It's report card time again.  I dislike report cards intensely.  It is a passionate hate affair between report cards and me.  It is the only thing I dislike about teaching and the only thing I didn't miss when I was a curriculum coordinator.  Since returning to the classroom three years ago I am constantly reminded of how much I dislike report cards.  Did I say that already?

    Reason #1:  I am forced to give a child a number that effectively ranks him or her in at least 50 descriptors ranging from physical education to reading and writing in a second language.  This practice persists despite the fact that studies have shown that children do better, i.e. learn more and actively engage with their learning, when they are provided with timely oral or written feedback about their progress than if they are given a numerical grade.  In addition, when children assess their own work and set goals for their learning, they are likely to learn more and better.  See Alfie Kohn, Grading, The Issue is Not How but Why, found at http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/grading.htm and Inside the Black Box Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment by Paul Black and Dylan William 

    Reason #2:  Report cards are time consuming.  Time spent writing report card comments (the only part I do like about report cards), justifying grades, checking for errors, printing verification reports, etc could be better used in reading and commenting on student work (akin to report card comments but more timely and specific to classroom assignments), in order to give feedback and determine next steps for individual and whole group lessons.

    Reason #3:  When handed their child's report card, parents search for the marks before reading the (hopefully) well-thought out comments that teachers spend hours crafting.  Even when the marks are strategically placed on the last page of the report card, parents want to know where their child stands with respect to a numerical marking scheme.

    Reason #4:  The descriptors on most report cards often do not reflect essential understandings or even what was taught in the classroom.  The descriptors are not written in a clear and concise manner causing confusion among new teachers and many parents.

    Reason #5:  Report cards do not reflect a child's progress and true learning in any three-month period.  A child who struggles to independently solve a problem in reading may have learned lots of things about himself as a reader (the importance of making sense of reading, how to use a variety of strategies to figure out unknown words, the importance of rereading a passage, etc) but a 1-2-3-4-5 mark does not reveal this learning.  Some will argue that this can be commented on in the narrative section of the report card but why do we have to go through all that extra work to justify a numerical mark that should be invalidated from the start?  Wouldn't it be better to simply start with the comments, share the progress, and showcase the evidence of learning? 

      Thankfully at my school we have student-led conferences for the first two marking periods.  Children select work from each subject area or theme study to share with parents.  They talk about what they did, what they learned, and perhaps what their goals might be for the coming few months.  The more I think about this the more I wonder why the student-led conference and teacher and student comments couldn't account (there's that accountability word creeping in) for a child's learning?  What do you think?  Should we get rid of report cards as they now stand?  What would you replace them with?  I look forward to reading your comments.