APS elementary schools - Is it normal not to have teacher comments in the student's report card?

[Anonymous]

I'm curious to know if the homeroom teacher's comments are non-mandatory in students' report cards? Our 3rd grader always had quarterly comments from the teacher, but in the latest quarter, there was nothing. Her grades were the same as in the 1st and 2nd quarters, so it's not very insightful. We find the teacher's comments the most helpful part of the report card since it gives an idea how our child is faring in class.

[Anonymous]

If the comments seem generic, it is because they are. We have had several teachers who cut and pasted the exact same comments to multiple kids in the class. APS report cards are useless.

[Anonymous]

If there’s no comments I’d get in touch with the teacher to confirm- we have had glitches this year with some standards not appearing, comments, etc even when they appear in our drafts. We do have some standard comments about what the students learned but we add personalized things as well where relevant.

[Anonymous]

Our main teacher writes comments. Some of them are generic, but usually a line or 2 is specific to my child.

It's not the main way I get feedback on my kid, so I don't really care too much. The P-T conferences are much more useful.

[Anonymous]

Haha, you are looking for the copy and paste prose for what exactly??

[Anonymous]

No, but it seems to me they just check a box and the comments autofill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, but it seems to me they just check a box and the comments autofill.

If your child has standards based grading at elementary level, there are no auto comments in the system. Not sure about the traditional grade report cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but it seems to me they just check a box and the comments autofill.

If your child has standards based grading at elementary level, there are no auto comments in the system. Not sure about the traditional grade report cards.

I'll take actual grades and autofill comments, thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but it seems to me they just check a box and the comments autofill.

If your child has standards based grading at elementary level, there are no auto comments in the system. Not sure about the traditional grade report cards.

I'll take actual grades and autofill comments, thanks

Thanks for letting me know. As if I have any control over the decision.
-an APS elementary teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, but it seems to me they just check a box and the comments autofill.

If your child has standards based grading at elementary level, there are no auto comments in the system. Not sure about the traditional grade report cards.

I'll take actual grades and autofill comments, thanks

Thanks for letting me know. As if I have any control over the decision.
-an APS elementary teacher

Sorry, my comment wasn't directed at the teacher, just at APS' upcoming decision to implement SBG across the board after a tiny pilot that includes very few teachers and no parental feedback (I mean, I wrote to the school board after the presentation, but do I think that will affect anything? Nope. Do I think they're including stretched-to-the-max teachers in whether this is a good approach or the right time to make such a sweeping change? Nope)

[Anonymous]

SBG is garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If there’s no comments I’d get in touch with the teacher to confirm- we have had glitches this year with some standards not appearing, comments, etc even when they appear in our drafts. We do have some standard comments about what the students learned but we add personalized things as well where relevant.

To the OP, if there are literally no extra comments, I would contact the teacher and ask about it. Sometimes the forms populate strangely.

I don't love SBG, but it is not really worse than the early grades report cards used to be with the # and - signs to signify whether a kid was doing well or not in a particular area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there’s no comments I’d get in touch with the teacher to confirm- we have had glitches this year with some standards not appearing, comments, etc even when they appear in our drafts. We do have some standard comments about what the students learned but we add personalized things as well where relevant.

To the OP, if there are literally no extra comments, I would contact the teacher and ask about it. Sometimes the forms populate strangely.

I don't love SBG, but it is not really worse than the early grades report cards used to be with the # and - signs to signify whether a kid was doing well or not in a particular area.

I didn't need letter grades for my early elementary students, and I could be persuaded that later elementary students don't need letter grades, either, if that's what the teachers want. But for high school classes? Grades, please, and also don't allow infinite redos -- that just makes more work for the teachers.

[Anonymous]

OP, that happened to us and I reached out to the teacher. Turns out They didn’t “push “the comments for the kids report cards. She got in touch with our IT person at the elementary school and I had the comments within a couple hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there’s no comments I’d get in touch with the teacher to confirm- we have had glitches this year with some standards not appearing, comments, etc even when they appear in our drafts. We do have some standard comments about what the students learned but we add personalized things as well where relevant.

To the OP, if there are literally no extra comments, I would contact the teacher and ask about it. Sometimes the forms populate strangely.

I don't love SBG, but it is not really worse than the early grades report cards used to be with the # and - signs to signify whether a kid was doing well or not in a particular area.

I didn't need letter grades for my early elementary students, and I could be persuaded that later elementary students don't need letter grades, either, if that's what the teachers want. But for high school classes? Grades, please, and also don't allow infinite redos -- that just makes more work for the teachers.

Oh, crap. I'm the PP and just have an elementary child. Have they moved SBG into MS and HS? I might have totally blocked that out.