Elgin’s U-46 to unveil new-look report cards
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“Talks too much in class.” “Contributes frequently to class discussions.”
Those are the kind of formulaic phrases parents are used to seeing on elementary school report cards.
In Elgin Area School District U-46 next year, such phrases, and the familiar A, B, C’s, will be replaced with a more descriptive elementary school report card that will tell parents how well their children are grasping specific concepts.
“We designed a tool that enhances the flow of information between the parent, the student and the teacher, and reemphasizes teaching and learning,” said Izzy Ruiz, a member of the U-46 elementary report card committee. “These will replace the traditional grades that we are used to seeing.”
The changes were outlined in a presentation to the U-46 school board Monday. Middle and high school report cards will not be affected by the changes.
The most visible change will replace A, B, C’s with numbers: one through four. Modeled after state and federal education standards, the numbers will indicate whether a student exceeded expectations (4), met them (3), met them only inconsistently (2), or failed to meet them (1).
A behavior section will enable teachers to rate students on a number of behaviors tied to performance, such as participation, completing assignments on time and showing respect for teachers and classmates.
Teachers will also have to indicate whether students have mastered particular skills in a subject area, such as “reads, counts and writes up to 999” and “uses newly learned vocabulary words.”
The recommendations were developed by an elementary report card committee convened two years ago. A U-46 committee looked at a similar report card revamp more than eight years ago, but nothing came of it at that time.
The committee will monitor the implementation of the new report cards during the 2011-12 school year.
