Episode 065: What Are Report Cards For?

Dave’s Facebook memories recently reminded him of his former role as a Technology Director in K-12, when part of his job involved printing report cards, which got him thinking about the purpose of report cards, and whether they do what we think they do. Dave shares his frustration about the reductionism in trying to compress a whole term’s learning into just one symbol–a letter grade. We candidly share our own school experiences with getting grades and how they were reported on report cards. We wonder together about alternative ways we could think about communicating learning in ways that would be helpful for students, families, and teachers. Grades, comments, narratives, gradeless reports, standards-based approaches…we talk a little about it all! We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas in response; please drop us a line at hallwayconvospod@gmail.com.