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Middle School Principal Achieves Success with Standards-Based Report Cards

With the help of the AdminPlus Student Information System, Ellington Middle School develops a new standards-based report card that evaluates students more objectively according to consistent grade-level standards.

The Challenge:

In 2010, the Connecticut State Board of Education (SBE) adopted new national academic standards known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English language arts and mathematics that established what Connecticut’s public school students should know and be able to do as they progress through Grades K-12.

Since the SBE’s adoption of the Common Core, districts across Connecticut have implemented the standards and made preparations for the next generation of assessments. As part of this process, David Pearson, principal of Ellington Middle School, sought a more accurate system of reporting skills students must demonstrate to meet each grade level’s standards.

The Solution:

As part of the Common Core State Standards initiative, Pearson spearheaded what became a three-year endeavor to develop a report card that would not only keep students, teachers and parents focused on student learning goals, but closed the gap in achievement among different groups of students. He sought to have a reporting system that would also provide more accurate information about a student’s progress toward meeting specific content standards for the various subjects taught at the seventh and eighth grade levels.

Pearson launched the project by forming a Performance-Based Learning Committee (PBLC) to plan out the details of the new grading method. [...]

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