Wednesday, August 22, 2001
|
Wednesday, August 22, 2001 |
|
Elementary schools get new report cards By MONROE
ROARK
Parents of Fayette elementary school children may notice some changes in report cards this fall. The Board of Education Monday approved the changes after reviewing them over the past month. A committee had studied how to improve the way report cards communicate students' progress to parents, and some of those findings were reported to the Board of Education at last month's regular meeting. Changes include: Nine-week grading periods, with midterm progress reports at 4 1/2 weeks. This will align grading periods with middle and high schools and increase parent communication throughout the year. Specific domains in the areas of reading/language arts and math being added to give parents more detailed information about student progress. These same areas are reflected on Criterion Referenced Competency Tests each spring. Adding a "completes assignments" category in each academic area to further specify progress in that regard. Including conduct marks in specialty areas such as art, music, technology and physical education. This would take care of conduct incidents not always reported to the home room teacher. Eliminating a single conduct grade in favor of specific feedback on character and academic traits such as self-control, respect for authority, getting along with others, working independently, and so on. Including days off roll in attendance records. This would document lost instruction time as students change school systems and help teachers, who are being held more accountable for test scores. The changes were approved as part of the board's consent agenda, without comment. Also approved on the consent agenda were policies on schools' acceptance of public gifts and use of pocket pagers by students, and procedures for handling gender discrimination complaints in violation of the Equity in Sports Act.
|
||