What report card grades should and do communicate - Perceptions of parentsof secondary students with and without disabilities

Outcomes research for included students with disabilities indicates that ma ny students are receiving low or failing grades, resulting in increased int erest in using grading adaptations for these students. However, successful use of a grading adaptation may hinge on what purpose the student, parent, and teacher perceive the grade to serve or on what information they think i t should convey. The purpose of this study was to determine which of 10 pot ential purposes for report card grades parents of general education and spe cial education students perceive as being most important and to find out ho w effectively these parents perceive report card grades to be in meeting ea ch of the purposes. Results indicated that the combined sample of parents t hought some purposes were more important than others; however, they did not believe that report card grades were very effective in meeting these purpo ses. Significant differences were also found between the perceptions of the parents of high-achieving students without disabilities and those of stude nts with disabilities.