Student Assessment

Portfolios/Progress Reports/Parent Conferences – Setting and working towards goals, leaning into challenges, reflecting, and getting feedback from peers and adults: these are key aspects of our educational program. Each child in K–8 will have a portfolio of work collected through the year. This collection of work is used across disciplines to log your child’s progress; students use these portfolios actively, as self--assessment and reflection tools to celebrate accomplishments, set new goals, and work towards them. Parents experience their child’s self--reflective presentations in the form of Portfolio Day (LS) and Presentation Night (MS) each June.

In Lower School, teachers complete thorough progress reports twice a year (January and June) to complete the whole picture of the student’s learning over time. The Lower School progress report is based on a developmental continuum of skills in each content area. The complete progress report balances the gradient checklists with a narrative written report. The narrative portion highlights aspects of student learning that may not be reflected in the checklists, such as strengths and areas for future growth, and also articulates goals and recommendations. The progress report is not intended to be the documentation of the content work at each grade level, but rather a report on the student’s overall progress, at his/her grade level, in all areas of his/her growth and learning in school.

In Middle School, teachers complete thorough progress reports twice a year (January and June) and midterm reports twice a year (November and March) to complete the whole picture of the student’s learning over time. The Middle School progress report is based on a developmental continuum of skills in each content area, with shading to indicate where teachers expect students to be. The complete progress report balances the checklists with a narrative written report. The narrative portion highlights aspects of student learning that may not be reflected in the checklists, such as strengths and areas for future focus and growth, and also articulates goals and recommendations. The progress report is not intended to be the documentation of the content work at each grade level nor is it meant to serve as a “grade.” Rather, the progress report is meant to articulate the student’s overall progress, at his/her grade level, in all areas of his/her growth and learning in school. In addition, parents receive further information about their children’s progress at parent conferences twice a year (November and March). In Lower School, teachers meet with parents; in Middle School, students lead conferences that include their advisor and their parents.