Over the past two years, report cards grading Bedford students have changed.

For about two years, the Bedford School District has been issuing parent-friendly elementary school report cards. Starting next school year, the new grading process for fifth- and sixth-graders will be in place.

And, seventh- and eight-grade report cards will be studied by administrators starting next year as well, said McKelvie Middle School Assistant Principal Ed Joyce, who will serve as principal of the Ross A. Lurgio Middle School once it opens Aug. 29.

Elementary school students -- up to fourth-graders -- are given quarterly “standard space” report cards with an explanation attached, said Chip McGee, assistant superintendent of curriculum and assessment.

“Really, the back of the report card is where we tried to get all the information that the parents will need,” McGee said.

The new report cards were designed by a committee of teachers, parents, principals and others, he said.

For each grade, the explanations are different, as are academic skills.

For example: a kindergartner is graded on “pre-writing,” including their first and last name without a visual model. A first-grader will then be assessed on “composition,” including five sentences to a topic. A second- grader will be graded on whether they can develop and organize a topic.

The report card grading explanations are for parents who might not know exactly what certain terms mean, said Ken Williams, Peter Woodbury School principal.

“If I worked someplace else and wasn’t a principal, I wouldn’t know what ‘phonics’ really meant, so we do this for the parents,” Williams said.

On a report card, student abilities are assessed three ways – they’re compared to district standards, the students’ individual growth and the work habits, McGee said.

Williams said parents are getting used to the system, with the help of parent-teacher conferences, which are required twice a year.

Memorial Elementary School Principal Pam Ilg said teachers are working with the system.

“It’s been a bit of a learning curve, but I think they’re all doing very well now,” Ilg said.

The actual grades are either check marks or “Excellent, Good or Satisfactory.” Letter grades and honor roll aren’t used.

Letter grades, however, don’t show effort and personal achievement, only the final result, McGee said. Three students might all get B’s, but each could be excelling at one section of the classwork such as homework, class participation or testing, McGee said.

“These are three really different students, but on a transcript they all look the same,” he said.

For seventh- and eight-graders at McKelvie, the reports offer achievement, effort and conduct grades for each course, said Joyce.

The achievement is based on tests and quizzes. Effort is based on students’ hard work. Conduct is based on students’ behavior.

What sets McKelvie apart from elementary schools is the use of letter grades -- A’s to D’s, with a 10-point scale and F’s for failure.

“What we also do, on another note, is we do honor students who get all A’s and B’s with an honors tea at the end of the year,” Joyce said.

As for an honor roll in Bedford elementary schools?

“There really hasn’t been one since I’ve been here and I’ve been here for about 17 years,” Williams said.