Standards-based report cards assess a student's proficiency in subject areas that have been pre-determined by the school or the state program. Teachers adapt curricula according to the general areas of instruction that the school or program decides to emphasize. One advantage, then, of standards-based report cards is that teachers are encouraged to teach subjects comprehensively, rather than spend too much time in one subject while neglecting others.
Standards-based report cards urge teachers to uniformly teach at the kindergarten level. Some teachers may struggle to push the class to progress as appropriate for the kindergarten level.
Thus, students in one kindergarten class may become proficient with the alphabet and with basic vocabulary words, while students in another kindergarten class may be far from mastering the alphabet and basic vocabulary words. Standards-based report cards help ensure that kindergartners in different classes are learning the same material.
Standards-based report cards minimize opportunities for teacher bias. When assigning letter grades, teachers often take into account a student's potential. Thus, students with greater abilities are often assessed more critically than their peers. But standards-based report cards assess the level of student proficiency and knowledge. For instance, students are typically assigned to a level of basic, below basic, proficient or advanced.
With standards-based report cards, teachers may be assessed by the number of students that meet the grade-level (in this case, the kindergarten-level) proficiency. Thus, teachers may spend class time on instruction designed to maximize the number of students that meet the basic proficiency level. There is the risk that students who perform less than at the level of proficiency will be ignored, as the teacher focuses on the group rather than on individuals. Further, students that perform at an advanced level are not pushed to maximize their potential, as they too are overlooked as the teacher focuses on the class at large.
Kindergarten is supposed to help students learn appropriate social and school behaviors, not just numbers and ABCs. Teachers that are preoccupied with instructing students in preparation for standards-based assessment may not want to use class time for activities that reinforce positive skills and behaviors. Kindergartners may not learn proper school etiquette and other social skills if teachers are unwilling to take time to teach beyond the academic baseline.