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SUPERINTENDENT'S STANDARDS-BASED REPORT CARD |
December, 2005
Rick Gantman, Superintendent
Last month I wrote to you about the work that each Mount Baker school is doing in their continuous improvement efforts. Staff continues to work hard using the Continuous School Improvement process to offer your children an excellent educational program. I also want to make sure that you are aware of some of the district-wide continuous improvement efforts.
One very important recent improvement is the development of a “standards based report card” for our elementary grades (parents of elementary school children have been receiving weekly information about the project). This is an important step forward for Mount Baker; the new progress reports now clearly show the students’ progress towards specific learning goals in each subject at each grade level. This information will be of great value to parents and students. Furthermore, each grade level progress report has a parents’ guide explaining the learning goals and describing ideas for specific family involvement to enhance students’ performance.
While it might take a little while for parents to learn how to best use the new Student Progress Reports, teachers, parents, and students will soon be able to work together in new and powerful ways to improve students’ learning.
Not only will the new progress report require some effort from parents and students, the development of the process has been a Herculean effort from the Progress Report Task Force. I want to publicly thank the members of the Task Force: Kim Sutherland, Suzanne Yorks, Linda Anderson, Rachel Harrison, Dex Horton, Jackie Ebert, Trina Hall, and Jim Frey.
I also want to thank Mount Baker staff who are making a great effort to align curriculum and assessments to the Grade Level Expectations and have learned to use the new Student Progress Reports. Staff throughout Mount Baker School District are working together as a professional learning community on our district-wide continuous improvement efforts. The specific work on the Student Progress Reports will help teacher to teacher collaboration and district-parent partnerships be more intentional and effective.
As always, I find it to be a tremendous honor to serve as Mount Baker School District’s Superintendent. I look forward to seeing you in your child’s school and at community events.
~Rick Gantman~
