| 1. | 2/4/2008 10:09:00 PM | Which include modifications for ELL students |
| 2. | 2/5/2008 1:56:00 AM | I am concerned that the elementary report card is too long. Many parents have told me that they do not fully understand all the lines on the report card (especially in the area of writing). I am concerned because I know there are teachers who just fill in numbers because it takes too long to complete each report card keeping all the different rubrics in mind. (My grade level asks me to complete more than 70 lines/boxes each quarter and know a rubric score to go with each line) Now we may have to add social studies - enough already! |
| 3. | 2/5/2008 3:48:00 AM | Our grade schools are here. We don't need to take away more teaching time to do more assessment. Our upper grades need to follow suit so students know exactly what to expect. |
| 4. | 2/5/2008 4:11:00 AM | I think the focus needs to be on strengthening the mode of instruction through collaborative staff efforts. So instruction reflects student learning and can be adjusted to meet student need not strengthen assessment! Assessments at the primary level take away so much instructional teaching time. |
| 5. | 2/5/2008 2:08:00 PM | Report cards are important, but time to adjust and implement needs to be given. Staff is overwhelmed still. |
| 6. | 2/5/2008 3:30:00 PM | More importantly....scheduling of assessment practices. At the elementary level, we have many assessments. While I feel these assessments are an integral piece and are needed to guide instruction, I feel we don't have the time to give the assessments, score them, interpret them, and then plan/guide instruction. I honestly feel like we need time like the high school has. They basically have "free time" or "make-up periods" at 1:45 til 3:00 to score and interpret. Elementary needs more time to be successful with intepreting results and guiding instruction. I can't stress the time enough. We honestly need more time to do our job to the level the district would like to see. |
| 7. | 2/5/2008 3:36:00 PM | Elementary report cards inform parents well. |
| 8. | 2/5/2008 6:53:00 PM | We have many good assessments in place. We need to be sure to use them effectively. |
| 9. | 2/5/2008 7:20:00 PM | at the elementary level our report cards already take far greater time than any other level and we get the same or less time to do it. we get no additonal time off to grade quarter assessments. If we need to do more we need the time as well. |
| 10. | 2/5/2008 9:28:00 PM | Elementary report cards need to be revisited! If we have semester rubrics, why not semester report cards! First and third sememster could be used to conference with parents and give a 'progress report'. True grading could take place 2nd/4th with report cards going home. We just do not have enough time with them to truly grade, report and conference first quarter. If the second set of conferences is going to be earlier in the year as well, then why do a third quarter report card? Use the time to discuss what was on the second quarter report card and how to make improvements or how to challenge for the 4th quarter report card. |
| 11. | 2/5/2008 9:58:00 PM | I thought we were on a "number" grading system??? |
| 12. | 2/5/2008 11:03:00 PM | We need to review our report card lines and rubrics. This is definitely a need for the high school. |
| 13. | 2/6/2008 3:05:00 AM | We might need to revisit the elem. report card. I was on the committee that developed it, but see a need for minor 'tweaks' to help make it better and more user-friendly. If we could compact it a bit more, that would be nice. Lots of lines to be accountable for! (can be good and bad) |
| 14. | 2/7/2008 3:08:00 PM | I strongly believe that the report cards need to be revised and looked at. |
| 15. | 2/12/2008 10:07:00 PM | I believe we already do a great job of this. |
| 16. | 2/14/2008 9:52:00 PM | As students move through each grade level, grading consistency is crucial. |
| 17. | 3/4/2008 3:01:00 PM | Secondary goal....but let's revisit the report card. We need to survey parents to get their true feelings on it. Can we provide a survey at parent teacher conferences next fall? It could be in the computer lab where parents go right from conferences to the lab to do a Survey Monkey feedback. |
| 18. | 3/5/2008 8:57:00 PM | Letter grade are only an average of work done. They are familiar to parents, but not necessarily real measures. |
| 19. | 3/6/2008 4:52:00 PM | Research shows that effective assessment informs instruction. It does not check up on teachers. Creating more documents and more paperwork does not lead to better teaching. Sometimes more paperwork takes away from the time that teachers have to prepare and teach kids. |
| 20. | 3/6/2008 5:00:00 PM | I think the report card needs to be revisited. Do the parents really understand it? Do we need everything on it? Also, I think the transition from grade school to middle school grading is tough. They go from getting mostly threes and thinking things are fine in elementary school to Cs in middle school. This needs to be addressed. |
| 21. | 3/6/2008 5:09:00 PM | In the primary grades, we have been assessing so much that it sometimes is hard to find time to teach. If a skill is introduced we don't need to assess, but check for understanding through informal testing. |
| 22. | 3/6/2008 6:38:00 PM | Report cards are not parent friendly |
| 23. | 3/6/2008 6:40:00 PM | We need to reevaluate our current report cards. There are many lines on the report cards that are unnecessary and difficult for parents to understand. Writing can be revisited on the report card and self directed learning. We add,but we do not remove anything. We have approximately 64 lines per child to fill out per report card period. |
| 24. | 3/6/2008 8:05:00 PM | I think the elementary is already there. |
| 25. | 3/6/2008 8:33:00 PM | Alternatives to traditional grades could be explored, along with grading the child's actual performance. Grading for Learning by Ken O'Connor (I believe), would be an excellent place to start. |
| 26. | 3/6/2008 10:37:00 PM | Again, this takes teacher time. All of these documents are fine if we are given the time to create and use them. Elemetary report cards take at least 13 hours to complete per class. We are given basically 2-3 hours on records day to do a 13 hour job. |
| 27. | 3/9/2008 10:45:00 PM | At the middle and high school levels |
| 28. | 3/18/2008 11:53:00 AM | Time is a major factor in communicating this information. |
| 29. | 3/18/2008 1:31:00 PM | WHY? |
| 30. | 3/18/2008 2:10:00 PM | Here is another example of a plan that has merit, but lumped together with all of the other changes seems overwhelming. We have had curricular revisions over the last 10 to 12 years with changes almost every year during that period. Just a few years ago we were told to implement the "Just 5 clicks" as a way to assess and remediate students learning in critical area of the curiculum and now we see evidence that this program does not do what we were told to expect. We see students over burdened with assessments and little time to enjoy other learning experiences. Please administrators and school board take a step back and evaluate yourselves and where you really need to go and not be driven by forces that don't seem to take are needs as educators and parents into consideration. Think outside of the box for a change. |
| 31. | 3/18/2008 2:48:00 PM | We have been working very hard on this for awhile now but I would be disappointed if we had to rush what we are doing just to meet a time table. I would rather continue doing what we are doing...moving in the right direction with careful thought and planning. I hope we are not rushed into producing a product that is not what we were shooting for just to meet a "deadline". |
| 32. | 3/18/2008 4:17:00 PM | This is a monster that is creating a lot of division and stress among staff members. |
| 33. | 3/18/2008 4:44:00 PM | Gets back to more paperwork and if the parents become more involved in their childrens education they will know how they are doing. |
| 34. | 3/19/2008 1:22:00 PM | Please refer to my comments for #3. |
| 35. | 3/19/2008 4:54:00 PM | I think that there should be some focus on how much a teacher can do with the time given to them. Just doesn't seem possible to do everything. |
| 36. | 3/19/2008 5:41:00 PM | Again, we need to ease off on this for a while and learn to work with the new things we've implemented. There's too much too fast and none of it is getting done as well as it should. We are being turned into "jacks of all trades, but masters of none." This is especially difficult for those of us who teach in two different course areas. |
| 37. | 3/19/2008 7:20:00 PM | Once again, a little moregood old plain English might make this goal more understandable. I'd comment if I was sure what it meant. |
| 38. | 3/20/2008 3:18:00 AM | Do most parents really want a support document Or a few who are more vocal. Many parents that I have talked to say they never read the support lines unless there is a problem. Wouldn't it be easier and cheaper to just include the lines they are having problems with. Before we go throug all this work wouldn't it be better to poll parents and find out how many actually read the entire document. We could save a feew trees. |
| 39. | 4/7/2008 9:56:00 PM | More reflective of student learning and less about competition |
| 40. | 4/8/2008 12:31:00 AM | This is really important and will not be easy. Still it is a really good goal in making us a better HS. Alignment and common assessment work should help lay the foundation. We are going to need time to understand, develop and implement this goal. |
| 41. | 4/8/2008 1:15:00 PM | What kind of reporting is being envisioned. Are we going to create a huge paper trail that consumes time? |
| 42. | 4/8/2008 1:03:00 PM | should also be part of RTI. |
| 43. | 4/8/2008 12:18:00 PM | To me this just sounds like putting restrictions on teachers ability to teach. |
| 44. | 4/8/2008 2:44:00 PM | This looks like a hidden agenda. |
| 45. | 4/8/2008 3:02:00 PM | This scares me. Sounds like LOTS of "issues" are hidden in this message! Does that mean those big, nasty report cards are coming to the high school? If we only teach to skills, we will be at fault for doing a disservice to our students. |
| 46. | 4/8/2008 4:21:00 PM | very important for sure; but let's stay focused on the issues. |
| 47. | 4/8/2008 5:08:00 PM | Creating a proper summary for parents that provides them with their child's progress on objectives that are being tested on at the particular grade level and course. |
| 48. | 4/8/2008 4:59:00 PM | I think that an "A" should mean the same thing weather it is in math, science, social studies, or whatever. |
| 49. | 4/8/2008 8:52:00 PM | Do this without itemizing at the middle school level and high school level as has been done with the elementary. Having an elementary student, those itemized report cards are not really helpful. Even as an educator, I can see that the composite score/grade for any given area are the only thing that I care about. We are making our elementary teachers do a lot of itemizing for little gain, if any. I think their time would be better spent on other things (differentiation, for one thing). |
| 50. | 4/8/2008 7:58:00 PM | I personally don't believe that this can be standardized given the autonomy of the instructor which is embedded in lesson design and the needs to differentiate things for a wide variety of student needs. |
| 51. | 4/9/2008 5:14:00 PM | This is a problem at the high school. I would like to see a comprehensive grade policy that lays out late work, letter grade percents, how mucy of the grade is homework, in class work, formal assesments, ect... I am interested in objectives based grading also and I think it could have many benefits. However, I do have some concerns with implimenting it after hearing some of the horror stories from the elementary:
-Time: No matter what the "experts" say it does take more time to do this type of grading right. This is especially true during the first 2-3 years as teachers are figuring out how to impliment it effectivly and efficiently. If this were done I would have to insist on more time for assement work, expecially during the first few years. (Not just an extra half day at the end of the quarter like they have tried at the elementary but regular extra time on a weekly basis, especially at the high school).
-What ever objective based grading "report card" was developed it would need to translate into letter grades for post secondary education.
-What ever objective based grading "report card" was developed, if we developed on, we would need to be able to change and tweek the objectives for each class easily, frequently and at no cost, unlike what has happened at the elementary. |
| 52. | 4/10/2008 1:16:00 PM | Right on the money. However, you need to embrace the high school staff now about that upcoming change. The "report card" should be the final change to be put in place. You've got to work to change ideas, feelings, and practices now if you want this to be acceptable. |
| 53. | 4/10/2008 6:13:00 PM | Training and inservice in how to accomplish this goal will be helpful. |
| 54. | 4/10/2008 7:09:00 PM | Don't know why we need to fix what others do not have a problem with |