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Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story on a New York state school district that has adopted "standards-based report cards." These report cards differ from the more traditional variety in that they aim to measure mastery of knowledge and skills more faithfully:

In Pelham, the second-grade report card includes 39 separate skill scores — 10 each in math and language arts, 2 each in science and social studies, and a total of 15 in art, music, physical education, technology and “learning behaviors” — engagement, respect, responsibility, organization. The report card itself is one page, but it comes with a 14-page guide explaining the different skills and the scoring.

Dennis Lauro, Pelham’s superintendent, said that standards-based report cards helped students chart their own courses for improvement; as part of the process, they each develop individual goals, which are discussed with teachers and parents, and assemble portfolios of work.

Effort and extra credit are not part of the equation, and the report cards do not measure students against each other.

Some years ago, the Chugach, Alaska public school district took the standards-based reporting system a good deal farther. In Chugach, each student works at her own pace, advancing to the next grade level only when she can demonstrate mastery of material through portfolios and other assessments. Some students progress to ...

For parents, staff and students at the John Stanford International School, it's never too early to go global.  The diverse public elementary school in Seattle holds classes in Japanese, Spanish and English, focuses on world cultures, and even allows some students to attend school in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.  All the while, students maintain impressive scores on Washington State assessments. (See our full story about the John Stanford School here.)

I recently caught up with three teachers from John Stanford, Maria Buceta Miller, Margretta Murnane and JoAnne Uhlenkott.  They shared some of the secrets of their success.

You can download the entire 20-minute conversation here. You can also read through a transcript of highlights below. 

Alternatively, you can download any of the following excerpts from the full interview:   ...

Our friends at ASCD's Whole Child Initiative just fired off an email newsletter describing the astonishing success of Thomas Edison Elementary School in Port Chester, New York.  (School success seems to be contagious in Port Chester, whose middle school has won national acclaim for similar strides in the past 10 years.)

Edison owes its achievements to an education approach that addresses the social, physical and academic needs of its largely poor student body.  To quote ASCD's newsletter: ...

In a few days, a new and expanded edition of Richard Louv’s best-selling book, Last Child in the Woods, will hit bookstores around the country. Louv’s book has fueled an international movement to combat what he calls “nature deficit disorder,” children’s growing alienation from the natural world. (Louv’s term for the disorder is quickly catching on, turning up in major newspapers, on television, and even in a February cartoon by Bloom County creator Berke Breathed.)

A quotation from our recent telephone interview with Louv elegantly captures the thrust of his argument: “[T]he message we’re sending kids is that nature is in the past and probably doesn’t count anymore, the future’s in electronics, the boogeyman lives in the woods, and playing outdoors is probably illicit and possibly illegal.” ...