implement standards-based promotion in the second and eighth grades this year.

In preparation, the district has revamped its report card, substituting hard criteria and unequivocal numbers for the vague check marks that used to prevail in kindergarten through third grade.

No longer will average students be allowed to get by with the ego-salving “Shows Growth,” nor will those who are failing receive the gentle push of “Needs to Improve.”

This year, all students down to kindergarten age will know whether they are passing or not.

A 3 or a 4 is passing. A 1 or a 2 is not.

In the fourth and fifth grades, the same plan has replaced the traditional A-B-C system still in use last year. District officials who designed the new report card said the old letter system lacked a clear-cut dividing line between passing and failing. The C grade, generally interpreted as average, offered refuge to students who weren’t keeping up, they said.

However, the district still uses letter grades for secondary schools so traditional grade-point averages can be calculated for college entrance requirements.

The new elementary system got its first tryout in August and October when year-round schools sent out their first progress reports. Schools on traditional calendars sent reports home last month.

Teachers have received detailed guidelines explaining how to gauge students’ efforts to meet dozens of standards for each subject area.

The transition has proved challenging and sometimes disturbing for teachers.

In particular, kindergarten teachers worry that the standards are too rigid.

“You’re asking children to do something that developmentally they’re not ready for,” said Karen Park, a kindergarten teacher at Ivanhoe Elementary School in Silver Lake. “Those that can’t shouldn’t have to.”

Others found themselves stumped by having to give a number grade early in the year on a standard that is meant to be met by June.

To clear up that problem, the district is preparing a pacing plan that shows when each standard should be introduced, met and reviewed during the year.

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The district’s response to standards-based promotion isn’t the only conceivable one, of course. Some schools made up their own grading systems, which looked quite different.

Seventh Street School in San Pedro, for instance, prepared what it called a developmental profile. On it, the teacher would record the date on which the student met each standard.

But it won’t be used.

“We were given a directive by the district that everyone was to use the same consistent report card,” said teacher Margaret Spinelli.

Despite some reservations, many teachers welcome the new report card and think it will grow more effective with each grading period.

Jeanne Contreras, a teacher at Ambler Avenue Elementary School in Carson, likes the fact that the report card leaves no gray areas.

“I believe that with the promotional standards, it is going to be much more clear to a parent if the child is not working 1/8at 3/8 grade level,” she said.

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The ABCs of New Report Cards

Report cards coming home with elementary school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District are larger and more complicated this year as educators attempt to link promotion to state standards. Below is a progress report for a fictitious second-grader who may be facing retention next year. If the after-school lessons and summer session his teacher prescribed do not raise his marks to 3s, Johnny will have to stay in second grade. The report card is shown in its entirety, except for a section provided for the teacher’s comments.

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A portion of a second-grade report card from last year is shown at right. Under the old system, teachers rated pupils in kindergarten through third grade under one of three fuzzy headings: S for “Area of Strength,” G for “Shows Growth,” and N for “Needs Improvement.” The student at right was struggling in some aspects of reading but would have moved on to third grade whether the marks increased or not. Traditional letter marks were given to students in the fourth and fifth grades.

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Key changes this year:

* Grades: All students in kindergarten through fifth grade are getting grades of 1 through 4 in all subject areas, as well as several categories of study habits and social skills. The grades are defined as 4, “Advanced”; 3, “Proficient”; 2, “Partially Proficient”; and 1, “Not Proficient.” But 3 is the minimum grade for promotion. A student receiving too many 2s would be held back.

* Language: The report card refers directly to state standards and is much more precise. In place of the vague, “Responds to text in written form,” the new card bases the grade on “Word Analysis, Fluency and Systematic Decoding and Word Recognition.”

* Format: The basic report card format is the same for all elementary grades; the only difference is in definitions. First grade, for example, has the added words “Concepts About Print” and “Phonemic Awareness.”