Lake Forest committee outlines plan to shift elementary report cards to standards-based format

The Lake Forest Board of Education heard a detailed presentation Thursday about a planned shift from traditional letter-grade report cards to standards-based report cards for elementary grades.

The report card committee told the board the change is intended to give families clearer, more actionable information about what students are learning and where they need support. "The primary goal of this progress report is to communicate with families and students about both the students' progress in demonstrating achievement of the state standards and qualities of a learner for each marking period," the committee said.

Committee members said the report cards will keep cognitive subject areas — English language arts, math, science and social studies — and add limited, clearly defined noncognitive measures such as consideration for others, self-management of behavior and demonstrated best effort. Presenters said the committee pared long lists of behaviors into four concise noncognitive “buckets” so the forms are useful, not overwhelming, for teachers and parents.

Presenters described how the new report card will use anchor standards (for example, literature/informational text and…