Charlotte Mecklenburg School parents will be getting their first glimpse at a new report card this week for kindergarten through second grades. There are some big changes.
The old report cards were one page. They focused on reading, writing and math. For example, a section under math graded if a student applies measurement concepts. But the new report cards go much further.
“It’s going to be a lot more information than they’ve ever gotten before,” says Anna Renfro, CMS’s director of curriculum support programs.
The new report card stretches around six pages. It’s only for kindergartners, first and second graders. It grades kids on some of the standard things like reading and understanding books, but it also gets specific.
“A parent can look at it and say, ‘My child may need to work harder with counting objects or putting things in order first, second, third, fourth,’” says Renfro.
Or they may see if their first grader can read clocks, knows the difference between rocks and soil, and can explain why people celebrate national holidays.
There are also some categories that could be confusing to parents like Effective/Ethical User of Technology. The translation: how’s your kid doing at using computers, scissors and art supplies.
Renfro says the report cards do a better job of judging what kids are expected to know with a curriculum that stresses applying knowledge, not just learning facts and figures.
CMS Parent Ruby Whitley really likes the detail of the new report cards and thinks they’re more self-explanatory.
“It’s like the blind opened up more and you can see more what’s going on in the inside,” says Whitley.
She only wishes the district offered the same for her third grader.
