Chapter 14: Responsive Report Card Formats

If we differentiate in the way we teach and grade, we must also learn to differentiate in the way we present grades on report cards. Unfortunately most schools have report card programs that limit teachers’ abilities to show more than just the regular letter grade. When this is not the case, it is good to show that we grade students against their own progress as well as against the expected standards and the rest of the grade level. Signifying adjusted curriculum appropriately with an accompanying comment explaining how it was adjusted is one good idea. Another is to grade the student’s progress and the standards students their age are expected to meet. Teachers can also give separate grades for each standard, showing whether or not they met each particular standard. The continuous progress report can go over a period of two or more years to show how a student is progressing over time. While all these ideas are solid ones, I prefer the idea of students’ progress and students against expected standards. I feel like this most accurately depicts what a student has learned and mastered, and how well they are mastering what is expected of them. It also lets parents see both sides of the grades we must give.