Some day, the A's, B's, C's and D's on report cards will fade away, predicts David Krem, an official with the Pottstown School District in Montgomery County.

Instead, progress reports will show whether a student is performing at an advanced, proficient, basic or below-basic level in key academic areas.

It's all a matter of educating the parents, Krem said.

"The kids pick it up pretty fast," he added.

Already, parents are learning about performance levels - from the state, if not yet from their children's schools.

With the release of 2001 test results, Pennsylvania has joined New Jersey and other states in looking to the bottom line: Are students working at, above or below state academic standards, as measured by state tests in math, reading and other subjects?

In Pennsylvania, there are four levels measured by testing in grades 5, 8 and 11: advanced, proficient, basic, and below basic.

In New Jersey, there are three levels in grades 4 and 8 - below proficient, partially proficient and proficient. At grade 11, New Jersey boils down student performance to pass/fail. If you meet or exceed state standards, you get your diploma; if you fail, you get extra help from your school and one or more chances to retake the test.

"It's definitely a high-stakes test. You don't pass the test, you don't graduate," said Richard Hollinshead, director of instruction at Black Horse Pike Regional School District in Camden County, which operates three high schools with 3,700 students.

The stakes aren't quite as high at the high school level in Pennsylvania, where students can trip over the 11th-grade math, reading and writing assessments and still graduate if they meet their high schools' requirements.

(There is a plan to add state seals of proficiency or distinction to the diplomas of Pennsylvania students who do well on the 11th-grade tests. However, the proposed seals program is proving unpopular with local school boards and may be scrapped before taking effect next year.)

In both states, school officials use the state tests to tweak instruction.

When the test results arrive from Harrisburg, "you have to hustle," said Krem, the Pottstown official. "We look at which standards have been addressed, where our kids did just fine. And we examine where we need to do extra work to deliver the goods."

Krem said he urges parents not to compare one school district with another when viewing state test results. "It's impossible," said Krem. He continued that it's like comparing apples with oranges, noting that there are variations because of poverty, transiency and demographics.

Teachers now often remind students of what they need to know to meet the standard - that is, to master the subject. Students are getting used to the "rubric," a grid that shows the kind of effort they must put forth if they are to show basic, proficient or advanced achievement.

Krem offers an analogy: the badges that Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts earn. "Go to the handbook and see what it takes to earn a badge. You have to do five, six things for the badge. One or two activities aren't enough. It's the same with performance levels," Krem said. "To get to advanced, you have to show how much you know, you have to perform at a high level."

State tests used to measure minimal skills - the least a student should learn in school.

The tests have become more specific and more difficult, said Terrence J. Crowley, superintendent of the Kingsway Regional School District in Gloucester County, with about 1,550 students.

A result is that local curriculums have been upgraded. Said Crowley: "The expectations are greater. Youngsters are being exposed to algebra skills at an earlier age. That's true also with world languages."

Still, Crowley noted, a set of tests shouldn't be the only measure of a student, or a school.

"None of us wants to be measured by what we can do on a test in a couple of hours," he said. "Meeting standards is important, but we try to look at the broader picture of how well a youngster is doing, and how well a school is educating its students."