Researchers and practitioners have long been aware of the inadequacies of traditional grading and reporting systems and practices. Not only are they mathematically imprecise, subjective, and arbitrary but they are also inequitable. The rise of the standards movement coincided with growing interest in standards-based grading and report cards. Standards-based grading was framed as a healthy alternative to traditional (letter grade) systems in that they addressed what many see as the central purpose of grades and report cards: measuring and communicating what a student has learned. By measuring student progress with respect to specific competencies that have been derived from standards, we gain a far more granular understanding of what a student has (and has not) learned"--