Page 72 - Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools. First Edition, Covering Grades 1 to 12. 2010

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GROWING SUCCESS | assessment, evaluation, and reporting in Ontario schools
REPORTING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
Secondary
Space and comment stems are provided for student comments in a tear-off section on all provincial report cards for Grades 9–12 except the final report. The stems are as follows:
Student’s Comments
• My best work is:
• My goal for improvement is:
Parents, even if their child does not write comments, must sign the tear-off section and return it to the school to indicate that they have seen the report card. Parents should keep the other parts of the report card for their own records. Parents who wish to keep a copy of their child’s comments should be provided with a copy of the tear-off section by the school.
CONTEXT
The progress report cards and the provincial report cards ensure that all students attending publicly funded elementary and secondary schools in Ontario, and their parents, receive standard, clear, detailed, and straightforward information about student progress and achievement based on the expectations and standards outlined in the Ontario curriculum for Grades 1 to 12.
The Elementary Progress Report Cards are new and will support teachers in using assessment for learning and as learning in the first weeks of the school year (see Chapter 4). The progress report cards are intended to become a central part of rich discussions with students and their parents in the context of proactive interviews or conferences that will help to establish a positive tone for the remainder of the school year. In this way, students and parents can gain a better understanding of students’ learning skills and work habits, and students’ learning goals can be clarified and understood by all. Such communication will help establish a culture of learning and improve students’ opportunities for achieving success. Boards are encouraged to complete the design of the Elementary Progress Report Cards in such a way that parents feel they are welcome, and indeed encouraged, to participate in their children’s learning. Boards are expected to develop a process to allow the progress report cards to be completed collaboratively, in order to strengthen home-school relationships.
Reporting on students’ development of the learning skills and work habits and on their achievement of the curriculum expectations is an extremely important function of the teaching profession. It is essential for the reported information to be valid, fair, and determined and recorded in a consistent way across the province.