Numerical Grades Help Schools Measure Progress

Lisa Davidson of La Canada Flintridge was surprised to see all the numbers -- instead of letter grades -- and other data on her son’s elementary school report card. Her shock quickly turned to confusion.

“In my opinion, the report cards are a little overwhelming,” said Davidson, 42. “There’s almost too much information.”

In an effort to match their grading systems with California’s academic standards, several school districts around the state are replacing what they consider subjective and vague traditional grades with a number system.

The state’s standards lay out what students are supposed to learn at each grade level, and the numerical grading system measures performance based on those standards.

In second grade, for example, students should be able to “read aloud fluently and accurately and with appropriate intonation and expression.” The new report cards reflect how well students do, using a number grade.

The academic standards guide the state’s testing system. And, schools are judged each year on how well their students are mastering the standards in English, math and other subjects.

Officials from several school districts say homework and extra credit, as well as other factors, will no longer be enough to raise a child’s grade.

“Before, students used to be graded on attendance and class participation,” said Carole Ferraud, assistant superintendent for educational services at Desert Sands Unified School District in La Quinta, which switched to the number system this year.

“And while they are important skills they need to learn, the grading will be based only on knowledge of state standards.”

Many school officials say because the new grading system mirrors state testing results, report cards provide more information to parents and are easier to understand.

But critics, such as Davidson of La Canada Flintridge, find the large amounts of information difficult to comprehend.

Almost three years ago, La Canada Unified School District began using the new 1 through 4 grading system, with 4 being the highest score.

But Kathy Hernandez, 41, who has a sixth-grader at Palm Crest Elementary School in La Canada, said the system still isn’t telling her enough about her child’s progress.

“When your child is getting a 3, you don’t know if it’s because your child is messing up or every kid in the class is getting a 3,” she said. “You really have no idea how to judge how your kid is doing until the higher [grade levels].”

James Stratton, deputy superintendent for educational services at La Canada Unified, said the district agreed to use the numerical system only up to fourth grade. “We found that students and parents tended to want letter grades in the fifth grade and higher,” he said. Letter grades also are based on state standards.

Michael Brown, assistant superintendent of instructional services at Rialto Unified School District, said that although parents, students and faculty may disagree on the grading system, they all recognize the importance of improving student skills.

With an A through F system, Brown said, grades were based on a mathematical formula that didn’t accurately reflect who learned the lessons. Some students, for example, received a B for reading third-grade material in a fifth-grade class, he said.

The number grades will also be used to hold a student back if that student shows consistently poor progress toward achieving state standards, Brown said.

“At a 2, they are at risk of retention,” he said. “A 1 is a retention candidate.”

Teachers make assessments about students based on daily work as well as weekly quizzes or tests. A child receiving a 4, or superior, grade would be rare, he said.

On a Rialto Unified School District kindergarten report card, a grade from 1 through 4 is given for 37 reading and language arts skills and 18 mathematics skills.

Parent Kanishia Thomas, 29, of Rialto in San Bernardino County said she liked the standards-based report card because it helps her gauge how her son is doing.

“I’m an involved parent, so I go to back-to-school nights and meet with my son’s teachers,” she said. “I stay on top of my kid’s performance.”

Morongo Unified School District in Twentynine Palms is beginning a numerical grading system this year.

Elizabeth DeVita, assistant superintendent of instructional services, said she sees the new system as a boon to teachers.

When a new student enters a school, for example, she said, teachers receive far more information from a numbered and standards-based transcript than from traditional letter grades.

Deborah Sigman, director of the Standards & Assessment Division of the California Department of Education, said the attraction of new standards-based grading systems for school districts is that they align neatly with the state testing program.

Sigman doesn’t believe the new system will work at the high school level, mainly because state colleges aren’t embracing it.

“Colleges are used to using grade-point averages for admissions,” Sigman said. “In institutions of higher learning there’s a lot of history, tradition and culture, and that’s the way business is conducted.”

But numerical and standards-based report cards will be used more because of the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires states to create an accountability system of standards and tests, said Eva L. Baker, director of UCLA’s National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing.

Baker said the main problem with standards-based grading is determining whether teachers and schools are basing number grades on the same criteria for each student.

“We need to find out if it’s working,” Baker said. “Perhaps we need a technical study that reassures us that teachers are making judgments about students in the same way.”

Still, it will be hard to convince some parents, such as Davidson, that the system is worth it.

“As a parent, all you want to know is, ‘Does little Johnny get along with his classmates? And is he doing OK in reading and math?’ ” she said.

“Anything more is kind of overkill.”