Educators working to reform grading and reporting often find that some of their strongest opposition comes from parents and community members. Most parents remember grades from when they were in school as a reflection of each student's relative standing among classmates. A grade of C, for example, meant "average" or "in the middle of the class." Parents are generally unfamiliar with the idea of grades reflecting a student's performance level with regard to specific learning standards. 

Because it's possible in a standards-based system for all students to do well and earn high grades, some parents may fear that their child might not succeed later on in learning environments in which students have to compete against one another. It's one thing to compete with the help of teachers and your classmates against a set of rigorous standards. It's quite another to compete against your classmates for the few scarce high grades that the teachers will eventually award. Succeeding in such an environment does not mean learning excellently; it means outdoing your classmates at whatever the cost.

Some schools schedule evening meetings with parents to explain standards-based grading, discuss its advantages, and address parents' concerns. Other schools begin by sending home two report cards for several marking periods, both the new standards-based form and the traditional form. This enables parents to experience firsthand the advantages of the new form.

What strategies have you used to address parents' concerns about grading reform? Have parents expressed other concerns? In your experience, how are they reacting to reform efforts in grading and reporting, either positively or negatively?

Post submitted by Thomas R. Guskey, author of "Five Obstacles to Grading Reform," in the November 2011Educational Leadership.