Standards-Based Report Card

In LISD, Kindergarten and First grade students are assessed using a Standards Based Report Card. This report card continues the format of how students are monitored and evaluated in Kindergarten and First Grade classrooms. 

What is a Standards-Based Report Card?

Standards describe what a student should know and be able to do at each grade level in all subjects. The kinder and first grade standards established in Education Code are the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), which form the foundation for the report card here. This report card is designed to give you specific information about the progress of your child on these standards.  According to LISD board policy, grades must reflect a student’s relative mastery of a concept/learning goal (EIA Local). Grades entered for academic work must reflect student achievement and communicate progress to parents. Since the standards-based report card is directly linked to specific student achievement standards, this format accomplishes the overall goal that grades should reflect student mastery of concepts.

Why a Standards-Based Report Card?

Educational Researchers Robert Marzano, Jay McTighe, Ken O’Connor, Rick Wormeli and Thomas Guskey, to cite a few, have all published research on the broken system of numeric grading and averaging.  According to Guskey (1996) “schools have used grades for a variety of purposes:  communication, self-evaluation, sorting and selecting, motivation, and program evaluation – and therein lies the problem.  Some teachers emphasize one purpose and some emphasize another. Consequently they use different criteria for determining grades, which can result in students who achieve at the same level receiving different grades.” In the current numeric grading system, a 90 earned in one teacher’s classroom, might be equivalent to an 80 in another teacher’s classroom.  Because varied factors are often utilized when calculating a student’s grade, grades across classrooms and teachers are not consistent. 

A standards-based report card strives to achieve consistency across classrooms on how students are evaluated.  Since it establishes common learning goals all students will be evaluated on, similar types of learning experiences and student work will be utilized to determine individual student progress.   With the focus, across the state and the nation, on ensuring that all students achieve specific types of knowledge and skills(standards) by the end of each grade level, it is imperative teachers are providing feedback on student progress toward attainment of these critical standards, as opposed to feedback about the ability to complete an assignment or task.  All classroom learning experiences should be based on the critical standards students are to learn at each grade level.  Therefore, each parent must be provided feedback regarding how their individual child is progressing on these critical standards.