Annandale Terrace and Columbia Schools Receive New Report Cards

Students and parents at and may have noticed a little something different about the report cards they received on Friday. That's because Fairfax County Public Schools is testing out a new kind of report card.

Annandale Terrace and Columbia were two of 10 selected to serve as field test schools for the new report cards. [View the new progress reports by clicking the first PDF at right.]

Instead of the usual As and Bs, students will now receive marks in number of areas that are linked to the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs). SOLs are how the state measures student achievement.

“We are comparing their achievement to the standards that they should be learning," Judy Heard, who is in charge of the new report cards, .

Development of the new report cards began in 2008, according to the communication timeline [see second PDF at right]. According to FCPS, schools in Prince William County and Loudon County already use standards-based progress reports.

For now, only the field test schools will receive the new reports. All other schools will begin using the new progress report in fall 2012. is on the list of selected schools for 2011-2012.

FCPS has released a list of questions and answers explaining the differences between the old report cards and the new ones. For example, instead of cumulative marks, the new reports will give grade students and their progress at the time the teacher marks the progress report.

Read more about the new reports and what Steve Greenburg, president of the Fairfax Federation of Teachers and Michael Hairston, president of the Fairfax Education Association had to say about them here on .