By Denise Smith Amos
The Cincinnati Enquirer

For some parents, letter grades just aren't enough. So several Greater Cincinnati districts are revamping report cards to focus on specific skills and educational standards.

Click to view Acrobat PDF file (192k) showing in-depth look at new and old report cards and how they differ. (Charles W. Jones/Enquirer infographic) | ZOOM |

They're adding checklists to their letter grades and percentages so parents can see what skills their children have and haven't mastered. Some have even done away with grades for younger students.

Beverly Miller, a teacher at Mount Healthy City Schools, has eliminated letter grades for kindergarten through second-grade report cards this year. She is consulting with other teachers about changing the report cards for upper grades.

Mount Healthy's old report cards listed subject area and grades. Teachers included number-coded comments, which directed the computer to spit out phrases such as "has shown outstanding achievement" on report cards.

But Miller said that was too general.

The new report cards for K-2 are legal-size documents that use plus marks and X's for each skill described. A plus (+) denotes that a student "consistently demonstrates competency." An X indicates a skill is "an area of concern."

Under the "Writing" heading, for instance, parents of second-graders can learn if their student "spells high-frequency words correctly," "self-corrects" their writing, and uses a "variety of sentence structures and vocabulary."

Under "Math," they'll see if their child "knows addition facts," "recognizes and counts a collection of coins" and "interprets story problems."

Under each heading, a teacher also indicates if a student "puts forth effort."

The souped-up report cards make for "smarter parents," Miller said. "It makes them more informed. It's like going to a doctor who's a specialist, instead of going to a general practitioner."

At Stewart Elementary, checklists bolster letter grades, said Michael White, Princeton schools' director of testing and research. Report cards are four pages, with letter grades out front and checklist standards inside.

Many schools say the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which requires that states set goals for student proficiency in a variety of subjects, from math to science to citizenship, are driving these changes.

That's OK with Denise Crews, technology director for the Cincinnati Center for Arts and Technology and a parent of a 13-year-old who attends Clark Montessori in Hyde Park.

Her daughter, Dziko, an eighth-grader, is an average student who struggles in math and wants to major in drama. Crews says she wants schools to tell her how Dziko stacks up against other students around the world.

"Grades are archaic," she said. "The education system across the country needs a better way of measuring student accomplishment."

Does an "A" mean the student has reached the top? Crews asked.

"The bar is always moving," she said. "Our children are going to compete globally. At work, you're in a state of continuous quality improvement. Why aren't we setting that up for our kids?"

Clark Montessori supplies Crews with biweekly updates on her daughter's academic skills. She also learns how often Dziko raises her hand in class, and if she takes a leadership role in group projects.

To Crews, the reports answer important questions: "Is she becoming a critical thinker, and how do we facilitate that process, and what's the best way to document it?

"Is it with As, Bs, Cs and Ds? I would argue, 'No.' "

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E-mail damos@enquirer.com