Otsego Elementary School Faculty Handbook - Half Hollow Hills

REPORT CARD GUIDELINES
A report card is a legal permanent record and should engender respect. It
should have a professional look about it. Please keep the following
guidelines in mind when writing report cards:
• SUBSTANTIATE GRADES – Be sure you can justify grades with
objective data, both from your grade book and from the students’ work
folders. Although New York State sets Learning Standards, schools
determine the indicators of specific performance levels and effort
grades. Please be consistent to maintain the integrity of grades.
• STAY WITHIN REPORT CARD GUIDELINES – Use ONLY the grade
indicators on the report card themselves. DO NOT qualify them in
any way, such as adding a “+” or a “-“ to a grade.
• BE CONSISTENT ACROSS THE GRADE LEVEL – Do your best as a
group to identify specific indicators, which everyone agrees are
representative of a student in each performance level. The basic
guidelines remain. However, if the majority of the indicators describe
the student, the student is performing at that level.
• TAKE GREAT CARE WITH YOUR COMMENTS –
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Please base your comments solely on direct assessment and
observable data. Try to address areas that the rest of the report
card does not. For example, if Emily is performing at level 3 in
math with a G grade for effort, it is essentially redundant to say,
“Emily is doing well in math.” However, you may wish to
comment on Emily’s initiative, organizational skills, contributions
to class discussions, politeness, etc… Please note that it is
observable behavior and facts that would lead you to make
remarks about these qualities, rather than a mere opinion.
Report cards are written to parents, not students. Therefore,
comments like, “Good work, Jared,” and Keep it up, Jill,” do not
really belong.