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O ellowquill School has report card pilot

Donna Mueller, Strategic Initiatives Learning Coordinator Ior the !ortage la !rairie School
Division, gave a presentation to the board oI trustees Thursday on the report card pilot program
currently going on at ellowquill School.
ellowquill School has report card pilot
By Robin Dudgeon
Updated 2 hours ago
Thursday's meeting saw Donna Mueller give a presentation to the board oI trustees oI the
!ortage School Division on the Iield testing currently going on at ellowquill School.
ellowquill School is one oI 13 schools across the province chosen to test the new standardized
report card that will be hitting schools in the 2012/2013 school year.
"There were so many diIIerent report cards in Manitoba, even kids in the same school division
would sometimes get diIIerent report cards Irom diIIerent schools," said Donna Mueller, the
Strategic Initiatives Learning Coordinator Ior the !ortage la !rairie School Division. "The

Friday, ovember 11, 2011

Minister (oI Education) decided it would be good to take a look at getting one consistent report
card that had parent Iriendly language on it."
Three diIIerent draIt report card templates have been created Ior grades 1-6, grades 7 and 8, and
then grades 9-12.
"The report cards, there's three diIIerent ones but there's Iour components that are similar across
all the report cards. The Iormats do change depending on the learning across the grade levels but
the key components are the same in all oI them," said Mueller.
The Iour components that are the same are: student programming, learning behaviour, academic
achievements, and teacher comments.
Student programming: is the type oI program the student is in.
"There will be one oI three selections within the report card that teachers will be choosing. !rov
would mean that the student is Iollowing the provincial curriculum; SS! would mean that a
student has a speciIic plan meaning maybe an individualized education plan or a behaviour plan;
and EAL that is Ior a student that's new to the country probably and just learning the English
language," said Mueller.
Learning behaviour: talks about the non-academic Iactors like eIIort and completion oI
homework; Graded excellent, good or needs improvement.
"When parents come to parent night or get a report card they want to know two things, how is
my child doing academically and how are they behaving. The report cards nicely separate those
two things," said Mueller. "In the comment box there is an opportunity Ior teachers to expand on
what they mean there."
Academic achievements: the pure reIlection oI the students learning.
"For grades 1-6 students everything will be scaled on a 1 to 4 scale and Ior grade 7 and 8s it's a
combination oI scaled scores within the subject areas and an overall percentage grade," said
Mueller. "With academic achievement each subject area is then broken down into subcategories
that generally reIlect what the student knows and able to do and the application oI those subject
areas. A students grade is based on curriculum outcomes."
Teacher comments: where teachers explain their grades.
"There are some guidelines Ior the teachers who are in the pilot project what they can and cannot
write in the comment boxes. It is Iairly speciIic they want them to speciIically say what is
something the student is good at and what is something they need to work on and how will they
do that," said Mueller.
Field test reps network with each other and with representatives Irom Manitoba Education on an
ongoing basis to provide Ieedback on the report cards. Feedback is also given through meeting
with division reps and surveys Iilled out by teachers and parents.
"Our next steps, we're trying it out. Teachers are just going to roll up their sleeves and try it and
gather and submit Ieedback and then continue to hear and build experience together," said
Mueller.
Mueller told the board oI trustees that she Ielt the Division was making some gains as well as
loosing some things with the new template.
"I think the middle years they're getting more because right now what exists is a single
percentage and there's now Ileshing out oI the categories so in that respect they will get getting
more but our grade 1 to 4 parents will be getting less," said Mueller.
She went on to say that the early years report cards are very speciIic and detailed, which is lost in
the new report card.
"!arents will be having more urgency and more reason to be attending student lead conIerences
and parent teachers nights because that's where they will get those details Irom," said Mueller.
Over the next month both parents and teachers at ellowquill School will get a chance to
experience the report card templates and submit their Ieedback.
For more inIormation and to see templates oI the new report card visit
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/assess/reportcard.html
rdudgeoncpheraldleader.com
Article ID# 3366555