Report Cards

This marks the end of our first trimester, so I’ve been working on report cards over our break. Our district has gone to a standards-based report card, and we’ve all been involved in many discussions about what each of the report card indicators mean, and how best to use the new reporting system. I think it would be safe to say that most teachers do not love doing report cards. It’s hard to reduce a whole child down to a number, when that child is so much more.  It makes me nervous knowing that with the new reporting procedure, there will be many questions, and I hope I can answer them satisfactorily.  I also know that many parents are not going to be happy when they see a lot of marks that indicate that their child has only partially met the standard, even though they have the whole year to meet it, and I’m fairly confident that most kids will do this. This process will get easier as we do it more, and as the district better aligns curriculum with the standards, but there’s always the first time for everything, and that just happens to be now.

I hope that as parents look over these new report cards, they keep in mind some things. If the report card grades don’t align with the standardized test scores their child has taken, it might be because standardized tests are multiple choice, and almost nothing in my class is assessed that way.  My students are asked to do a lot of writing and sometimes even the brightest kids don’t take the time to write complete answers. Of course, that’s what we work on all year, and I can see quite a bit of improvement already, but the standards ask them to be consistent, and at this point in the year, not all kids are in that place.

The report cards also don’t show that a child may be the one who is always first to offer a marker to the kid who never has one, or is the student who stops to help others clean up, or is the kid who helps stack the extra chairs each night. No report card grade can show that this child is the one who will include any left out child, or is willing to work with anyone. I’m glad I don’t have to give a grade for kindness, but I feel that is a great quality to have, and some of my students, whose report cards may not have the most stellar grades, are some of the most kind, well-rounded students I have.  One of my son’s teachers said at his conferences, “You can check his grades online. Let me tell you how he is in class and how he treats other students and me.” (Luckily it was a good report, because as a parent, I’m hoping that he’s a good person in a public setting.)

So as we finish this first round of new report cards, let’s take a moment to remember that report cards are just one aspect of our children. An important one, to be sure – everyone wants to know that their child is moving forward in their learning. But take another moment to see your child in the bigger picture, one that includes more than just numbers on a test or a report card.