Parents of

Fayette elementary school children may notice some changes in report cards

this fall.

The Board of

Education Monday approved the changes after reviewing them over the past

month.

A committee

had studied how to improve the way report cards communicate students'

progress to parents, and some of those findings were reported to the Board

of Education at last month's regular meeting.

Changes include:

Nine-week

grading periods, with midterm progress reports at 4 1/2 weeks. This will

align grading periods with middle and high schools and increase parent

communication throughout the year.

Specific domains

in the areas of reading/language arts and math being added to give parents

more detailed information about student progress. These same areas are

reflected on Criterion Referenced Competency Tests each spring.

Adding a "completes

assignments" category in each academic area to further specify progress

in that regard.

Including

conduct marks in specialty areas such as art, music, technology and physical

education. This would take care of conduct incidents not always reported

to the home room teacher.

Eliminating

a single conduct grade in favor of specific feedback on character and

academic traits such as self-control, respect for authority, getting along

with others, working independently, and so on.

Including

days off roll in attendance records. This would document lost instruction

time as students change school systems and help teachers, who are being

held more accountable for test scores.

The changes

were approved as part of the board's consent agenda, without comment.

Also approved

on the consent agenda were policies on schools' acceptance of public gifts

and use of pocket pagers by students, and procedures for handling gender

discrimination complaints in violation of the Equity in Sports Act.