Responding to state report cards is the key
There has been a lot of discussion lately in the news and in the schools about the building and district report cards that recently came out. There was a lot of good news for many school districts and, even for those that received less than great news, there were some areas where bright spots could be found.
The issue that many of us have with the reports is that while performance and achievement is certainly highlighted, as it should be, the gains made in any given area or subcategory are not as celebrated. There are instances in which a district may have made a significant gain, but it was overshadowed by the fact that the grade for the category or subcategory was still an “F” or a “D.”
Lest you think that I am defending poor performance or a low grade, we earned a “B” in the first year that an overall grade was assigned to school districts. We had areas in which we earned an “A,” and there were areas where we earned a grade that no one would want to take home.
The importance of the report cards is not so much the grade earned or how one district’s grade compares to another’s. The true test for a district is what they do once they receive their report card.
I am fairly confident that every school district in the state begins immediately, upon receiving their report, to take the information, drill down into the data and begin to put together a strategy to build on their strengths and to remediate their deficiencies. I am also confident in saying that no district looks at their report card and is 100 percent satisfied with each and every category.
There is no complacency and there is no time to relax or rest on one’s laurels. The time to act is right now, and we begin the act of making the changes as soon as possible.
A big concern is the lapse of time between our students taking the tests and receiving the feedback. We strive in our individual classrooms to provide immediate feedback to our students to make corrections and master the material. We have begun the process through professional development geared toward addressing our deficiencies and arming our teachers with the strategies, best practices, and methodologies to put into place in their classrooms.
We know that there is little time between when we receive the report cards and when the next battery of tests will be given. These new tests will be what determines our scores on the next report card. There is a lot of collaboration between teachers and between schools to ensure that we all provide the best education to our students.
We owe it to them, we owe it their parents, and we owe to those counting on us to provide tomorrow’s workforce and leaders.