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I think I'd prefer letter grades for 4th and up, but would be fine with not meeting, meeting, and exceeding for K-3. I think letter grades would definitely be needed for 6th grade since those grades may factor into advanced classes or honors placement and such for high school.

I definitely prefer letter grades.

I don't think I would mind either way. I'm going to assume if LO was struggling the teacher would let me know. If he's doing overall great I don't see a difference between an A or B or even C. Lower grades levels don't really matter too much right?

When I was little we had U/S (unsatisfactory/satisfactory). Also there would be + and - along with checks with how well you were doing. It was pretty much a letter grade with all the variations. I remember how my parents were pretty disappointed with my marks so maybe in the end they are just the same anyways?

As a teacher, I much prefer standards at the elementary level (actually K-8). My province does Below Approriate Achievement, Appropriate Achievement, and Strong Achievement. The most important part anyway, IMO, is that teachers should be writing pretty extensive, individualized comments for each child. That tells the real picture more than a letter grade ever could

I am in educator and I strongly prefer standards-based rather than letter grades. Often parents preferred letter grades because that's what they got. But letter grades give very little information and are often misinterpreted.

I would definitely prefer standards-based grades, not just for elementary school but for every level. I think that a standards-based system can still be unhelpful if the standards and criteria for meeting them aren't clearly articulated, but I think letter grades are basically meaningless. (At least at the college level--where I teach--they are pretty meaningless.)

I posted about this before. I think it's a good idea to go to standards-based report cards, but mostly only if it comes packaged with written feedback and thoughtful comments.

I think there are plenty of parents who like the ordering of the A-F scheme. In part because of this urge to rank kids, I suspect that changing the terminology won't take much, if any, pressure off of students.

Agree with @Mrs. Lion: & @travellingbee: .
We do 1-4 for K-8. Falls far below the standard, approaching the standards, meeting the standards, exceeding the standards. FAME.

I don't think it matters which way you grade, honestly. The only way to get away from ranking is if you just provide written comments.

My husband went to school in Europe and from the beginning, they were ranked on a 1-5 scale.

I think there is so much stigma around an "A". I would be ok with letter grades if a C was "meeting standards" and everyone was ok with that. But I think even in this day, people push to get an A just because.

However, I do think that by 5th/6th grade, letter grades aren't terrible idea because they are sometimes at this point taking high school credit courses.

@Mamaof2: I agree. The only reason to prefer a letter grade (or a number, as in the case of some European systems) is because the ranking inherent in that type of system is very important to you. I would suggest that is fairly absurd, especially when we're talking about elementary-aged children.

But I think the standards-based approach is not actually all that different from the A-F system if it includes an "exceeding" category. It reduces some of the arbitrariness in the rankings by reducing the number of slots to put children in, but it's still not exclusively focused on the question of mastery because it leaves space to rank children in addition to communicating the central question of whether they're accomplishing what we want them to accomplish (and this is undoubtedly a concession to parents who want their kids ranked).