Boston kindergartners to receive report cards

As John Zammito III hopscotched down the hallway after school yesterday, the kindergartner chatted excitedly to his parents about what he learned in science: how to make ''wood" out of sawdust. To the 5-year-old and his classmates at Richard J. Murphy K-8 School in Dorchester, school is about fun, not grades.

But come December, the Boston Public Schools will issue report cards on kindergartners for the first time, evaluating pupils on how well they write, count, and follow directions.

The children will be scored on a scale of 1 to 4 in three dozen categories, from whether they can recognize the rhyme and rhythms in poems, chants, songs, and nursery rhymes to how well they combine two-dimensional shapes to make other two-dimensional shapes.

The report cards, to be issued three times a year, will help ensure that kindergartners are on pace with academic standards and update parents on their child's progress, Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant said yesterday. As academic standards become more rigorous and schools are held accountable for achievement, evaluating kindergartners makes sense, he said.

''We have not always done a good job in communication with parents on what the expectations are in school," Payzant said. ''Kindergarten should be preparing them to be 5-year-olds in the real world. We want children to be able to listen to stories that are read to them, to be able to talk about the stories they heard. They need to know their numbers, their letters, their shapes. It's recognizing that readiness in what you do in early-childhood education can make a huge difference with respect to children learning to read successfully."

But few school systems nationwide are using such detailed report cards, education specialists say.

Boston's leap is not being embraced by some teachers and parents. Some call it overreaction to stricter state standards.

''Yes, we need to stress academics, but I think in kindergarten especially it should be an opportunity for creativity and self-expression, not to get all stressed out about grades," said Ann Fonte-Abbott, whose daughter, Kendra, is a kindergartner at Mission Hill K-8 School in Roxbury. ''There is already too much pressure on children to perform for scores. The MCAS [Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam] will get crammed down their throats soon enough."

Kindergartners should be learning basic social and organizational skills, how to solve puzzles, hold scissors, and stay in line, said Carol Pacheco, the Boston Teachers Union's elementary field representative. But ''the superintendent wants them to be doing reading and writing and math, like everybody else," she said.

Officials and union leaders began discussing kindergarten report cards more than three years ago, Pacheco said, but did not agree on a format until last week.

''I think we finally gave up and just said, 'Fine,' " Pacheco said. ''That is what people are teaching, and parents are looking for it."

Murphy parent Walter Parrish said kindergarten is the right time to start issuing report cards. ''You want to ingrain them in academia, rather than the traditional kindergarten fare: milk and cookies, taking naps, reading stories," he said. ''I want to know how my son is progressing. I want him to get off on the right start, give him the mind-set to get into first grade."

School officials have not determined how the report cards will be distributed, whether at parent-teacher conferences, through the mail, or by sending them home with the children.

Mary Jo Barry, a kindergarten teacher at Murphy, said she has reservations about the formality of the report cards, but she plans to give them to parents during conferences starting Dec. 9 and supplement the marks with a portfolio of the children's work and the results of their diagnostic tests in reading and math.

More than 10 years ago Barry and other kindergarten teachers issued progress reports, short narratives of how individual students were performing, which she said she prefers.

Parents of low-scoring pupils should not panic, Barry said. ''It's the beginning of the year. Parents should tell these students: 'It's OK you don't know all these skills. If you did, Mrs. Barry wouldn't be here to teach you.' "

John Zammito's father, John Zammito Jr., said he looks forward to receiving his son's first report card. ''We ask him every day on the way home: 'How do you like school? What did you do in school?' " he said. ''This way we have it right from the teacher."

The kindergartner, himself, is unfazed. ''They're like a reward for being good," he said.

Elise Henricks -- whose son, Max, is a Murphy kindergartner -- says report cards are not a big deal. ''I don't think this is going to affect whether he goes to Harvard," she said. ''It's just a good way for me to get a sense of how he's doing."

The practice is growing more popular because of stricter standards under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Springfield is one of the few school systems issuing report cards in kindergarten.

The lengthy report cards help make sure that schools are held accountable for their pupils' progress, and it also lets families know where their children stand academically, said Amy Wilkins, principal partner at The Education Trust, a nonprofit research group in Washington, D.C.

''It is early for parents to be worried about how their children stack up against other children," said Kathleen McCartney, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. ''But I think the framework is very useful."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.