From the Principal: December 5, 2017

Dear Families,

As we work to make our communication about student progress as clear as possible, we are implementing a performance scale for report cards that is consistent across grades 1-5. In these grade levels, we utilize report cards as one means of providing information about student performance.

We hope you’ll find the performance scale we are implementing to be a useful and meaningful guide for how your child is progressing in relationship to the expectations for the grade level, which are based on the Massachusetts state learning standards. At the end of the year, we will gather feedback about the performance scale from staff and families and make any changes needed for a full roll out in 2018 - 2019.

This letter is intended to provide you with a little more information about the performance scale and what each descriptor on the scale means.

We have chosen a performance scale that is aligned in terminology with the MCAS rating scale. We hope that 4th and 5th grade parents (who received 3rd and 4th grade MCAS results in the fall) will find the alignment to these terms helpful in thinking about MCAS and report cards alongside one another, even though these two assessments give us differing information about students.

An above grade level rating has not been included historically in the Baldwin Report Card, but the rating of “Exceeding Expectations (EE)” will be rolled out for use next school year (18-19). We are working this year (17-18) to develop full and shared understanding about this ranking and when it is appropriately utilized.

Please look over the performance levels below and let us know if you have questions now or after report cards are sent home. As always, we look forward to partnering with parents to ensure that each student is achieving at their best.

Sincerely,

Heidi Cook
Principal, Baldwin School


The performance levels we’ll implement this year are consistent across all grades and subjects:

  • Meeting Expectations (ME): “On track.” Student is meeting grade-level expectations (at the point in time of the marking period).

  • Partially Meeting Expectations (PM): “Below where we’d like them to be.” Student is partially meeting grade-level expectations in this subject (at the point in time of the marking period). Student could be at risk of not meeting the grade level standards by the end of the school year.

  • Not Yet Meeting Expectations (NY): “Well below where we’d like them to be.” Student is not meeting grade level expectations in this subject (at the point in time of the marking period). Continued home-school communication will be important to ongoing progress.

  • Not Taught (NT): Not taught or assessed this marking period.

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