Report Cards
Assessment at Compass is meant to involve on-going feedback to students and parents on student learning at the school. While much of his feedback is communicated in the course of the school day formally and informally, more formal reporting on each student's progress occurs four times during the year at scheduled eight-week intervals. On these occasions, teachers complete a detailed report form with narrative that addresses key learning areas. This report card format is organized around the five learning realms, with each teacher selecting indicators that they have focused on each in each quarter.
This formal feedback is not intended to compare or rank students but instead, it is meant to identify areas of individual strength and areas for further attention, and to encourage students to grow as learners. While more detailed feedback occurs on an on-going basis in the course of the school day, these quarterly reports serve as a snapshot on student achievement and growth at regular intervals. At the end of the year, students receive overall grades in each realm in each class, reflecting competency in that realm over the course of the year.
It is our hope that the report form serves less as a final judgment on student learning than as a vehicle to open up thinking and conversation about each child’s progress. Parents are urged to bring their questions about reports to the teachers either by phone, email, or by scheduling a conference.
Grading may be used by teachers for individual assignments as one means of giving feedback that is both short and direct. These grades indicate whether assignments are completed satisfactorily and allow teachers to specify areas for commendation and improvement. These grades on individual assignments serve as a recording and reporting device and are not meant to be cumulatively averaged as we are more interested in overall student achievement and growth at year end (or even graduation) and not the average of ability over time.
Evaluative categories used on the report form are: Outstanding, representing work well above expectations; Excellent, for work above expectations; Good, for meeting expectations; Fair, below expectations; and Not acceptable, for work that fails to meet expectations. The category of Outstanding is used very selectively reflecting not only work of the highest quality, but also a level of consistency that is very demanding.
Download an Example
(Each of these is in MS Word format)