How to Understand Your Child's Progress Report
It’s that time of year… The first report card has come and it’s only covered in check marks and overall comments. How do you as a parent, make sense of what has been written and what do the check marks mean? Can this report card given you meaningful information about your child’s learning in the first 8 weeks of school? Today’s post will explore the Progress Reports and what you need to focus in on and how to use this information as a tool to understand how your child has progressed since the start of the school year.
Understanding Progress Reports
As November rolls around our students in Ontario have been school for roughly 8 weeks. They have begun to put in place the building blocks to having a successful school year. For those children who perhaps struggle a little more with their learning, progress reports can cause stress within families for our struggling students. The reason tends to be that there are no “grades” attached to the report. All that is provided is the subject (i.e., Language, Math, Social Studies) and none of the strands (Reading, Writing, Numeracy, Probability) and rather then a letter grade or percentage you’re presented with three options. Progressing Very Well, Progressing Well, Progressing with Difficulty, which as a parent sometimes be misleading or difficult to understand. So lets extract some of the information in a way to might help you understanding.
Progress reports contain check marks indicating the level of progress your student has made since the year has begun. It is meant as a snap shot of the first 6 - 8 weeks of the school year.
Progressing….
As parents, no matter if your child is neurotypical or neurodiverse, we want our kids to do well and often times we equate good report cards with doing well at school. This early in the year many of of our kids with challenges are still trying to get used to be back at school and adjusting to the routine. So what do you need know about the different levels of ‘progress’? Let’s take a look at each of the levels individually.
PROGRESSING VERY WELL - This one is easy. You’re child surpasses the expectations of the curriculum with a high degree of efficacy.
PROGRESSING WELL - Your student is doing fairly well. They are able to meet the mean standard of what would be expected for their grade or level of achievement. In some cases or students are on Individual Education Plans that have a difference in the number or expectations or difference to the grade level.
PROGRESS WITH DIFFICULTY - These students tend to struggle to meet the achievement goals set out within the curriculum. Often these students require intensive support from teachers or educators to achieve success in the area of learning.
(Source - Growing Success Document )
As with a regular report card these ‘grades’ are based on the students work the early part of the school year. Since the beginning of the school year the teacher has been taking notes, collecting grades and working with the student to gain an understanding of your child’s level of achievement. For parents with a child who is on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) you want to ensure that if they are MODIFIED (a change to the grade level or number of expectations being assessed) that IEP box is also checked. This a how you know that your child’s mark is based on the expectations laid out within the document you signed earlier in the year! If you have more questions check out my post Individual Education Plan to help support your understanding of IEP’s and the different versions you might see.
When you are able to visit with the classroom teacher for interviews I would, as a teacher and parent, recommend that you take the report card and IEP. Read them side by side. Is the goal or expectation on the report card the same as that in the IEP? Does the information of who your child was going to be assessed match which you find in what came home? If not, ask the question of why it is or is not, and then how the child was assessed. Educators do an excellent job of providing you with copies of assessment or some way for you as parent to be able to see the progress before the report.
What About Learning Skills?
The Learning Skills covers things such as organization, self-regulation, responsibility, collaboration, independence and initiative. Lets take a quick look at each of these. The learning skills “marks” are given on a letter “grade” of E - Excellent, G - Good, S - Satisfactory or N - Needs Improvement. Again here if your child has an alternative page in the IEP, for example they need help with organization, the mark of E, G, S or N should be based on how they are using the skills and accommodations on their page.
Organization - This one is easy enough… How well does your student keep their work, supplies and spaces organized so they can learn most effectively.
Self-Regulation - How well is the student able to set goals, keep their focus and attention on the subjects being taught and how well can they reflect on their learning to know what they need to be successful.
Collaboration- How well does your child work with others and ensure they are providing their thoughts and input to group work and discussion.
Responsibility - The level to which your student able to be responsible for their learning. For example are they submitting and produce work in the time required.
Independence - Teacher are assessing your student able to work on a task for a given length of time without the need for the educators to support.
Initiative - This looks at how well your child can begin a task without support, find ways to show greater learning and look for ways to improve upon their learning.
Remember no matter what comes home support your child. Remind them that as long as they did their best that all you can ask of them.
Final Thoughts
No matter what type of report your child brought home the last few days or weeks, ask your self at the end of each section “did my child do their best. Do I feel the ‘mark’ is a true assessment of how my child is doing?” If you feel it is not then you are well within your duties as a parent to ask questions. Make a note on the report card or IEP and then bring those when you meet with the teacher or teachers. Don’t be afraid to advocate if you think something is missing or is not quite right. You are there to ensure you’re child feel supported when they can sometimes like no one understand or is there to fight for them.
One final thought would be to, just like with the IEP, sit down wit your child. Show them the comments and marks. Ask them if they feel they tried their best. Read the ‘Next Steps’ with them. Any child getting a Progressing Well or Progressing With Difficulty should have a suggestion of how to do better. Talk to them about what’s going on. You might be surprised at what kind of insight they have on their own learning. Continue to stand behind them and support them. Let them know they can do this and you’ll do your part to support if they do their part to continue to work towards their goals!
Have you gotten your FREE IEP Binder Organizer yet? Join our mailing list to get yours and help keep your child’s school documentation in order.
Follow me on Instagram @access2educationtoronto
June can be a scary time of year for those who struggle with transitions. Looking at BIG T Transitions and little t transition can help you build a transition to ensures the success of your child.