Rison Elementary Looks at Standards Based Report Cards

RISON - Parents of students in kindergarten through 3rd grade in the Cleveland County School District could be getting a better idea of how their child is learning as Rison Elementary looks at possibly including "standards based" report cards for the lower grades starting next school year.Rison Elementary Principal Angie Hudson, and academic coaches Sassy Socia and Tracy Stuckey gave the Cleveland County School Board a preview of the new report card system during its regular monthly meeting Monday night.While traditional report cards give letter grades based on the average of a student's test scores in a specific subject area, standards based report cards reveal what progress the student has made in mastering the learning standards within a particular subject.Many schools across the country are turning to standards based report cards as a better way to reflect how well a student is learning. Rather than a letter grade like A, B, C, D or F, a standards based report card tells what level of progress that student is making toward meeting the standards. For instance, the student may have mastered the standards or may need more support.Stuckey said in a separate interview that they would like to implement the standards based report cards for kindergarten through 3rdd grades next year, but admitted they may not be able to achieve that right now since there is a learning curve involved for both teachers and parents.Stuckey explained that the standards based report cards require more work from the teachers, and the committee did not know if there would be enough time to make the transition to all four grade levels at once. She said they would like to try it at least for the kindergarten next year.The current plan is to have the standards based report card in addition the traditional letter grade report cards for whatever grade levels are implemented next year. Stucky said the standards based report card will consist of three leve...