What Kinds of Reports Do Parents Really Want on Their Children?

From the Marshall Memo # 452

“Decades of research show that grades don’t lead to deeper understandings, increased intellectual risk-taking, or better performance on complex tasks,” say Jim Webber (University of Nevada/Reno) and Maja Wilson (University of Maine/Orono) in this Kappan article. “Similarly, conversations based around grades can’t produce these results either.” 

So why don’t more teachers send home narrative and descriptive evaluations of students’ work? Often, it’s because teachers believe that parents want grades, not verbiage. But Webber and Wilson’s interviews showed that parents actually want detailed information and are often dissatisfied with the conversations that focus mostly on grades. Online grading programs, while making it much easier for parents to check on their children’s progress, are not providing this kind of fine-grained information on day-by-day performance. Webber and Wilson believe that standards-based report cards with plenty of narrative do a much better job informing parents and sparking good conversations with teachers.

“Conversations create space for the complex dynamics necessary for communication,” they say. “In a good conversation, participants feel as if they’re realizing things they’d only suspected before. A good conversation moves – it builds and bends back on itself, pauses, gathers steam, takes turns, plunges forward, and gathers itself into new understandings and connections. The full engagement of those involved is required, as participants give voice to their experience to create and complicate shared understandings.” 

“Our interviews show that parents want teachers who observe their children carefully, develop strong learning relationships, and communicate meaningfully,” conclude Webber and Wilson. “Parents are telling us what they want: fewer grades, more description, and more shared artifacts of teaching and learning. It’s time we listen.” 

“Do Grades Tell Parents What They Want and Need to Know?” by Jim Webber and Maja Wilson in Phi Delta Kappan, September 2012 (Vol. 94, #1, p. 30-35); Wilson can be reached at maja384@yahoo.com.