Grades that mean something: Kentucky develops standards-based report cards

Nearly all states have standards for student learning and they have assessment programs to measure students' proficiency on those standards. But schools within each state nonetheless are left to develop their own standards-based student report cards as the primary means of communicating information about students' performance. To address the challenge, a group of Kentucky teachers, school leaders, and researchers helped launch a major initiative to develop a common, statewide, standards-based student report card for all grade levels. Early implementation data show great promise, demonstrating that more effective ways of communicating student learning can be implemented with little additional work.