ORR district to use new format for Kindergarten report cards

Dec 9, 2019

All three Old Rochester Regional School District elementary schools will be releasing Kindergarten report cards in a different format this January.

The school district currently has a different format for its Kindergarten report cards than for all of its other grades’ report cards.

The district had previously been part of a pilot system with the state, but funding for  that program ended, the science and social studies areas were no longer aligned with district standards, and parents found the report cards difficult to understand.

So, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning and Student Services Michael Nelson and Early Childhood Coordinator Doreen Lopes worked with Kindergarten teachers from across the district to develop universal standards and much more understandable terminology for the letters home.

Students will now be evaluated as either “emerging,” “progressing” or “mastry” levels in different standards.

“It was an absolute pleasure to work with the Kindergarten teams in all of the buildings,” Lopes said, to describe the process.

In presenting the new report cards to school committee members in Rochester and Mattpoisett, committee members asked whether parents would receive any instruction on the changes.

Lopes and Nelson said they will consider holding a parent information night, or posting a short video to the school’s website to explain the new standards.

Report cards issued on Jan. 15 will use the new format.

The two are also looking to change the Kindergarten transition plan, altering everything from parent information, to registration format (which will now be online) to how students will come in to take a look at the building for the first time.