Standards-Based Report Cards
Oakwood Schools Mission
Doing what is best for students is our guiding principle. To this end, the Oakwood Schools community commits the resources, support, expertise and experiences needed for all students to achieve.
Oakwood Schools is honoring the District's Mission, "Doing what is best for students," by adopting a new communication tool to provide students and parents a more effective way to understand student growth and achievement. The District will begin using standards-based report cards at the elementary level during the 2019-2020 school year.
We believe the information found on this website will help you understand the benefits of a standards-based report card and how to effectively utilize the information provided on your student's standards-based report card.
How Standards-Based Report Cards Celebrate Growth
A standards-based report card is designed to provide accurate information about student performance in meeting the standard. In other words, rather than focusing on a percentage or number of points obtained, standards-based reporting focuses on student understanding or competency. With standards-based reporting, the conversation shifts from “What is my child’s score?” to “What is my child able to do?” While student work habits are important skills, these skills are reported separately. Marks for the standard are intended to reflect student performance in meeting the standard.
What are standards?
Standards are statements about what students know and should be able to do within each content area at each grade level.
Decisions about how to teach students, in what order to teach content, and what materials to use are made at the district- and building-levels.
#One Oakwood
Harman Principal Sarah Patterson and Smith Principal Chrissy Elliott discuss how standards-based report cards celebrate student growth in their #OneOakwood blog.
Resources
Ohio Department of Education Learning Standards
English Language Arts
Financial Literacy
Fine Arts
Health Education
Mathematics
Physical Education
Science
Social Studies
Technology
Social and Emotional
Benefits of a standards-based reporting system
● It is an objective tool to measure a student’s progress toward proficiency with the Ohio Learning Standards
● Measures what a student should know and be able to do by the end of each grade in each learning area.
● Identify the concepts and skills in each learning area based on these standards.
● Indicate what skills students have mastered, as well as their strengths and areas for growth.
● Progress will be reported for each of the grade-level standards identified rather than a single grade for each subject area.
● All teachers across the District will have the same expectations and common understandings about learning targets at each grade level and be able to build student knowledge based on student mastery of the previous year’s grade-level goals.
● Students, parents, and teachers work toward shared goals to ensure that students make progress each year.
● Research shows that providing specific feedback helps students to set goals and focus on continuous growth.
Samples of Oakwood Schools Standards-Based Report Cards
Frequently Asked Questions
How were the standards for the report cards determined?
Standards for the report card are aligned with the standards established by the state of Ohio, Ohio Learning Standards. Standards selected are essential for success in current and subsequent grades and are aligned with the Ohio State Tests students will take in 3rd grade and beyond.
Why do we use performance levels for the standards instead of grade letters?Children’s learning progression is too complex to be reduced to a simple letter grade. Our standards-based reporting system is designed to provide specific information about the skills students are progressing towards mastering. The student’s progress towards standards will be marked using the key below. The goal is for students to achieve a 1.
It is also important for parents to understand that standards may evolve in rigor and expectations for greater levels of difficulty throughout the year. If a student’s progress appears to dip during the year, that doesn’t necessarily mean s/he has regressed. Instead, it may mean the level of expectation has been raised and the student hasn’t yet demonstrated mastery of the new expectations.
Why are there blank spaces on the report card?
With standards-based report cards, we assign a performance level once students have had the opportunity to show mastery of the standards. For this reason, you may see many blanks on the report card at the beginning of the year. A standard is not reported until it has been taught and assessed. We allocate our instructional time to focus on the most important concepts a student needs to master. This is why you will see some standards reported over multiple quarters and other standards only reported once.
How will this type of report card impact students with IEPs?
All students must be graded according to grade level priority standards, in line with their peers, on the grade level report card. Proficiency levels given in the new standards-based reporting system must be based on expectations for that grade level. The report card will reflect progress towards the standards taught at each grade level. The students will continue to receive a progress report explaining their progress towards individual goals stated in the IEP.