Outside Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School in Fair Oaks, Amanda Christensen recalled the first time she saw the detailed report card for her three children.
“At first it was very complicated,” Christensen said. “You see all these new things and you don’t understand quite what they mean.”
Case in point: Her kids are now graded on their level of grit.
“What does my child have to do to get a grade in that?” she wondered.
Across the state, report cards are undergoing a sea change in how students are measured for academic performance. Where teachers once graded students on traditional math or English skills, they now judge attributes such as grit, gratitude or being sensitive to others.
Districts are changing their report cards to reflect the new Common Core State Standards, which are intended to move students away from rote learning and memorization. Rather, critical thinking and analysis geared toward deeper understanding of academic subjects are the goals.
In English language arts, third-grade teachers evaluate students in at least a half-dozen areas including complexity of text, story structure, types of writing and presentation of knowledge. In math, teachers grade for algebraic thinking, problem solving and geometric measurement, among other categories.
[For more of this story, written by Loretta Kalb, go to http://www.sacbee.com/news/loc.../article8217330.html]
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