Lawrence parents might need instruction guides to maneuver through the district’s new elementary school report cards.

While the public school district’s updated cards may stump people initially, district administrators and teachers said Monday they were convinced the changes offered better analysis of student progress at each grade level.

Based on input from about 50 Lawrence teachers, this represents the first significant revamping of elementary grade cards in at least a decade.

“I think it’s great,” said Bev Hyde, a second-grade teacher at Cordley School who assisted with the revisions. “It’s going to more truly reflect how your kid is going to do on other assessments.”

Tom Christie, who spearheaded the project as the district’s executive director of curriculum, said the cards would be introduced this school year and apply to all 5,000 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

The format change reflects a national trend toward “standard-based” cards that do a better job communicating each student’s progress toward proficiency at precise academic skills by the end of the year, he said.

Achievement information still will be compiled in traditional subject areas of math, language arts, science, health, social studies, art, music and physical education.

But the three-page cards will now chart far more academic benchmarks in each subject.

For example, kindergartners will be assessed on their ability to master 25 concepts in math. The old report cards had space to appraise a student’s work on five math concepts, said Lynda Allen, the district’s director of math and science.

Report cards for sixth-graders will contain marks reflecting achievement in nearly 100 skill areas — nearly twice as many as plotted in the past. A fourth-grader’s proficiency in social studies will be measured 10 ways, instead of just three ways.

¢ 6News video: Lawrence rehauls report cards

All the new cards will include a 15-item assessment category on “successful learner behaviors,” and there will be room for written comments from teachers.

Ann Bruemmer, the district’s director of arts and humanities, said the new cards would better focus student evaluation on areas of the curriculum tied to state academic standards.

That linkage, she said, should promote higher performance on state standardized tests.

Students in grades four through six will continue to earn letter grades in each subject, but they’ll also be evaluated on a scale of 1 to 4 in terms of their ability to conquer dozens of academic standards.

In kindergarten through third grade, students only will receive numbered scores. They will no longer be given “S,” “I” or “N” marks for “satisfactory,” “improvement shown” or “needs improvement.”

“I think we’re being proactive,” Bruemmer said. “Teachers will feel parents know more clearly what students are doing.”

Christie said grade-card reform was substantial enough that parents would receive explanatory information before first-quarter grades were issued in October.

All elementary teachers will fill out the cards while referring to new evaluation booklets written by district staff. The idea is for each teacher to interpret the meaning of grading areas, such as “knows and uses basic facts efficiently,” in the same way, Christie said.

“We’re trying to make sure the report card is implemented consistently,” he said.