Progress Report Change

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I wanted to inform you of a change in our academic reporting practices.  This October we will not be issuing our traditional written “progress reports”.   The rationale for this adjustment to our reporting system follows.

The switch to  trimester reporting structure a few years ago moved our first “progress reporting” period to early October which also aligned  these reports with parent/teacher conferences.  This alignment of parent/teacher conferences and progress reports meant that teachers were creating a written document that was then discussed again at a parent conferences.  This overlap between  progress reports and parent/teacher conferences has eliminated the need for written progress reports

Also, in prior years teachers were developing progress reports based on very small work sample size.  As of today, October 10, 2016 students have been in school for twenty-nine school days.  Within these first 4 weeks teachers have been focusing on developing and building a community of learners, establishing team norms and forming personal and academic relationships with students.  While our current 6th and 8th grade teams are returning to their looping teams, 5th and 7th grade students are transitioning into new learning communities.  

During the weeks of October 10, 2016 and October 17, 2016 BRMS will be holding parent/teacher conferences.  These conferences provide us with an opportunity to discuss with you our initial impressions of your child and to also allow you the opportunity to discuss with us what your child is saying about their school year start.  We value these conference opportunities and look forward to discussing with you your child’s learner characteristic and academic  performance over these first twenty-two school days.  It is important for parents and guardians to sign up for these conferences.  Teachers will be contacting some parents/guardians directly if there is need to communicate about specific academic concerns that may need to be addressed with your child.  

Thank you for your understanding as we move forward.  Please contact me directly if you have concerns regarding the quality of the information shared during the upcoming parent teacher conferences.  

Sincerely,

Kevin Hamilton

Principal