Reinventing Report Cards: Reading, Writing, Collaboration and Other Work Skills

Five states and the creator of a mastery report card join an ETS and Carnegie effort to ditch A-F grades and highlight work skills with academics

A movement to throw out traditional A-F grades in favor of tracking high school students as they gain mastery of academic and life skills is gaining momentum, with five states and powerful players joining forces to advance it.

The hope of the “Skills for the Future” collaboration is to make it easy for schools to treat so-called “durable” skills such as critical thinking, teamwork and perseverance the same as traditional subjects like math and English. That includes giving students new tests and a new report card that shows how well they have mastered those other skills as they apply to colleges or jobs.