<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=1VTdoH_1FGWyNLe00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=1VTdoH_1FGWyNLe00" width="375" height="250" ></figure>GUILDERLAND — For the first time in 15 years, the parents of students in Guilderland’s five elementary schools will receive a new report card.A committee of 29 staff volunteers have worked since June 2025 on the new format, which was presented to the school board on Sept. 15. Board members applauded the work.Parents will see the new report card on Feb. 5 at the close of the second quarter.The state’s education department leaves grading systems, report cards, and scale definitions entirely up to individual school districts.“Our fall conferences will remain as they always have …,” said Laura Flynn, a reading coach who served on the committee. “Teachers will be instructed to just take notes on a Google Doc or something that they can have a digital copy of … Then, when our report card is fully uploaded to eSchool and ready to go, those notes will be then copied into that Quarter 1 section so that they are documented.”Parents who would like a printed copy of the report card may request one.Allan Lockwood, the principal of Guilderland Elementary School who chaired the committee, went over the recent history of report cards in Guilderland.Guilderland’s elementary report cards were last revised after New York state adopted Common Core Learning Standards in 2011. “This report card was when we first moved towards a real standards-based document to report on student progress,” said Lockwood.A standard-based report measures each student against a stated set of criteria, rather than grading on a curve, which compares members of a class with one another.A traditional report card, Lockwood explained, has a single letter grade — A, B, C, D, or F — or percentage score for an entire subject, like 78 or 95.“These scores blend academic achievement,” he said, “but also often include things such as homework completion, class participation, extra credit, and behavior all into one single, all-encompassing grade. This approach can obscure actual student performance.”On the other hand, Lockwood explained, “A standards-based report card breaks down each subject area into individual explicit learning targets.” The new report card will use a scale of 1 to 3, “completely separating academic mastery from nonacademic work habits and social behavior,” he said.The state implemented Next Generation Learning Standards in the early 2020s but Guilderland’s elementary report card was not updated according to those new standards.“We are still using a document to report on student progress that is based on outdated and inaccurate learning standards,” said Lockwood.The new report card anticipates the state’s latest initiative, the Portrait of a Graduate, which redefines high school graduation requirements so that students, instead of passing Regents exams to graduate, will submit a variety of work.Annemarie Farrell, a literacy coach who served on the committee, said the Portrait of a Graduate outlines “six key attributes, which are: academically prepared, creative innovator, critical thinker, effective communicator, global citizen, and reflective and future focused.”Farrell went on, “So, when revising our report card, we wanted to continue to be forward-thinking as a district, understanding the Portrait of a Graduate and how these attributes develop the whole child, which is a hallmark of Guilderland.”So Guilderland students in kindergarten through fifth grade, in addition to being measured towards academic targets will also be gauged on “behaviors that promote learning.”“This section of the report card provides a window into the habits and dispositions we want every child to carry with them,” said Farrell.Amy Martin, a math specialist who served on the committee, described the surveys the committee undertook with both teachers and parents and also the back-and-forth process the committee went through with building cabinets reviewing proposed formats.Altogether 341 families shared their ideas on what they liked and what they wanted changed with report cards, said Trish McLean, a technology specialist who served on the committee. Survey responses from teachers totaled 125, and over 300 teachers participated in meetings about the new cards.Based on those results, the committee decided to use a three-point scale rather than the current 4-point scale for mastery of standards.Teachers will be supplied with a “guidance document” for the card’s comment section. “We’ve also expanded the comment section that reflects the behaviors that promote learning,” McLean said.She also said, “We did look into the option of going for straight paper, but that’s just not feasible in this day and age.”<h2>Board support</h2>School board members were largely supportive of the new report card.Student board member Adam Hawrylchak asked about helping parents and students adjust to the traditional grading at the middle school, which Lockwood said was beyond the scope of the committee’s work.“We found an immense amount of research that discussed the importance and the efficacy around standards-based grading, but it does indicate it becomes much more challenging as we get into secondary,” said Lockwood. “There are a lot more traditional grading systems that are built up that lead into higher education.”Board member Tara Molloy-Grocki, who retired after decades as an elementary-school teacher said, “I really love the parent guide for understanding the document … and I love that it’s starting in the second quarter so first quarter you can meet, talk to parents, you know, figure it all out together.”Student board member Adam Pollard said that “elementary school is foundational” and asked, “What do you think is the student’s relationship to the report card?”Lockwood said that kindergartners and first-graders wouldn’t understand a lot of what is documented on a report card. “But as students get older,” he said, “we want them to take more ownership of their learning and we want them to understand where they fall in terms of mastering different, important standards.”Board member Rebecca Butterfield congratulated the committee on its work but was curious about the elimination of the “4” designation for exceeding standards.“Just in case the student is already mastering our reading standards, how are we promoting continued enrichment for those students?” she asked.Lockwood responded, “We’re going to use the comment section there to really detail … when a student is going beyond that and showing a little bit more than we would expect a typical student at that grade level.”Board member Nancy Cavillones asked how much time teachers spent on preparing report cards and if the new one would make it more efficient.“I think it will streamline things a bit for teachers,” said Lockwood. “We’ve taken out a lot of the ambiguity.”Lockwood concluded that updating the report card, based on responses from parents and teachers, will be an ongoing process.“We don’t plan for it to be another 15 years before we take a look at revising our report card,” he said.</div></body>

Block Source: altamontenterprise.com

Misinformation

Clickbait

Old or repetitive news

Explicit content

Location not relevant

GUILDERLAND — For the first time in 15 years, the parents of students in Guilderland’s five elementary schools will receive a new report card. A committee of 29 staff volunteers have worked since June 2025 on the new format, which was presented to the school board on Sept. 15. Board members applauded the work.

Guilderland eases into new report card for elementary students

NewsBreak

GUILDERLAND — For the first time in 15 years, the parents of students in Guilderland’s five elementary schools will receive a new report card. A committee 

Guilderland eases into new report card for elementary students

Comments