Full Description
"Guskey and Bailey offer realistic solutions to improving how educators communicate a student's academic progress to all stakeholders. Their work provides a faculty with the research, step-by-step guidelines, and reporting templates to begin the dialogue to develop a standards-based report card. Without a doubt, this work is a model for schools that want to improve their system of grading and reporting. It certainly has transformed ours!"
—Jeffrey Erickson, Assistant Principal
Minnetonka High School, MN
Develop standards-based report cards that are meaningful to students, parents, and educators!
Although schools have moved toward standards-based curriculum and instruction, grading practices and reporting systems have remained largely unchanged. Helping school leaders gain support for transitioning from traditional to standards-based report cards, this book guides educators in aligning assessment and reporting practices with standards-based education and providing more detailed reports of children's learning and achievement.
A standards-based report card breaks down each subject area into specific elements of learning to offer parents and educators a more thorough description of each child's progress toward proficiency. This accessible volume:
Provides a clear framework for developing standards-based report cards
Shows how to communicate with parents, students, and other stakeholders about changes
Illustrates how to achieve grading consistency without increasing teachers' workloads or violating their professional autonomy
Filled with examples of standards-based report cards that can be adapted to a school's needs, this practical resource shows district and school administrators how to establish reporting practices that facilitate learning.
Contents
About the Authors
1. Getting Started
The Difficulty of Change
The Need for Change
Why Standards Instead of Letter Grades?
Guiding Premises
Our Purpose
Our Organizational Scheme
Our Hope
2. The Importance of Standards
Defining "Standards"
Five Essential Understandings
Standards-Based Report Card Development Levels
Summary
3. Defining the Purpose
Purpose Questions
Leading Discussions About Purpose
Key Questions in Defining the Purpose
Making the Purpose Clear
Method Follows Purpose
Purpose Determines the Development Process
Multiple Purposes Means Multiple Reporting Elements
Focus on a "Reporting System"
Summary
4. Developing Reporting Standards
Reporting Standards
The Development Process
Three Types of Learning Goals
Conflicts in Reporting on Different Learning Goals
Meaning Solutions to the Conflicts
Summary
5. Essential Steps in Development: Part I
Crucial Questions in the Development Process
Summary
6. Essential Steps in Development: Part II
Additional Crucial Questions in the Development Process
Summary
7. Developing Reporting Forms
Defining the Purpose
Selecting the Method Based on the Purpose
Effective Reporting Forms
Combining Methods of Reporting
Format and Graphic Layouts
Design Processes
Additional Sample Reporting Forms
8. Piloting and Revising
Broad-Based Involvement
Focus Groups
Parent, Teacher, and Student Surveys
Test-Driven Reporting
Back to the Drawing Board
Informing the Community
Professional Development
Parent Education Programs
9. Beyond the Report Card: Developing a Reporting System
The Importance of Purpose
The Challenge of Communications
Tools for a Comprehensive Reporting System
Guidelines for Better Practice
Summary
References
Index
