Report Cards
Report cards are sent home twice each school year in January and June. Please see our calendar page for exact dates.
As we begin the month of February with report cards, we are again reminded of the essential partnership between parents and teachers, home and school. There is much written about report cards and we wanted to take this opportunity to clarify our definition of assessment as well as the various forms of assessment and the standard for student assessment.
The CBE states: Assessing student learning is an ongoing cycle of gathering, interpreting, and responding to student work. Assessment is used to inform the next steps in learning and evaluate student knowledge and understanding in relationship to the learner outcomes. Daily, ongoing assessment and report cards are not separate. They inform each other. Both are based on outcomes and Front Matter from the Programs of Study and inform next steps for learners and teachers. Formative assessment supports learning, summative assessment verifies learning, grading and reports cards summarize learning.
More detailed descriptions include:
- Formative assessment is the feedback students receive on how they are doing and how they might improve. This is ongoing feedback which occurs through day to day work in the classroom.
- Summative assessment is a comparison, at a particular moment in time between individual student achievement and the outcomes of the Programs of studies. Multiple assessments are used to evaluate student achievement against the CBE report card outcomes.
Now that families have had an opportunity to review the report card (summative assessment) we hope you will notice:
- the strong connections between the information included and the work samples that were shared in the November interview you had with your child’s teacher
- the links between the tasks described in the classroom blogs, the Tweets and the report card stems. Each Edgemont classroom has a blog/tweets which can be accessed on our home page. Teachers and students take great care to communicate their work in a variety of ways. We strongly encourage parents to read the tweets with your children so that they have an opportunity to share their personal connections to the learning.
- the continuing opportunities you have to support your child in taking up the best next steps (goals) for learning in the months ahead.
We will look forward to meeting with you at our next Student Learning Conferences on November 23 and 24, 2023, and March 21 and 22, 2024 where we will again share our observations, student work samples and where your children will also talk about themselves as learners and share their goals and strategies.
Parents sometimes ask how their particular children “rank” against the other children in the classroom. We would remind parents that in Alberta, we assess student learning based upon the student’s ability to achieve the outcomes and Front Matter from the Programs of Study. The report card indicator scale provides a description of the degree to which each child is achieving those outcomes. The following chart provides a fuller description of what teachers are looking for when measuring achievement:
CBE Indicator Scale K-9
Please see our Edgemont Assessment Plan below for a timeline and components of assessment at our particular school. If you are interested in exploring more information about assessment, we would recommend the Assessment and Reporting section of the CBE website which can be found at: http://www.cbe.ab.ca/programs/curriculum/assessment-and-reporting/Pages/default.aspx
We also welcome your questions and invite you to talk with your children about the assessment processes they are engaged in during their lessons and inquiry studies at school. We appreciate your support as we work to ensure that each child is making gains each day.
2023-2024 Edgemont Assessment Plan
Date | Student Progress Opportunity |
Information |
Throughout school year with additions 2 to 3 times per week. | Google Classroom | We use Google Classroom to provide families with regular updates about the work of the classroom e.g., questions being explored, curriculum topics being investigated, strategies being taught, processes we use to support students in becoming independent and interdependent learners, etc. In addition, we will share information about our assessment tools in a variety of ways. Regular “posts” allow parent to make regular connections and conversations with their children sparked by the photos and the information shared. Our Google Classroom posts can be accessed by logging on with your child and by accessing google email guardian updates. |
September 21, 2023 | Open House | During this meeting we talked about questions such as:
|
November 23, 24, 2023 | Student Learning Conferences | During this meeting you talked about questions such as:
|
February 2, 2024 | First Report Card | The written report card with comments will be sent home for parents to read. It will support information shared in the conferences in November as well as during Teacher & Parent communication during the term. |
During the year | Celebrations of Learning for Grade Teams | The Celebrations of Learning are designed to provide students with opportunities to share their learning with our families so that parents better understand the work students are engaged in during classes and can see a variety of evidence of student learning. |
March 21, 22, 2024 | Student Learning Conferences | During this meeting you will talk about questions such as:
|
June 27, 2024 | Second Report Card | The written report card with comments will be sent home for parents to read. It will support information shared in the March conferences, through Google Classroom, as well as through Teacher & Parent communication during the term. |
Assessment and Reporting at the CBE
We know it is important for parents/guardians to understand how their children are doing in school. Research shows that students are more successful with active parent/guardian involvement.
The report card is one component in communicating student learning. In addition to the report card, schools communicate with parents/guardians about student progress on an ongoing basis in a variety of ways.
Assessment happens every day, in every classroom, throughout the school year. Assessing a student’s progress is one of the most important ways we support the continued learning of our students.
We have developed some resources related to assessment and report cards, and to help you learn more about your child's learning. As more resources are developed, you will find them here.
Digital report cards are available through MyCBE. For help with accessing student assessment and reporting information, please refer to the information in the MyCBE Technical Support for Students & Parents Support website.
Visit the CBE website for more information on Assessment & Reporting at the CBE.