"SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California students are being graded on “grit,” “gratitude,” their sensitivity toward others and other personality traits with new Common Core-aligned report cards.

Schools across the state are reworking student report cards to better align with Common Core’s stated focus on critical thinking and analysis by expanding current measures to include the more subjective attributes, The Sacramento Bee reports.

Fair Oaks schools, for example, are using two different grading scales, one for academics and another for their personality traits.

“For those traditional academic subjects, teachers grade students on a 1-to-4 scale. But when it comes to attributes such as grit or being sensitive to others, they give students one of four marks: A for almost always, O for often, S for sometimes and R for rarely,” according to the news site.

“The first report cards went home in November at 11 elementary schools in the (Fair Oaks) district; full implementation is scheduled for the fall.”

Parent Amanda Christensen told the Bee the report cards are confusing.

“At first it was very complicated,” she said. “You see all these new things and you don’t quite understand what they mean,” such as a grade for grit.

“What does my child have to do to get a grade in that?”

Christenson, a mother of three in Fair Oaks, likely isn’t the only parent scratching their head.

The Sacramento City Unified School District are testing out similar report cards at all its elementary schools this year, as well. There, faculty and parents worked to draft measurements for “behaviors that support learning,” and grade students on a scale of “outstanding” to “needs improvement,” the Bee reports."

http://eagnews.org/californias-new-schoo...-toward-others/