Making the grade: veteran teachers share top strategies for acing your report-card writing - how teachers can make the report card process a positive experience for students, parents, and themselves

Nine years have passed since Kim Wilkes had to write her first report cards, and the memory makes her feel almost as anxious now as she felt then. Wilkes was teaching middle school in Winter Park, Florida. It was the end of the first quarter. She had dozens of report cards due in a matter of days. She felt clueless.

"If it weren't for teachers around me who helped me figure it out, I would've felt as if I were almost making it up," Wilkes says. "There was a tremendous lack of guidance."

Many new teachers walk into class thoroughly unprepared to deal with report cards. Few colleges offer courses in them--and most schools provide little direction. New teachers often feel so consumed with daily classroom demands that report cards are a low priority. Even for experienced teachers, reports cards can be a challenge. "It's an extremely time-consuming and stressful task," says Elisabeth Rae Merrill, a fifth-grade teacher in Dobbs Ferry, New York. "To do it well, you must do a serious evaluation of the students' work as well as their in-class performances, and then synthesize all your observations into information that's useful to parents and students. Most teachers dread the end of marking periods."

What strategies and techniques do seasoned teachers use to write report cards? How can you make the process a positive experience for students, parents, and yourself? Instructor sought our teachers around the country to find out.

Get the Support You Need

Virtually every teacher questioned emphasized the importance of working with other teachers during report-card time. Many teachers like to have colleagues review their report cards, getting objective input to make certain they've assessed a child correctly.

For new teachers especially, working with other teachers is vital. "New teachers not only need help preparing report cards, but from day one they need to know what to collect for a report card," says Eileen Thornburgh, who has taught third grade for more than 20 years in Boise, Idaho. "For example, do you grade homework? Do you grade practice work? Grading work the first day you've taught a new concept isn't fair. To assess a student's work you need to collect meaningful grades."

Early in the term, new teachers should find out if there is a paid mentor in school to help them, Thornburgh says. If one isn't available, they should seek out a teacher they trust. "We teachers talk all the time, at lunch, or in the teacher's lounge," says Thornburgh. "Use these opportunities to find out what you need to know."

Be Clear About What You're Writing

What is a report card's purpose? What do the grades mean? Teachers should answer these questions before they start writing. Sit down with the principal and talk about his or her grading philosophy. Check out models of report cards written by other teachers in a similar grade or field.

For most teachers, the purpose of a report card is to provide a snapshot of a child's academic, social-emotional, and work skills. "When I'm writing a report card, I'm writing a page of history. I want to represent this individual in all that they've done," says Paula Bautista, a fourth-grade teacher with 17 years experience in New York's Westchester County. "It's for the parent, for the school, and for the next teacher who might need it."

When it comes to grading, the picture isn't so clear. Teachers tend to get scant input from the school about how tough--or easy--to be. As a result, grading standards often vary widely. "All grades are not equal. An A in one class may not be an A in another teacher's class," says Merrill.

Merrill believes new teachers have to know precisely what they're assessing. "Are you grading a students progress in comparison to his previous work, or are you grading work as compared to his classmates? Are you grading effort or ability?" A grading policy that is clear, consistent, and communicated to parents at the beginning of the school year will help parents get a true picture of their child's progress.

Get Organized

The key to getting report cards done on time is to be organized. "You can't afford to lose papers or let them pile up," Wilkes says. "If you do, you drown." At the beginning of the year, new teachers should check the school's academic calendar for report card due dates. Then they should decide what they will use to make their evaluations, such as portfolios, checklists, inventories, student self-assessments, anecdotal observations, and test results.

Setting up an assessment system is critical because finding time to reflect in a busy classroom isn't always easy. Says Bautista, "Kids need you, parents need you. We're just so incredibly rushed...and overloaded with curriculum. As a result, we assess on the spot, constantly. Only air-traffic controllers make decisions more quickly."

To help identify a student's progress, Bautista narrows her focus. "Instead of trying to assess all of a student's work, I pull one sample a week that is truly revealing about a child. Some of the samples are going to be their best work, highlights. Other samples are their day-in-and-day-out stuff. For every big concept you're teaching you want to have a sample to look at."