CHICAGO – Some public schools are shifting from traditional letter grades to “progress guides” with more ambiguous measurements of student achievement, and Chicago area parents think the new “standards-based” approach is junk.

“This tells me nothing,” Kylie Spahn, mother of Herrick Middle School seventh-grader Jessica Spahn, told the Chicago Tribune as she reviewed her daughter’s “progress guides.”

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Other parents in Downers Grove Grade School District 58 expressed similar sentiments in survey earlier this year, according to the news site.

“Absolutely can’t stand longitudinal report card! So confusing!” one parent wrote. “Just to back to giving simple letter grade!”

“Absolutely hate the math report card,” another parent wrote. “Giving me a date when my child mastered a skill tells me absolutely nothing. It’s totally worthless.”

“I want grades again!!!” a third wrote.

Others described the new “progress guides” as “lame” and “a waste of paper.”

The complaints flooded into administrators after District 58 began to eliminate letter grade report cards this year for math in kindergarten through sixth grade, and for seventh and eighth grade science. Instead, parents were sent “progress guides” that detail when students meet national Common Core-aligned education standards.

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The Tribune reports an increasing number of elementary and middle schools are moving to the new system, but some, like Deerfield Public School District 109 reverted back to letter grades after fierce backlash from parents.

“We decided we would keep the letter grades for now,” Deerfield superintendent Jeff Zoul said. “We don’t believe in that, but we work for the parents, and we respect their input.”

Zoul and other “education experts” believe the new system is superior to the old letter grades because they supposedly better reflect what students are learning individually, rather than in comparison to their classmates.

According to the Tribune:

Experts say those grades can be problematic because they’re usually calculated not only on student achievement but also a hodgepodge of other factors as well, according to Thomas Guskey, a professor at the University of Kentucky who studies grading practices. So behaviors such as turning in assignments on time can earn points that are rolled into a final grade.

Grading on a curve or giving points to students for extra credit also departs from whether a student is mastering specific academic standards, studies show.

In standards-based grading, work and study habits are usually judged separately from student achievement, and grades usually won’t be letters derived by throwing together points for tests, quizzes and homework assignments. Instead, numbers such as 1 to 4 would describe how students are meeting or working toward meeting specific standards. Or simple phrases can be used, such as “exceeding standards” or “progressing toward standards” on student report cards.

The goals kids have to meet in Illinois are drawn from the current Common Core standards for math and English language arts that emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving, as well as the Next Generation Science Standards for science instruction.

With the new approach, “How other students do is insignificant,” Guskey explained. “What matters is how they are doing compared to the standards for learning.”

High schools have largely resisted the change to “standards-based” measurements because they don’t jibe with how colleges review students. And many elementary and middle schools that shifted course are now rethinking the decision after a barrage of negative parental feedback, according to the Tribune.

In District 58, parents convinced officials to consider reinstituting letter grades at certain grade levels by 2017-18, particularly in middle schools, said assistant superintendent Jayne Yudzentis, who is in charge of student report cards.

“It is a work in progress, obviously,” she said.