PUB TYPE Reports Research/Technical (143) Tests /Evaluation Instruments (160)

A study was conducted to determine what methods of student evaluation parents felt were most effective in helping them assist in their child's efforts to develop skills and understand their child's performance in school. A survey was conducted among 168 parents in central Virginia, including parents of kindergarten through fourth grade students in a city school and parents of students in three second/third grade classes in a rural school. A total of 100 fourth graders and second/third graders were also surveyed. The schools studied used different approaches to evaluation. One used a combined developmental checklist and narrative report for kindergarten and first grade, and letter grades for second through fourth grades. In the other school, written communications with parents about their child's performance and conferences were used in kindergarten through third grade, while grades were assigne