Dear Harbor Families,

In the next few days, you will be receiving your child’s report card. The report card is just one of the many ways that progress and learning goals are communicated with parents over the course of the school year.

In the field of education, reporting student progress has changed over the years. If you went to a school like mine (ahem, in the late 70s and early 80s), you might have received a one page form with letter grades for little more than the subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic, along with a general teacher comment about your behavior in class. What you will see in your Harbor report card in 2019 is much more comprehensive. It reflects that we now view learning and development as complex, non-linear, and multidimensional, and, consistent with our mission, individual comments from the teachers describe what is unique about your child.

Below are a few points to orient you to the report cards you will soon receive:

• There are multiple indicators of learning in each academic and specials subject area, as well as in the area of personal development (social/emotional and self-management skills).
• Our performance descriptors are meets expectations (ME), progressing with support (PS), not yet demonstrated (ND), and not assessed (N/A). These do not correspond in any way to traditional letter grades, but instead represent your child’s path along the learning continuum for that grade level. Note that if a subject area is “not assessed” in this term, it will be assessed in June.
• Teachers have provided thoughtful, individualized comments about each area of your child’s development. Comments will provide you with further insight into learning strengths and next steps for growth across the curriculum.

I encourage you to set aside some time with your child(ren) to look at the report card together and talk about their learning strengths and goals (at their level). Children deserve to be in the conversation and get a lot out of reflecting on their learning.

As always, teachers are available if you have questions about anything in the report. Enjoy reading about your child!

Warm regards,

Leah Musico

Head of School

The Harbor School