Goodness, I didn't realize schools graded 1st graders like that anymore, with letter grades and %s and all that business. Who grades 1st graders on capitalization and punctuation, especially do early in the year? It sounds like your district, and your teacher, are both well behind the times. Sounds like they're all trying to make a name for themselves as dinosaurs.
FWIW, common core probably has little to no impact on that 65% grade. There are gobs of different textbooks that all claim to adhere to common core; some are great, some are terrible. I wouldn't be surprised if your district has a terrible one.
