Progress Reports

The girls’ school sends report cards home every nine weeks. This school doesn’t use the ABC grade scale. The girls’ report cards come home with U for usually, S for sometimes, and R for rarely.

There is also M for meets expectations, P for progressing toward expectation and B for below expectations. After three years of report cards, I still have to use the key at the top of the reports to tell me what I’m looking at.

Alyssa’s was pretty much what I expected. She got Us (usually) for all the appropriate behavior patterns, such as being courteous in class. She is either meeting or progressing toward meeting the expectations of classwork. She didn’t get any Bs (below expectations.) She was thrilled to show me and Tom this report card. We were thrilled to read it.

Olivia…surprised us. The report card, the criteria on which the entire class is graded, was good. She only had two Bs. One was for cutting along curved lines. Tom and I were both thrilled with this report card. I exclaimed that according to this, she’s having a really good year.

Because he’d seen the reports first, Tom agreed but then said, “But the other report tells a different story.”

Ah yes, the other report. The IEP progress report. The one that not every other kid has, the one that ‘grades’ her on criteria other than her classroom progress that is comparable to her classmates.

The IEP report wasn’t quite as glowing. Olivia isn’t started conversations with her peers or the adults with whom she comes into contact while at school. Or, she’s not doing it as consistently as they’d like to see.

She has been observed in the hallway commenting to a classmate about something, though, so we’re getting there. And it is only the middle of the year.

There were several other areas that she’s doing well and a few where she’s only making minimal progress.

IEPs are a good thing. I know this. I tell myself that we do need this for her if only to make sure she receives the services she needs to reach her fullest potential. But I feel for her because she’s being rated on so many levels beyond that which her peers are being judged. And while I know it’s necessary, it still makes me a little sad for her.

It’s just one of those areas where we’re jolted out of our merry little version of normal and reminded that we’re still on this side of ordinary.