Report Cards

I finished the Andrew Clements book in two sittings.  The book seemed so timely to what has been happening in my district this year.  I cannot speak for the other schools, but at Franklin Academy all four report cards this year will look the same, but they most definitely won't be the same.

We teachers were told that report cards would be standards-based and look differently this year than last.  When were we informed?  Eight weeks into the school year and two weeks before grades were to be posted.  Along with a different look was a different grading system for some classes.  In the past classes such as the specials classes received grades of E (excellent), S (satisfactory), or U (unsatisfactory).  There was also the option for an N (no grade) for students who were too new to receive grades or for TESOL students who attended TESOL classes in lieu of another class.  This card would use S (satisfactory) or N (needs improvement) for the specials and for social studies and science.  In addition, in previous years writing was a penmanship grade which received the E/S/U grade.  Now, it would be a writing process/mechanics grade and receive an A/B/C/D/F grade.  However, if we had not separated our writing grades from the language grades, we could keep it as a penmanship grade for this grading period.  We were told that we did not have to give grades yet for the standards.  Whew....

Second quarter. the same changes were in place, but we still did not have to grade the standards yet.  Writing was now indeed a writing process/mechanics grade.  Parents still had a hard time understanding the report cards since no explanation went home with students nor was there any informational workshop offered to them.

We are about to get ready to submit grades for the third quarter.  Once again, standards do not need to be graded.  Apparently, we won't have to do that until next year.  My guess is that professional development needs to be offered for this.  After all the changes and testing (ISTEP and Acuity), I have few grades.  Plus, now I am responsible for math grades for 115 students after only having them in my class for three weeks of the grading period.  My team of teachers exchanged grades-to-date from the beginning of the quarter until the changes and individually decided how to use them.

Nora could have had such an interesting time at my school with her plan.  Honestly, I don't know that any of the report cards accurately reflects what our students know.