Students JK to Grade 7 will get their marks
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board announced Sunday night it will mail grades to the more than 43,000 students in JK to Grade 7 by the end of August.
The move comes after several Ontario school boards had already pledged they would issue final grade summary cards to public elementary school students.
In an elementary labour relations update, the school board said students would be mailed “information about Term 2 marks” by Aug. 31, which will not be a report card but rather a personalized package of marks “by subject and strand” based on the information submitted by the teacher.
Last week, the school board promised a letter of promotion to students in JK to Grade 7 by June 23, while also promising to issue Grade 8 report cards by June 25 for Term 2 of the 2014-2015 school year, but the exact details were unknown at the time.
Sunday’s move comes after the Toronto District School Board, as well as several school boards in Windsor, Niagara, York, Durham and Hamilton-Wentworth, had committed to issuing report cards for all of their elementary school students this month.
For now in Ottawa, the letter of promotion will be the official document for students in JK to Grade 7 and will be filed in the Ontario Student Record, according to Jennifer Adams, director of education with the OCDSB.
“This week, we were reminded by parents and students that the report card including the marks, learning skills and teacher comments are valued,” Adams said in an email statement on Sunday.
“While we cannot generate report cards for all students in JK to Grade 7, we heard very clearly that limited mark information was better than none. As a result, we made a commitment to share mark information with parents and students.”
Teachers have previously refused to administer marks as part of their legal strike action and also refused to provide comments. While “information about Term 2 marks” does not mean students will be receiving their proper report cards with personalized comments, at least receiving their marks is more than not receiving them at all.
According to Adams, changes to regular report card practice are a result of the legal job action currently underway by teachers in Ontario. But many parents have been unhappy with the strikes, especially when the board announced June 12 that only students in Grades 8 would be receiving report cards, while other students would merely receive a letter detailing whether they had passed or failed.
The teachers’ union also launched a war of words, accusing the school board of not doing its job. Adams told the Citizen last week that the board has had to adapt to the evolving tactics of the teachers’ union, which has been in a legal strike position since May 10.
The OCDSB is advising parents to contact teachers with their questions about their child’s learning prior to the end of the school year.