Dear Families,
In grade levels 1-5, we utilize report cards as one means of providing information about student performance. We hope you’ll find the report card 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. You should expect report cards in the mail (grades 3-5) or in backpacks (grades 1-2) at the end of January.
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.
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.
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.
- Exceeding Expectations (EE)– A student who performed at this level exceeded grade-level expectations
*Not Taught (NT)-Not taught or assessed this marking period
Thanks for reading!
-Heidi