From a specialist teacher who just finished writing comments for every 3rd-5th grader at my school - they take FOREVER to write, must be personal, and we need adequate data to support and share. I need this time to gather information for an adequate report. Earlier in the year is too soon for me to give YOU what YOU want on the report.

Comments take forever for teachers to write. If a teacher spends just ten minutes per comment and has a load of only 60 students, that’s still ten hours of work, not including the hours required for end-of-term grading and admin time to review comments. Teachers usually have to cut back on lesson planning and grading in the two weeks before comments are due in order to fit all of their work in. Generally, you will get parent-teacher conferences or comments but not both in the same term. Schools have parent-teacher conferences in the fall as a way to facilitate face-to-face meetings and relationship building between families and the school.

While it may not feel like teachers are communicating a lot with parents, I can assure you that a good portion of the week is taken up by parent communication—praising exceptional work, looking out for kids in psychological crisis, referring struggling students to resources, investigating disciplinary incidents, and following up with consequences. If you’re not on the receiving end of such news, your child is probably meeting academic and social expectations most of the time.

Schools usually send midterms if your child’s grade drops below a B-. For parents who want to watch grades closely, there is usually an online portal available for that purpose. Most questions can be answered by reading the syllabus, checking the class website, and talking to your child.

My kid's high school school is similarly about to release the second report card of the year. We had parent teacher conferences in November and could meet with as many teachers as we wanted. Throughout the semester, we've gotten "student updates" when DS did something noteworthy (positive or negative) -- we've gotten at least one in every class so far and two in some.

I don’t get comments at all - just quarterly and semester grades in upper school.

In middle school I get two conferences which don’t focus on grades but with ratings from each teacher on behaviors with comments.

Lower school comments are on report cards but rotated for specials teachers. 2 or 3 conferences for lower school.

Anonymous wrote:This is the end of the first semester for my child. Grade reports will come for the second time - first was half way through in October. The first time we get teacher comments is now, in January. This seems extremely late in the process, the end of the first semester. Parent-teacher conferences are in Nov but you, the parents, can only meet with three teachers. Teachers gave comments half way through if students had a C or lower I think. All students (and parents) should get feedback comments more than 1 time a year, at the semester. What does your private do? Maybe this is typical?

Does the school have an open gradebook?

A lot do now so that kids always know their grades.

We get three interim reports each semester from DC’s HS, plus the final semester report card (so four total per semester). The quarter report (second interim report) includes comments from teachers. The final semester report only includes comments for students with a C or lower in the class and/or who got a D or below on the midterm exam.

No default parent/teacher meetings, but parents can always reach out to teachers to request them.

The school my kids attend gives comments at the quarter points, no comments at the end of semesters and 2 meetings with the advisors (not the teachers) per year. This is pretty typical. Of course, if there are concerns, you can arrange calls or meetings with the advisor or with individual teachers at any time.

This is the end of the first semester for my child. Grade reports will come for the second time - first was half way through in October. The first time we get teacher comments is now, in January. This seems extremely late in the process, the end of the first semester. Parent-teacher conferences are in Nov but you, the parents, can only meet with three teachers. Teachers gave comments half way through if students had a C or lower I think. All students (and parents) should get feedback comments more than 1 time a year, at the semester. What does your private do? Maybe this is typical?