On a standards-based report card, a 4, 3, 2 or 1 shows how close your child is to a learning goal. It is not a percent of points, and in the district guides below, a 3 means your child can do what the grade or course expects.
Each district writes its own key, so find yours first. Below is what several districts tell parents, and what to ask.
What the numbers describe
Winchester Public Schools in Virginia says traditional letter grades average many things together: homework completion, behavior, test scores and attendance. Its standards-based report card pulls those apart, so you can see which skills your child has mastered and which need more practice.
So each level answers one question: how far along is your child on this skill? Linn-Mar Community School District in Iowa scores each skill against a written definition of each level. Wake County Public School System in North Carolina says its teachers use observations and other evidence from the whole grading period.
Behavior can still show up, just in its own place. Wake County gives a separate 1, 2 or 3 for conduct and work habits.
How districts word 4, 3, 2 and 1
Here is how three districts describe each level, in short paraphrase. Two are elementary report cards. Linn-Mar’s is for its high school courses.
| Level | Winchester, Virginia (K-6) | Wake County, North Carolina (K-5) | Linn-Mar High School, Iowa |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | Beyond: uses the skill in a new or harder task | Exemplary: in-depth understanding of what was taught | Exemplary: goes deeper, such as real-world use |
| 3 | Target: meets the grade-level goal | Proficient: consistently shows understanding | Proficient: uses the skill on their own, with only minor errors |
| 2 | Growing: has the basics, but not yet consistently on their own | Approaching proficiency | Approaching: can show the basic steps |
| 1 | Developing: still building basic skills, needs support | Non-proficient: does not yet show understanding | Beginning: recalls vocabulary and simpler ideas |
The words differ, but the shape is the same. A 3 is the on-target level, and a 4 means going deeper than that. A few details differ too:
- Linn-Mar also uses half levels: 3.5, 2.5 and 1.5.
- Wake County sends report cards every nine weeks and judges what was taught in that period.
- Winchester says a 4 is not simply a better 3, and not every skill will offer a chance to earn one.
Why a 3 is the goal
It is easy to read a 3 out of 4 as a B, or as “good, not great.” The district guides say otherwise.
Winchester puts it plainly: “A 3 is not average. A 3 is the goal.” It adds that a report card full of 3s means your child is fully prepared for what comes next.
The Environmental and Adventure School, part of the Lake Washington School District in Washington, expects every student to work toward a 3.0 or higher in all classes.
Timing matters too. Bensenville School District 2 in Illinois says some content is just being introduced in each trimester. So a child may not earn a Meets mark until a later trimester. A lower mark early in the year can mean a skill is new, not that your child is behind. Ask the teacher which it is.
Some report cards use letters, not numbers
Bensenville uses letters for its four levels:
- E, Exemplary: extends the skill and uses it in new situations
- M, Meets: solid understanding, used consistently
- P, Progressing: moving toward understanding, with a little help
- B, Beginning: starting to understand, with help
These letters are not A to F grades. A B here means Beginning, the last of the four marks.
One district can even mix systems. Winchester reports English language arts as Proficient or Growing, while math, science and social studies use 1 to 4. Look for the key printed on your child’s report card.
Is a 3 an A, a B or 75%?
It depends on the rule, because a level is not built from points. The same 3 can turn into very different grades:
- Divide by 4. A 3 becomes 75%, a C on the 10-point scale on our Grading Scale page. A 2 becomes 50%, an F. Our rubric guide shows why a 2 need not be an F.
- Read levels as grade points. A 3 is a B, since a 3.0 is a B on a 4.0 grade point scale. None of the districts here uses this rule.
- Use your district’s published rule. The two we found turn a straight 3 into an A- or an A.
Linn-Mar High School turns each level into a score out of 100, averages the scores and gives a course letter. The last column shows where each score lands on its course scale:
| Level | Score | Letter on its scale |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 100 | A+ |
| 3.5 | 95 | A |
| 3 | 90 | A- |
| 2.5 | 85 | B |
| 2 | 75 | C |
| 1.5 | 65 | D |
| 1 | 60 | D- |
The same page says it is not appropriate to turn a percent back into a level.
Santa Fe Public Schools in New Mexico converts to letters only in grades 7 to 12, for transcripts. It averages the three most recent scores on each skill, then averages those results. A course score of 3.00 to 4.00 is an A. Below that, 2.50 to 2.99 is a B, 2.00 to 2.49 a C, 1.50 to 1.99 a D, and under 1.50 an F.
Each of these is one district’s own rule. The Winchester and Wake County pages print no letter for a level at all.
Made-up example. A high school student has one score on each of four skills: 4, 3, 3 and 2. All four count the same.
- Linn-Mar’s rule: (100 + 90 + 90 + 75) ÷ 4 = 88.75, a B+ on its scale, which runs from 87 to 89.
- Santa Fe’s rule: (4 + 3 + 3 + 2) ÷ 4 = 3.00, an A.
- Plain division of that average: 3.00 ÷ 4 = 75%, a C on a 10-point scale.
Same scores, three different letters. That is why you should ask for your district’s rule instead of converting at home.
When you see a percent online
Some online grade systems are built on percents. At the Environmental and Adventure School, the district’s online system shows letter grades and percents for that reason. The school says those percents do not show what percent of the assignment your child achieved. Clicking the class grade shows the 4, 3, 2 or 1 behind it.
If a percent sits next to a level in your child’s portal, ask the teacher which one counts.
Teachers who must enter percents can pick one conversion before grading and share it with families. The rubric guide lists the choices, and How to Set Up a Gradebook Students Can Check covers sharing your rules.
Questions to ask the teacher
Winchester suggests two starters. Which skills is my child working on now? And for a 2, what does it look like and what help is there? Here are more:
- Is a 3 the goal for the end of the year, or for this grading period?
- Which skills were new this period, and which have been taught for a while?
- What would my child need to show to move from a 2 to a 3?
- Is a 4 possible on this skill, and what would it look like?
- Does the school turn levels into letters or percents anywhere, like a transcript or an online grade book? If so, what is the rule?
- What can we practice at home this month?
Sources
- Winchester Public Schools, grading info for K-6 families
- Wake County Public School System, elementary report cards
- Linn-Mar Community School District, grading and reporting
- Bensenville School District 2, standards-based report cards
- Santa Fe Public Schools, how grades convert for grades 7 to 12
- Lake Washington School District, Environmental and Adventure School assessment page
Tools for this guide
- Grading Scale: See how percents turn into letter grades, and set your own scale.
- Grade Calculator: Find your current grade from your assignments.
More guides
- How to Curve Grades Fairly: Methods Compared
- How to Set Up a Gradebook Students Can Check
- Rubric Grading: Why 2 out of 4 Need Not Mean 50%
- Zero, 50% or Missing: How Each Changes a Grade
- Weighted Grades in Excel and Google Sheets
This guide is general information. Your school's rules come first. Found a mistake? Tell us.