Schools
North Hills Moves to Reduce Number of Paper Report Cards Sent Home
Grades for each class are updated weekly and available on ProgressBook, the district's online web portal. Administrators say paperwork reduction allows them to eliminate two clerical days that teachers used to prepare grades.
The tradition of getting a report card every nine weeks might be a thing of the past in if school directors approve a policy change at their monthly legislative meeting Sept. 28.
According to the proposed change, students in all grades would receive a paper report card twice per school year, at the end of each semester, said North Hills Assistant Superintendent Patrick Mannarino.
The proposed change also clarifies that plus and minus levels on letter grades are not used at the elementary level.
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T, necessitates the report card change, officials said. Scrapping two report card distributions allows administrators to eliminate two clerical days that teachers used to prepare quarterly grades.
Information about potential cost savings was not immediately available.
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Report cards are mailed home four times a year, but technology has outpaced that practice, Mannarino said.
“By the time we print them and mail them home, they are outdated,” he said.
Student grades for each class are updated weekly and available at all times on ProgressBook, the district’s online web portal where parents and students can access homework, grades and other pertinent class information.
Each parent and student in the district is eligible for a ProgressBook account.
“It’s a matter of educating parents to take advantage of ProgressBook, and if you don’t have web access you can make arrangements with teachers and principals,” Mannarino said.
ProgressBook offers an ongoing, cumulative view of a child’s grades, whereas report cards only give a snapshot of a certain time, said school director Jeff Meyer.
“Students and parents can go online anytime to see grades. I think it’s a great policy change.”
The proposal will be read for a second and final time during the school directors’ next meeting Sept. 28 at the LGI room.
The original version of this story incorrectly stated the name of the district’s online web portal where parents and students can access homework, grades and other pertinent class information. It has also been updated to clarify the elimination of plus and minus levels on letter grades at the elementary level.
