Good Morning Memorial Families,
On Thursday, December 9th, Powerschool will open for you to view your child’s trimester one report card. The information that is shared with you through the report card about your child’s progress with academics is standards-based. This means that we assess your child’s progress against the grade level learning targets, or, standards that the state puts forth for the grade level. The standards are an end-of-year target, and so our teachers consider benchmarks along the way. The difference between standards-based grading and the traditional A, B, C, etc… is that standards-based grading honors the learning process. Your child’s score on the report card shares where your child is right now with the grade level standards, not an average of all of the work they did along the way. Students may have struggled with new material at the start of the year, but may now fully understand and may even show independent mastery. The other difference between standards-based and traditional grading is that habits of mind and behavior are separated out from the academic grading, allowing for parents to have a more accurate picture of their child’s progress in all areas.
So, what do the 4, 3, 2, and 1 mean on the report card?
A score of (4) would indicate that a student exceeds a standard by consistently demonstrating an advanced level of understanding and/or the ability to apply their knowledge at a higher level.
A score of (3) would indicate that a student has independently achieved the standard. The student demonstrates mastery of the standard.
A score of (2) would indicate that a student is developing an understanding of a standard, but still may be in need of additional instruction and/or support.
A score of (1) would indicate minimal understanding of a standard. The student shows limited evidence of understanding the standard.
Many children are working at the developing stage of proficiency at this point in the year, and teachers have benchmarked out the standard to ensure that they are accurately reporting your child’s progress. If there is an N/A in the column, that means that that particular standard has not been taught yet and will be evaluated later in the school year.
Perhaps the most important part of an elementary school report card is how your child is doing socially, emotionally, and behaviorally, so please pay particular attention to that section of the report card. Developing strong work habits and peer relationships at a young age is a big part of what we work on at the elementary level. Use the report card as an opportunity to reflect with your child on their progress so far this school year.
If you have any questions about your child’s report card after viewing it, please reach out to your child’s teacher directly.
As a reminder, we have an early release day on Friday. Students will be dismissed at 12:10pm. Our teachers will be engaging in professional learning all afternoon. Most will be receiving additional training on our new math curriculum, Bridges, that will hopefully carry over into the classroom next week. Have a wonderful week!
Warmly,
Wendy
