We want to acknowledge the standards-based grading work that you have been doing with your teachers. We know your efforts to intentionally identify power standards and create explicit proficiency scales will help students learn and reach their highest potential. We had originally hoped to begin new report cards this year but feel that the timing is not conducive to implementing something so important. We will continue standards-based work throughout the year and hope to let the process drive the implementation of new report cards.
The report cards will include the same skills as in the past, with one minor change. Teachers will notice in their grading books that reading and writing are now two separate categories. In the creation of the online content, reading and writing were designed as two separate courses, and Skyward requires that each course be its own category for grading purposes. The skills within the categories have not changed. If a skill is included in both categories, teachers may choose to mark each one or may mark the category that is most appropriate based on classroom assignments and/or instruction.