REPORTING ON THE WHOLE CHILD
Progress reports that reflect a child’s growth and your school’s values
What ever happened to the “whole child”?
Character?
Grit?
Compassion?
The ability to work with others?
A caring community?
The. Whole. Child.
Your school stands for things — certain qualities — qualities so important they are part of your mission statement, your discussions during faculty meetings, your honor code.
And yet, if your school is like most, you don’t say much (if anything) about those qualities when you evaluate students, especially in middle and upper schools. Your progress reports discuss the subject matter: Did she learn from his report about the history of the Fourth Amendment? How did he fare in the test on density of gases? Can she distinguish between the preterite and the imperfect? This is as it should be — for a student’s academic growth!
Your mission is more than just academic.
You should be reporting on those critical other qualities too!
What other qualities are important at your school? Do you report to parents on students’ strong ability to work with others? Their responses when a peer utters a slur, or their respect for other cultures you’re studying in various texts? Their self-reliance or their spiritual growth?
It’s not just a problem of incomplete reporting — it also undermines the values your school works so hard to instill. If you say certain things are important, but you don’t evaluate students’ progress toward those ideals, how important are they really — and how important do students and parents perceive them to be?
You should also report on the qualities your school values.
This one-day workshop helps to align your school’s reporting with your mission and core values. By looking at your school’s values, comparing sample reports, considering how they might reflect each other, and working on a re-draft, you’ll leave with a start on recalibrating reports that you can take back to your colleagues to prepare for a reconsideration of reporting practices.
Needless to say, the workshop is highly hands-on, and the work cannot be accomplished in a single meeting once you get back to your school. The workshop is intended to lay groundwork for rethinking reports that reflect and amplify the values your school has already deemed paramount. Some work (mostly just thinking and making notes) is required in advance.
Who The workshop is appropriate for teachers, division heads, academic deans, and others who have input into the reporting procedure at their schools.
Topics
- What are core values of our schools?
- How do teachers, students, and parents understand those values?
- Which of those values are reflected in our reports on student progress?
- How do we reflect those core values in our evaluations of our students?
- How does this help teachers to know their students?
- What tools can I take back to school to re-engineer reports?
Quaker House in Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.
Thursday, October 13, 2016, 9:00 – 3:00
(May be offered again in the spring if demand exceeds spaces available. Can also be arranged for the entire faculty at your school.)