New Elementary School Report Cards On The Horizon

Elementary school parents will see new report cards beginning with the 2019-20 school year.

The new report cards are designed to be easier to read and present more information, said Dan Loughran, the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction.

The new school year will also usher in longer marking periods for the elementary schools, Loughren told the Board of Education at its Feb. 28 meeting.

The marking periods will be lengthened from nine weeks to 12 weeks, he said. He said this was primarily done because it was thought that students’ grades in the first marking period were artificially affected by “summer lag.”

Loughren said that all the members of the committees studying the plan agreed “it would be great if we could do this.”

The new report cards, Loughren said, will provide a “much neater, simpler way to indicate achievement.”

Students in the 1st through 5th grades will be given a numerical grade of from 1 to 4 for each of their courses. The meanings of each grade are:

1. Limited progress toward meeting end of year grade level standards.
2. Basic progress toward meeting end of year grade level standards.
3. Progress toward meeting end of year grade level standards.
4. Meeting end of year grade level standards an may be ready to work at greater depth.

Pre-K and Kindergarten students will receive the following assessments:

• E: Exceeding expectations
• M: Meeting expectations
• P: Progressing toward expectations

The new report cars are “very straight-forward, based on the grade-level rubric,” he said.

Loughren said teachers would be able to add individual comments to the report cards.

Loughren said the new report cards were under development for a year and a half, and were worked on by committees comprised of a total of 36 people.

Loughren said teachers are still giving their feedback on the new report cards, with a presentation to the PTO leadership in April and parent information night in May or June.

“So by next September, people would have heard about it and know that it’s coming,” he said.

Schools Superintendent John Ravally thanked Loughren for the redesign.

“This is no easy task,” he said.

Creating a new report card that would “be useful to not only parents but teachers is something we were after, and I think you achieved it,” he said.

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