As Robert Linn and Norman Gronlund state in Measurement and Assessment in Teaching, "Grading and reporting become a matter of summarizing the results and presenting them in understandable form."  Our school prepares progress reports during the middle of the grading period.  This keeps all informed, so students and parents know where they are then with their grades.  Teachers grade using a point system, so students know how much each question is worth.  However, students are not always good at keeping a cumulative log of all of their grades, so the progress report facilitates them with this.  Linn and Gronlund point out that "periodic progress reports can contribute to student motivation by providing short-term goals and knowledge of results."  We try to emphasize that this is just a check on their progress to date.  Then students won't see the lower grades as a threat, but as a signal that they need to improve.  I feel the more communication that we can have with parents the better.  This helps keep our parents informed, because they are required to sign and return the report.  As a parent, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to talk with each of my boys about their progress reports.  Students need to feel that education is important to their parents or guardians.  We had a student this year, who didn't take his first progress report home.  His mother found out and was able to take action to make her son understand that as a seventh grader he needed to start completing assignments and turning them in to the teachers.  This sent a very strong message to her son that she supports his education.

     After points are assigned to the assessment, they are then converted to letter grades.  It is so difficult sometimes to give that grade, because as a teacher one sees a student who is working to the best of his potential. A short-coming of our system is that there is no way to indicate that by the letter grade on the report card.  In our elementary schools the card has a way to indicate those particulars.  Our teachers do write comments on the report card if they feel it will be a better representation to the parents.  In Measurement and Assessment in Teaching the authors noted that "letter grades are likely to be most meaningful and useful when they represent achievement only."  Even though one wants to explain personal conduct, effort, or other factors, it really does confuse the purpose of the grade.  I probably struggled with this more than any other area of assessment. 

     Parent Teacher conferences are held twice a year to help clarify for parents what their student needs to improve on that will impact the learning.  In addition this allows the report card to be a picture of the student's achievement.  Concerns can be addressed not only by the teacher but also if the parent has any to present or clarify.  Portfolios and demonstrations have been used to help the parent get another snapshot of the student's achievement.  I feel that our portfolio assessment is still not well defined.   Parents have expressed that they feel the report card grades are necessary in addition to a portfolio assessment.

    Assessment is not an easy task; however, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.  Parents understand grades since that is what they are familiar with from their past experiences.  Another advantage is students are kept informed through valid evidence.  It allows the proper weight for the various types of achievement.  A disadvantage would be that the teacher must avoid bias when there is a doubt.  I tried to compensate unfairness for borderline grade by always assigning the higher grade.  I always explained why an item was assigned that particular point value.  Understanding how the grade was achieved is a key to success.