School Committee Reviews New Elementary School Report Cards; Set to Be Implemented Nov. 15

Big changes will be coming to report cards given out at elementary schools in Reading.

Gone will be the days of the standard A, B, C, D, F grades. In their place, a system that Wood End Elementary School Principal, Richard Davidson, who, along with Alice M. Burrows Elementary School Principal, Karen Callan, created in order to achieve a “common core system of report cards with input from staff and administration,” Davidson said.

Gathering information from over thirty different Massachusetts communities and beyond, and after holding five parent/teacher sessions throughout Reading elementary schools, Davidson and Callan presented the new report cards to the School Committee Monday night. The new report cards are set to be sent out to parents electronically, Nov. 15, replacing the old, 26-year system.

“There is no such thing as a perfect report card,” explained Davidson. “There will be a learning curve, but our research shows this is a better way to relate student progress to parents.”

The New Standards-Based Reporting System

The presentation led by Davidson and Callan described the new elementary school report cards as, “a standards-based reporting system of goals” based on a series of “rubrics” and “standards determin[ing] what our children should know by the end of the grade level,” the pair said.

The “rubrics” mentioned are, “descriptors of the indicators of progress for each standard” according to the report."

Parents can expect to see a much more in-depth report card than they have witnessed in the past. Beginning with “Personal and Social Development and Effort Marks,” these factors will be determined by a one to four grading system. One being the lowest score (“rarely demonstrates the responsibility/effort”) and four being the highest (“consistently demonstrates the responsibility/effort”) which will be attached to each individual class (Math, Science, English, Art, etc.)

Indicators of Performance

In lieu of the traditional A,B,C, D, F grading system, new “Indicators of Performance” will be implemented. These indicators are as follows:

• E – Exceeds the Standard (The student demonstrates thorough, in-depth understanding of basic and extended concepts and skills. Performance is characterized by self-motivation and the ability to apply the skills with consistent accuracy, independence, and a high level of quality.)

• M – Meets the Standard (The student demonstrates thorough understanding of basic skills. Performance is characterized by the ability to apply the skills with consistent accuracy, quality and independence.)

• P – Progressing towards the Standard (The student has moved beyond a beginning understanding of basic concepts and skills. Performance is characterized by the ability to apply skills with increasing success.)

• B – Beginning to develop (The student is beginning to demonstrate and understand the basic concepts and skills.)

• * - Standard not addressed this term.

Added to these new indicators, there will be far more (and more in-depth) areas to grade a student on. For example, the School Committee examined a typical Grade 3 report card which broke up classes as it normally would (English, Math, Music, Art, etc.). However, there were several sub-categories within each class that will be graded.

One example of this is in Math. Sub-categories included for a typical Grade 3 report card are: rounds whole numbers through 1,000, solves problems using addition, subtracts up to four digit numbers, etc.

Each sub-category will be getting its own E through B indicator, as well as an overall effort grade (1-4) in each class.

New Grading System to be Implemented Soon, Electronically

These new report cards will be given out electronically from now on, one for each of the three trimesters at Reading Elementary Schools. There will be no hard-copy report cards anymore. The first set of new report cards are coming soon, for the Nov. 15 trimester grades.

Meetings For Parents

The district held the first meeting for parents to explain this new report card system Tuesday, and will hold another Wednesday (tonight) at the Alice M. Barrows Elementary School.

For those of you who can't make the meetings, the presentations will be broadcast via webinar at 6:45 p.m. the night of the meetings through the following link:

http://www.anytimemeeting.com/NewReportCard1.

There was no word given if these webinars will be logged into the Reading Public School archives for viewing after the seminars, although the School Committee recommended it.

Response from the School Committee

The School Committee was very happy with the principals report and made the following statements.

Hal Croft said, “these new report cards will make it a lot easier for parents and teachers to interact and create a common language dealing with grading.”

Chris Caruso stated, “this will be much more engaging for parents trying to figure out where their child is in terms of overall learning.”