K report card is such BS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Does not really explain what most of the sub categories mean

Which sub-categories don't you understand?

[Anonymous]

Hate to tell you this but report cards for 1, 2,3,4 and 5 are BS too. It's really frustrating.

[Anonymous]

Feedback?! In MCPS! Ha!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD got a bunch of Is for things the teacher knows she knows. She's sometimes uncooperative about doing her work.
I've read they are supposed to grade on mastery and not effort but it looks like our school doesn't care about that.

The teacher can only know what your DD knows if your child is able to demonstrate it consistently. Classwork is usually one major way for a student to "show what they know", especially in K. I think that may be something you might want to work with your DD on, because I'm not sure how the teacher can be expected to assess skills that aren't being demonstrated somehow through a final work product.

Cooperation and staying on task are hard for many kids in kindergarten, luckily the report card from K really isn't very important in the grand scheme of things and it's more about instilling good habits and a strong foundation for future academic success.

[Anonymous]

Many teachers are happy to sit down and explain the report card in depth - it's worth sending an email.

[Anonymous]

Ok hive mind. What does an I in "writing processes" mean? I'm assuming it's about the mechanics of writing right? Which makes sense as I see letters backwards and capital letters that should be lower case. Is that it? No explanation of it anywhere.

[Anonymous]

All my child's report card reflects is that my child is that my child is proficient. Nothing helpful. At least if they are going to use these inane meaningless report cards, the teachers should provide a personal evaluation of each child's strengths and weaknesses. What a waste of paper and energy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All my child's report card reflects is that my child is that my child is proficient. Nothing helpful. At least if they are going to use these inane meaningless report cards, the teachers should provide a personal evaluation of each child's strengths and weaknesses. What a waste of paper and energy.

Teachers don't have time for that. And proficient is helpful information, at least to me. It means there is nothing specific I need to do at this time to help my child work towards meeting standards, because so far he has met them all. Therefore, that tells me we're free to focus our time at home on any portion of academics we find important at the time or on something else not school related.

If the report card reflects one or more areas that are not proficient, that tells me I need to get in touch with the teacher to get tips for how I can work with DS at home to get him to the point of meeting standards in that category.

It would be nice to know a bunch of in depth personalized information about all aspects of DS's academic profile, but all I really need to know is whether he's demonstrating that he has learned what he should at this time or whether some additional reinforcement is needed from home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All my child's report card reflects is that my child is that my child is proficient. Nothing helpful. At least if they are going to use these inane meaningless report cards, the teachers should provide a personal evaluation of each child's strengths and weaknesses. What a waste of paper and energy.

Teachers don't have time for that. And proficient is helpful information, at least to me. It means there is nothing specific I need to do at this time to help my child work towards meeting standards, because so far he has met them all. Therefore, that tells me we're free to focus our time at home on any portion of academics we find important at the time or on something else not school related.

If the report card reflects one or more areas that are not proficient, that tells me I need to get in touch with the teacher to get tips for how I can work with DS at home to get him to the point of meeting standards in that category.

It would be nice to know a bunch of in depth personalized information about all aspects of DS's academic profile, but all I really need to know is whether he's demonstrating that he has learned what he should at this time or whether some additional reinforcement is needed from home.

Proficient is a huge range-- it could mean that your child could be at the bottom of the P scale-- just grasping a skill-- or is at the top of his game. Wouldn't you want to know where you kid falls within that range? I think that would be hugely helpful. You're a right when you say teachers don't have time for personal narratives about each child. The school system is flawed for not building in more time for things like that, among other things, e.g., planning time, cleaning time, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All my child's report card reflects is that my child is that my child is proficient. Nothing helpful. At least if they are going to use these inane meaningless report cards, the teachers should provide a personal evaluation of each child's strengths and weaknesses. What a waste of paper and energy.

It isn't helpful to know that your child is proficient?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The teacher can only know what your DD knows if your child is able to demonstrate it consistently. Classwork is usually one major way for a student to "show what they know", especially in K. I think that may be something you might want to work with your DD on, because I'm not sure how the teacher can be expected to assess skills that aren't being demonstrated somehow through a final work product.

Cooperation and staying on task are hard for many kids in kindergarten, luckily the report card from K really isn't very important in the grand scheme of things and it's more about instilling good habits and a strong foundation for future academic success.

The report card from K isn't important AT ALL in the grand scheme of things.

[Anonymous]

Since kindergarten only receives report cards twice, many of the grades in PE, art or music will be "I'S which means the child is progressing.
Most kids get an "I" in specialst during the first semester. Many of these objectives are year-long.
If my kid got an "N" (not yet) I will definitely email the teachers.

[Anonymous]

I think PP is confused. There are clear goals for each semester and children should only get Is if those objectives aren't met. This includes specials.
Unfortunately, I think a lot of teachers use criteria outside of those objectives.

[Anonymous]

Even if your child is failing miserably it can be pretty useless.
I have a relative who has a child in the same school as mine but is in a different class and we compared report cards over the phone last night.

Her daughter is doing very well, is always completing work, getting it right, and is in the highest reading group and math group but got a bunch of Is in core subjects. My child is really struggling. He's in the bottom reading group and can't seem to get his work done. My child got almost all Ps. I know her daughter very well as she is always over at our house and I can tell you that she is more than a year ahead of our son in almost everything.

But to look at these two report cards you'd have no idea of that. I think I was honestly more upset than she was because I had really hoped the report card would highlight specific areas we could work on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even if your child is failing miserably it can be pretty useless.
I have a relative who has a child in the same school as mine but is in a different class and we compared report cards over the phone last night.

Her daughter is doing very well, is always completing work, getting it right, and is in the highest reading group and math group but got a bunch of Is in core subjects. My child is really struggling. He's in the bottom reading group and can't seem to get his work done. My child got almost all Ps. I know her daughter very well as she is always over at our house and I can tell you that she is more than a year ahead of our son in almost everything.

But to look at these two report cards you'd have no idea of that. I think I was honestly more upset than she was because I had really hoped the report card would highlight specific areas we could work on.

I would talk to the teacher about this.