Appleton Area School District K-6 Standards-Based Progress Report Explained

From the Appleton Area School District:

January 28, 2021

The purpose of the Appleton Area School District K-6 Standards-Based Progress Report is to provide families with written communication about how the student measures up to the grade level standard and to provide them with information about the learning progress of their individual student. Review our Family Guide here.

What is a Standards-Based Progress Report?
A standards-based progress report lists the most essential skills students should learn in each subject at a particular grade level.

Instead of overall letter grades, students receive marks that show how well they have mastered the standard/expectation and the progress they have made in mastering the standard/expectation. The marks will show whether the student is at a I-Beginning; 2-Developing; 3-Competent or 4-Mastery level for each standard/expectation.

How are standards-based progress reports different from traditional report cards?
On many traditional report cards, students receive one marking for reading, one for math, and one for science and so on. On a standards-based progress report, each of these subject areas is divided into a list of skills and knowledge that students are responsible for learning by the end of the year. Students receive a separate mark for each standard. A standards-based progress report measures the achievement only and does not reflect effort or participation. That is reflected in the Characteristics of Lifelong Learners section.

The marks on a standards-based progress report are different from traditional letter grades. Letter grades are often calculated by combining how well the student met a particular teacher's expectations, how the student performed on assignments and tests, and how much effort the teacher believes the student put in. Letter grades do not tell parents which skills their children have mastered or whether they are working at grade level.

For example, although one fourth-grade teacher might be reviewing basic multiplication facts while another is teaching multiplication of two- or three-digit numbers, getting an A in each of these classes would mean very different things. The parent of a child in these classes would not know if the child was learning what they should be to meet the grade level standards.

Standards-based progress reports should provide more consistency between teachers than traditional report cards because all students are evaluated on the same essential grade-appropriate standard. Parents can see exactly which skills and knowledge their children have learned and what they need to work on.

This press release was produced by the Appleton Area School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.