Whispers of excitement and perplexity whirl through the Hackley hallways for days after students receive their report cards. Whether internally or externally, many students wonder how they earned certain grades and what the grades even mean.
These discussions are not limited to students. Among teachers and administrators, there is an ongoing discussion of keeping or eliminating report cards’ effort grades due to their subjectiveness and confusion on what makes a student’s effort a one, the highest effort grade, or a five, the lowest effort grade.
“Is there a way to have a better standard around what makes a one, what makes a two, what makes a three?” said Mr. King, reflecting on conversations around the grade.
Grades are reported six times throughout the school year. Progress grades are reported halfway through each trimester in order to update students on their performance. Report cards mark the end of each trimester and report the grades earned.
Despite the importance of report cards to students at Hackley, it is little known how much they are evolving to provide academic feedback not only for students but also for teachers and parents.
For the teachers, it assists them in understanding how well their students understood what was taught. For parents, it provides insight into their child’s progress that otherwise may not be communicated at home.
Progress reports and report cards have different ways of conveying a student’s results and evolution throughout a couple of months of school.
“A report card is, in some ways, a factual document. It’s a letter grade, and it’s an effort grade,” Upper School Director Andy King said.
Progress reports differ from report cards because they address more specific information about how a student is observed in class. They are used as a guide instead of a determining factor in the final grade. The purpose of the guide is to address whether the student is effectively learning the subject material, and if not, what they can do to improve by the time report cards come out.
“Are you delivering the work on time? Do you demonstrate comprehension?” Mr. King said, listing examples of what a student can be evaluated on.
More specific than the letter and effort grades for report cards, progress reports have skills that are graded. Each class has four skills that are reported on by using “consistently”, “usually”, “inconsistently”, and “rarely.” The first three skills are constant throughout every class. They address a student’s participation, understanding, and completion of assignments on time. The fourth is individualized for the type of class. For example, the skill for English class is “writes effectively,” and for science, it is “works effectively and documents thoroughly in labs.”
Despite being more specific than report cards, it is somewhat unclear what goes into each skill. What does a student need to do to “consistently” participate or understand the material?
These concerns are mirrored in students and teachers. “I think there should be one letter in between consistently and usually on the reports,” said sophomore Mariana Dushas. Thomas Fritz, tenth-grade dean and history teacher, said it would be beneficial if there were “clearer benchmarks on the effort grades” and that he “found those tricky to apply to daily history class.”
To ameliorate this, the department heads are discussing bringing an updated version of the Middle School progress reports to the Upper School.
“One of the things that they have are categories: academics, scholarship, and then behavior,” said Mr. King. These sections also have dropdown menus that show what goes into consistently performing in each category.
“The thought is that we would bring it to show it to Upper School teachers sometime this spring. And then even as early as next fall, we’d have a modified progress report for the Upper School,” Mr. King said.
Within progress reports, there is one trimester that has a significantly different reporting system than the others. Second-trimester progress reports are the most tailored to an individual when it comes to guiding a student. What is unique to these reports is that they include written sections from teachers, called evidentials or “evies” as they are commonly referred to. They address students’ strengths and areas for improvement. Unlike progress reports, teachers can offer insight into what specifically a student can do to help weaker areas.
For students, it is seen as the most beneficial reporting done. Many reread their teacher’s comments multiple times. Some even want them to appear more than once during the year.
“I think they should be in the first trimester and second trimester, instead of just the second trimester,” junior Leo Gutowski said.
Years ago, Hackley did require two evies, but Mr. King notes that teachers know very little about their students in October, so writing comments then results in sparse feedback. This led to the decision to abandon evidentials in the first trimester.
“Now we do a longer one in the winter where you feel like you have more to draw upon,” Mr. King said.
The side of evidentials barely seen by students is the review and writing process. There are weeks of work that teachers and administrators pour into evidentials. And like everything at Hackley, it is a team effort. Department chairs and deans read certain teachers’ comments. Mr. King and Chris Arnold, 9th Grade Dean and Assistant Upper School Director, split the remaining reports.
When reviewing, Mr. King says that he checks reports not for grammatical errors, but for tone. “I think the tone of an evidential should be accurate and encouraging,” he said.
Despite how time-consuming editing is, it can be valuable for advisors and teachers to understand their students on a deeper level.
“But I have a complicated relationship with reviewing evidentials, because it’s a ton of work. But at the same time, I learn so much about the students. During the period when I’m binge reading evidentials, I walk through the hallway, and I can hear the evidentials about each of you in my head,” Mr. King said.
The time spent on reports is hard to change, but details as small as formatting can dramatically improve an individual’s experience with reports.
“The font needs to be five times bigger,” sophomore Caroline Ryu said. Teachers, like Mr. Fritz, agree with the font size sentiment.
Another contentious area for some students is parents’ viewing of grades. The majority believe the addition of a delay between students and parents receiving grades would allow them to have time to process their results before their parents see them.
“I just wish that I could see it first and then my parents see it after. A lot of the time, they look at it before me,” Sarah Sichel-Outcalt said.
Other students agree.
“Let’s say parents see their kids’ grades before them; it isn’t fair to the student because they basically have no idea what their grades are,” Lili Kanev said.
Mr. King recognizes the importance of student independence separate from their parents. But he also observes that parents are often the ones who benefit the most from the reports.
“I’ve had some nice conversations with families through the years who appreciate the evidential as sort of a window into the classroom. And it’s developmentally appropriate with high school students to give them a school experience in partnership, but separate from their parents,” Mr. King said.
On a larger scale, many students feel one major addition could improve their overall school experience. This is an open-gradebook policy where students have the ability to see their grades in any class at any time.
“I wish we had open-book grades. That’s where you can go and see your grades. Then we can keep track of our grades and be able to see how certain tests affect them,” junior Arya Gauba said.
“You should be able to see your grade whenever you want, not just from reports. You should be able to see your grade just by clicking a button,” Le said.
Teachers see more limitations than benefits with that system. Mr. Fritz said, “It would be hard to say after two weeks what a class participation grade would be. And I find that is usually the difference in terms of boosting a grade.”
Mr. King was concerned with the policy for a different reason. He said, “I do worry a little bit about how that could feed into some mania, competition, and anxiety. And I also worry if parents will be able to control themselves. And I say that with affection. Do you want Mom and Dad knowing every single moment when one assignment is 30 seconds late?”
Both teachers were able to see positives with the policy and understand why a student would have an appetite for that system.
“I’m not there yet, but I know why the conversation is interesting to students.” Mr. King said.
