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"For my daughter, I want to make sure that she's understanding the concepts. My daughter is getting straight-A's and I don't think she deserves it."

By Ann Althouse

When grades just aren't enough.... you need more grades:

Under the new system, students will continue to receive a traditional letter grade ? A, B, C, D or U (unsatisfactory) ? for every subject....

A second section of the report card, known as Academic Performance, will show how students perform compared to the state's academic standards on a scale of 4 (advanced), 3 (proficient), 2 (basic) and 1 (minimal) ? the same ratings students receive on annual state tests.

Students will receive three to five grades in this area, depending upon the subject...

The report card's final section, known as Learning Skills, will assess students on issues such as whether class time is used productively, whether the student cooperates with others and whether homework is being completed.

Here, the ratings will include M (mostly), S (sometimes) and R (rarely).

The Learning Skills scores won't be included as teachers compute the letter grade, though, leading some parents to question whether their children will continue to complete their homework.

I started this post with a mocking attitude, but now I'm thinking that maybe this is a good idea. It might be a response to the overemphasis on obediently turning in a lot of assignments. This might be helpful and fair to the kids who learn well without meticulous completion of homework. The other side of that may be what the woman quoted in the post title is talking about: The super-compliant child who isn't really learning very much. (She "said her daughter tends to be popular and well-behaved but sometimes her academic struggles have been overlooked because teachers like her.") But I think it will be hell for the perfectionist kid ? or maybe the perfectionist kid will be so overwhelmed by so many different grades that she'll actually get over it.

Full post as published by Althouse on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).