Kindergartners to get report cards this year

Kindergartners in the Cape Girardeau public schools will get report cards this year -- the first time in the district's history.

The school district made the change to bring it in line with report cards issued in the other elementary grades, school officials said.

In the past, there has been a checklist that kindergarten teachers followed in tracking students' academic skills. That information was passed on to parents at parent-teacher conferences.

But starting this fall, Cape Girardeau kindergarten students will be graded each quarter on whether they meet or exceed grade-level expectations on reading, writing/language and math. They also will be graded on academic behavior.

"I think this is something that society has pushed us into," Janet said.

Parents, she said, want to see report cards on how their children are doing academically. "The majority of us are visual," she said. "We want to see it on paper."

-- Mark Bliss