One of the reasons we could not wait to escape to BASIS was to see actual grades and have our kid be exposed to results (good and bad) that correlate with work and effort. BASIS sent home grades yesterday. There is no flowery language. No 4s or 5s. We received the numerical and letter grades for each assignment throughout the trimester and a cumulative T1 grade (number and letter value).

I understood 1-5 for ECE, but at some point we need to know what a kids actually knows and they need some meaningful feedback.

Anonymous wrote:Lots of teachers want to show growth, so they give a 3 no matter where your kid is relative to peers or the curriculum. It’s fine. I knew when my kid was reading well above grade level that his 3s in reading were placeholders.

This seems a bit unethical on the teachers’ part. A bit dishonest to basically take credit for progress that isn’t because of your teaching…

Lots of teachers want to show growth, so they give a 3 no matter where your kid is relative to peers or the curriculum. It’s fine. I knew when my kid was reading well above grade level that his 3s in reading were placeholders.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone gotten 4s in their reports? It seems more and more they’re focused on showing “growth”…

My kid did in ELA where he scored above grade level on DIBELs. I feel like the first quarter, they heavily base it on DIBELs and Iready scores. I did ask the teacher if it was based on that quarter or the standards for the whole year and she said that quarter. Last year we definitely had showing growth/standards for the whole year and started the year with 2s.

Right, my kids got basically all 4s this year — more than in T1 previously — and we were told it was because they moved from end-of-year standard-based evaluations (where kids can be ahead in T1 but still not ahead of end of year) to quarter-by-quarter evaluations.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone gotten 4s in their reports? It seems more and more they’re focused on showing “growth”…

My kid did in ELA where he scored above grade level on DIBELs. I feel like the first quarter, they heavily base it on DIBELs and Iready scores. I did ask the teacher if it was based on that quarter or the standards for the whole year and she said that quarter. Last year we definitely had showing growth/standards for the whole year and started the year with 2s.

Anonymous wrote:^ my UMC ES kid has 3s across the board with no explanation except to say doing great!

Same here. We were told a couple years back not to expect 4s until the spring, even if our kid was doing great and had no issues. This year, none of the comments sounded specific to my kid either (e.g.: this term our class did X, and we'll work on Y next term). We don't have any significant concerns, so it's not a big deal, but ... why even have quarterly report cards, and all the related time and effort, if the don't communicate anything?

^ my UMC ES kid has 3s across the board with no explanation except to say doing great! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

^^ Sorry, I should say that this is for early to mid ES where it’s less obvious how kids are doing because there’s relatively limited testing, etc.

My kids have almost all 4s. Does they mean they’re really hitting it out of the park then? I assumed mostly 4s was basically standard for UMC kids without learning challenges? Or is it just incredibly teacher/school dependent?

How can you have an understanding of how your kid is doing if you can't rely of the grades? Why is there all this beating around the bush? I want to know: is my kid getting As or Bs? Because if it's Bs then I can certainly encourage my kid to spend a bit more time/ effort.

No new format for my student’s MS report card. Comments are so brief and rote as to be useless. Wish teachers didn’t have to waste time with them.

IME of three kids in DCPS ES over the years, as PP said, it’s more important to have an understanding of where your kid is than looking for fours each quarter. Again, I wish teachers didn’t have to waste time filling in all the little boxes.