Halfway through term one, Walpole High School (WHS) students received a new document through X2 called a progress report. Progress reports are academic evaluations that provide a record of the student’s current grade and a comment indicating whether or not they are progressing in a successful manner.
“I think that one thing we have seen is an uptake in student failures. Sometimes parents have said to us, ‘If we had known they were failing, we would have been able to intervene sooner,’” School Counseling Department Head Jennifer Dolan said. “The argument is, well there’s X2. But even as someone who works in the school and looks at X2 every day, I know that it’s not always a clear picture of where you stand.”
Progress reports are meant to show the ways in which a student is progressing towards the course standards and captures their academic progression earlier in the term. They allow for parents to see their students’ growth prior to the end-of-term report card and serve as a reminder for students with incomplete or missing work.
“Progress reports have been helpful for me as a teacher, as they have made me examine student growth and effort earlier in the term,” WHS music teacher Ashley Prickel-Kane said. “Communicating expectations and growth toward academic goals is the key, and progress reports could enhance the dialogue between students, teachers, and parents.”
Students can expect to receive a progress report every term moving forward. They will be published in the middle of the term and will give a clearer picture of how students are advancing in the classroom. The goal is that progress reports will be a useful tool for parents to check in on their children earlier in the term and to see what is being completed before grades are finalized. Students will also be able to utilize progress reports as an indication of whether it is necessary to meet with their teachers for extra help.
“You have X2, where you can log in and check your grades, but it’s not really communication per se with the teacher. You can look at a bunch of numbers,” Dolan said. “Part of our professional practice goals is communication with students and families as well as faculty members, so this just also helps make sure that everyone’s communicating with all the important parties.”