The Fall Report Card: A Good Idea Poorly Executed (From the General Secretary)

When the Ministry of Education announced that the formal fall report card would be replaced with an interim, informal report, ETFO applauded. We did caution the ministry that implementation might be a concern. This was based on our members’ experience with the last report card roll out. We were assured that all would go smoothly.

We had been telling the ministry for some time about the problems created by three full report cards: the timing of the first report card was such that teachers barely had time to get to know their students before they had to begin collecting marks. The reports themselves were unclear and were hard for students and parents to understand.

We saw the new informal report card as a positive change. Teachers were no longer required to assign a mark early in the school year. Positive also were the changes planned for the two remaining formal report cards. We believed these  developments would support more practical and efficient assessment practice for teachers.

However, the ministry roll out of the new report card has fallen short of expectations. The ministry guidelines for the report are clear; ETFO supports them. Unfortunately, they were not issued early enough. That opened the door for individual boards and administrators to take their own approach. Many did just that, creating confusion and undermining the intent of the new report.

Some district school boards worked with ETFO to put procedures in place. In many of these boards the roll out was relatively smooth. But, even when ETFO and boards had agreed on how the report cards should be implemented, some administrators took it upon themselves to create their own rules. They gave teachers directions that contradicted ministry guidelines even after these had finally appeared. The ministry itself seemed powerless to ensure compliance with its own Growing Success document.

The second problem with the implementation of the new report card had to do with technology. Teachers are expected to fill out report cards electronically. We have told the ministry repeatedly that schools do not have the appropriate technology in place to do this effectively.

Our schools lack technological capacity and sophistication  because  the  system  has  been starved. As new technology  comes on stream, users  don’t  receive  the  training  or  support they need. Some schools do not have enough computers or adequate software; others do not have a robust enough network to support the user community. During the reporting period system  crashes  were  commonplace.  Another example: kindergarten teachers were expected to  fill out  a  version of  the  new report card in Microsoft Excel. This caused considerable problems in those schools that had only one computer with that software.

These technological shortcomings will create  problems  all  over  again  when  the  next report card is due.

It is time that the ministry recognized the importance of technology in our schools and ensured that educators have  the training and the tools to do the work they are expected to do.

These  two  factors  –  poor  execution  and inadequate  technology  –  have  undermined what should have been a success story.