Countdown to Report Cards

March 16, 2010 | Posted in: Class Updates

Leave a Comment

Report cards will go home tomorrow (Wednesday)!  Everyone excited?  With the report cards, I will enclose my usual letter about how to interpret march report cards.  I’d like to take a moment to expand on two of the bulletpoints in the letter:

• The Developing grade represents a broad range of skills, ranging from early understanding to near mastery.  For this reason, it is important to realize that if your child remains at a “D” across multiple marking periods, they are maintaining consistent growth and are continuing to improve in their skills.  A Developing grade shows that your child is performing on grade level.
• In some skill areas, it is common for students to perform at a certain level during the first marking period, and for their grade to drop in the second.  That’s due to content becoming more challenging, particularly in the second marking period.  This is not out of the ordinary and, in many cases, shows that your child is being appropriately challenged in school.

I’ll be candid:  I dropped a lot of grades this marking period.  Most instances were when an S (Secure) changed to a D (Developing), but there were also instances when a D dropped to a B (Beginning).  I absolutely realize that this will be a distressing thing to see on a report card, so I want to explain why this generally happened.  Those of you who were with me last year may remember my comments that “Third grade is a big transitional year” and “Your child is now learning advanced skills that build upon older concepts.”  In fourth grade, this is even more true.  Third grade math took a lot of old concepts and added new layers to them.  While this is still the case in fourth grade, there are also brand new skills being introduced – particularly in the second marking period.  It is not uncommon for students to experience a challenge with the new material.  Remember, a challenge isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  The same is the case with writing skills – my expectations have increased as we’ve learned new skills and practiced new applications of writing, so I am grading with a higher standard in mind.  A drop in grade does not mean that your child’s skills have worsened – just that he or she may not be excelling to the same extent that he or she had in the past.

Of course, each report card situation is unique, and students’ individual grades are based on his or her own performance, so my explanations here will not apply to each and every situation.  If you have questions or concerns, be sure to bring them up when we meet for our conference!