Wednesday, August 1, 2001

Schools looking at new report cards

By MONROE ROARK
mroark@TheCitizenNews.com

There could be some changes in the way elementary school report cards look in Fayette County this fall.

A committee has been studying how to improve the way report cards communicate students' progress to parents, and some of those findings were reported to the Board of Education at Monday night's regular meeting.

Some proposed changes include:

Nine-week grading periods, with midterm progress reports at 4 1/2 weeks. This would align grading periods with middle and high schools and increase parent communication throughout the year.

Specific domains in the areas of reading/language arts and math being added to give parents more detailed information about student progress. These same areas are reflected on Criterion Referenced Competency Tests each spring.

Adding a "completes assignments" category in each academic area to further specify progress in that regard.

Including conduct marks in specialty areas such as art, music, technology and physical education. This would take care of conduct incidents not always reported to the homeroom teacher.

Eliminating a single conduct grade in favor of specific feedback on character and academic traits such as self-control, respect for authority, getting along with others, working independently, and so on.

Including days off roll in attendance records. This would document lost instruction time as students change school systems and help teachers, who are being held more accountable for test scores.

Staff is continuing to fine-tune these changes in hopes of having them implemented this fall.