I am excited to meet together and share information about your child's work habits, academic progress and other topics. In an effort to keep our conferences on task and squeeze in as much as possible in our short time together, I'd like to take a moment to comment on our new report card system now, so that we can focus on your child in the conference.
An email went out recently from Mrs. Kane & Ms. Deacon about our new Standards Based Report Card (SBRC). Hopefully you have had a minute to look it over and let me know if you have questions.
For parents in other school districts, when introducing a new SBRC, the biggest shock to parents when seeing the first report card of the year was that students who had previously received "M"s on most sections of the previous report card, were given "P"s or "N"s. Please know that with this type of report card, an "M" is the end of year expectation. Standards (aligned to the Common Core) are introduced at different times throughout the year and as a result, some might not even be assessed on the first trimester report card because students have not begun to work on them yet. The goal with a SBRC would be to receive "M"s on the final report card.
For the first trimester report card, most students will receive a combination of "P"s and "N"s. A "P" represents that a student is making the appropriate progress towards meeting the standard at the end of the school year. An "N" would indicate that a student is not currently making the appropriate progress towards meeting the standard at the end of the school year, but does not mean that they will not meet it. As every student develops at a different rate, it is not uncommon for a student to receive "N"s on a fall report card, and then have an "academic growth spurt" over the winter months and eventually arrive at an "M" on the final report card. It is also not uncommon for students to receive "P"s in the fall and then "N"s in the winter because their rate of progress has slowed with the introduction of harder academic concepts. These students can also show more growth in the spring and finish the year with an "M" for the standard.
This is a lot to process, especially for those of you that have not had prior experiences with a Standards Based Report Card. Thank you for taking the time to read and digest this information and welcome any questions you have.
I am excited to meet with you soon. 