How can I learn more about the report card?

View a copy of the report card in PDF format
(reflects changes to Reading Level section)

Background

During the 2006-2007 school year, a group of K-5 educators from across the Burlington School District and across subject areas met to create a new standards-based report card.  After much discussion, reviewing report cards from other school districts, and listening to feedback from teachers, parents, and students, we designed a new report card that our District began using in November, 2006.  Use during the 2006-2007 school year allowed for additional feedback, teacher discussions and revisions. 

The handwritten report card will eventually be replaced with an electronic report card that teachers fill out at school on the computer.  Given our goal to have a universally designed computerized report card for families, the report card committee carefully selected standards to report to parents and guardians.  We designed a format that would be manageable for teachers, reflected the academic curriculum, and included an effort grade for each academic area.

Report cards are a very important part of an integrated system that emphasizes continuous assessment of the student's progress and achievement.  Our goal is to communicate how well each student is progressing towards meeting grade-level standards outlined in our curriculum and state grade level expectations.  The Burlington School District is confident that the new report card will provide more explicit information about your student's learning as they progress through the school system.

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Why were the new report cards developed?

1. The state of Vermont requires all students to receive instruction in, and master the standards for each grade level, and we needed a reporting system that matched these requirements.
2. A standards-based report card gives "parents a clear understanding of what their children know, what they are able to do, and what they need to learn in relation to the standards" (Travis Unified School District).
3. A standards-based report card will encourage consistency in teaching and reporting student progress across the elementary schools, K-5.

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How is the new standards-based report card different from previous report cards?*

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How does the new grading system work?

At the top of each page of the report card, there is a chart that looks like the one below.

The following is an explanation of each score point:

5=Student's independent achievement meets and goes beyond grade level standards.

4=Student's independent achievement consistently meets grade level standards.

3=Student's independent achievement shows inconsistent application of skills but is progressing towards meeting grade level standards.

2=Student's achievement needs continual support on grade-level standards.

1=Student's achievement shows little evidence of meeting grade level standards

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What does Independent text level (A-Z) mean in the Reading Section?

In order to accurately assess the independent reading progress of each student on narrative (stories) text through the elementary grades, we have added a nationally recognized "reading level system" to the report cards in the form of an alphabet letter.  Each letter of the alphabet (letters A-Z) corresponds to grade level standards in reading narrative text. Teachers use local and national assessments to accurately assign a reading text level to describe one aspect of the student's reading ability. 

Caution:  The levels are approximate and don't take into account how the book is introduced, the length of the text, the vocabulary load  and the student's background experience and interests. Teachers and staff will continue to fine-tune text level assessments to accurately match grade-level standards.

The chart below shows you the approximate relationship between the grade levels and the alphabet system:

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How will students receiving special education or ELL services be graded?

Students receiving special education will be given the regular District report card.  To comply with the law, documentation of progress specific to IEP goals and objectives will be reported to parents on IEP forms on a different schedule.

Students receiving ELL services will be given the regular District report card.  In addition, ELL teachers will send home their own ELL report card.

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How can I learn more about the report card?

Each November, teachers will review the new standards-based report card with parents during parent-teacher conferences.  Presentations of the new report card will take place as needed during the school year by individual schools.  
Parents should contact their child's teacher with specific questions about their child's progress.

The timeline for receiving report cards follows a trimester time line similar to previous years.  The standards-based report card will be distributed three times a year:

• November with a conference
• February
• June

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What do I do when I receive the report card?

Please read over and talk about the report card with your child.  Keep the report card, sign the outside of the envelope and return the empty envelope to your child's teacher.  Your child's teacher will collect the empty envelopes and reuse them for the next two report cards.  Feel free to include a note to the teacher inside the returned envelope with questions and/or comments. 

When families are actively involved in their child's learning, children have the best chance for success. 

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