Standards-Based Reporting
Standards-Based Reporting
Understanding Your Child's Report Card
Rather than using traditional letter grades or percentages, the report card communicates a student's current level of performance using a four-point proficiency scale.
Standards-based reporting helps students, teachers, and families understand:
- What students are expected to learn
- How students are progressing toward grade-level expectations
- What students are doing well
- Areas where students may need additional practice or support
What Do the Numbers Mean?
Student performance is reported using the following proficiency scale:
| Score | Description | What does it mean? |
| 4 | Exceeding | The student demonstrates learning beyond the expected grade-level target through greater depth, complexity, or application. |
| 3 | Meeting | The student demonstrates the knowledge and skills expected for the grade-level learning target. |
| 2 | Developing | The student is developing the knowledge and skills needed to meet the grade-level expectation but is not yet consistently proficient. |
| 1 | Beginning | The student is beginning to develop the knowledge and skills and is performing below the current grade-level expectation. |
The goal is for students to demonstrate a 3 by the end of the school year.
A score of 3 is not the equivalent of a traditional "C." It means the student is meeting the identified grade-level expectation.
A score of 4 does not mean extra work or work from the next grade level. When a 4 is available for a learning target, it reflects greater depth, complexity, independence, or application of the learning.
Why Might a Score Change?
A student's score may change from one trimester to another. This does not necessarily mean that a student has lost learning.
As students progress through the year, expectations may increase in complexity, depth, and independence. A student's score reflects the current evidence of learning in relation to the expectation at that point in time.
Standards-based reporting is intended to communicate progress toward learning—not simply calculate an average of previous scores.
What Is Included on the Report Card?
Families receive a Summary Report at the end of each trimester. The report provides an overview of student progress across the major domain areas within each content area.
The Summary Report does not list every standard taught or assessed. Teachers teach and assess many standards throughout the year, while the report card provides a concise summary of the most important areas of student learning.
Families can learn more about their child's progress through classroom communication, student work, conferences, and ongoing feedback from teachers.
How Can I Support My Child?
Use the report card as a starting point for conversations about learning. Ask your child:
- What are you learning?
- What are you doing well?
- What are you still working on?
- What is your next step?
Questions about your child's individual performance or progress should be directed to your child's teacher.