February 3

, 2010Volume 9, Issue 3

Swanton School

News

868-5346/868-4920

www.swantonschool.org

After speaking with parents thisfall about our reporting system andtalking with principals of other schoolsin our region and state, we have decidedNOT to send home the formal progressreports.When I met with parents thisfall, the general sense was that the mid-trimester progress report format we usedlast October was too specific in thesocial responsibility (behavior) criteriaand not specific enough in terms of academics. Other schools in the areaonly send progress reports for certaingrade levels or do not send progressreports at all.We have spent the month of January gathering mid-year data on all

our students for the winter “benchmark”

period. This is pa

rt of our “Response toIntervention” model. The idea is to doquick “check in” tests that are

standardized and based in research.

These quick “check in” tests help us to

make sure that no child is falling behind.We use the information from these testsalong with other information from ourown local assessments and classroomwork. This Friday, all the teachers willbe taking an in-depth look at all theinformation. They will take the time touse the information to plan forinstruction, with the goal of each childgetting what they need to have to besuccessful.Filling out progress reports isvery time consuming and takes away

No Formal Progress Reports This Trimester

from time the teachers have to plan thiscareful instruction. Since parents did notfind the current format very helpful, wemade the decision not to send progressreports this trimester.However, if your child is notmaking expected progress, you shouldanticipate communication from his/herteacher. This might be a quick note, aphone call, or even a print out from oneof our web based data collection systemsalong with a message from the teacher.When you do meet with the teachers inMarch, there should be no surprises!This summer, we will be working withother elementary schools in ourSupervisory Union to adjust our reportcard. Mrs. St. Amour, the Director of Curriculum and Assessment for theFranklin NW Supervisory Union, hasworked hard with teachers from allschools K-12 to finalize our SU k-12curriculum. This is very exciting news!Now that we will have a formallydefined curriculum that lines up with the

State of Vermont’s Grade Level

Expectations, we will want a report cardthat matches up with the new curriculum.

This will be a “work in progress” over

the summer. You can expect a chance togive your opinion about report cards tothe summer report card committee beforethe end of this school year.