Children should be awarded for their achievements throughout the school year. The SBRC offers at least 3 options for awarding student achievement.
1.) Awards can be given based on the Successful Learner Behaviors section of the report card.
2.) Awards can be given based on the Growth and Effort section of the report card.
3.) Awards can be given using the Proficiency Section of the report card. When using the Proficiency Section, for example, students who have reached "proficient" or "advanced" could be recognized.

Yes. The YRE schools currently have Intersession classes, both remedial and enrichment, operating all year long. Our goal is to increase the number of these classes. Our traditional track schools have Intersession during June and July. There are standards-based classes as well as enrichment classes.

Correct. The numeral "1" in the Proficiency Section indicates the student does not meet the standard, and has not yet demonstrated partial mastery. Students who receive a "2" show partial mastery of the knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at the grade level.

During the first trimester, we expect the majority of students to receive "2's" since it is the beginning of the school year and students are not expected to have met the standards for their grade level yet. We expect the majority of students to receive "3's" and 4's" by the end of the year.

There are three ways that teachers and parents can show where the student is at the reporting period. First, if a student is making progress as expected, this should be reflected in the Growth and Effort Section with marks of satisfactory or outstanding for the particular subject. Second, The unshaded boxes in the Proficiency Section should be marked with a check mark thereby indicating a student's proficiency at the time of reporting. Third, the tests and other student work in the portfolio are designed to indicate the student's progress and accomplishments at the time of reporting.

There are three main ways that the SBRC is different than the traditional A-F report card:

On the traditional report card, subjects are listed by name, such as "reading." On the SBRC, major subjects are more specifically defined by the content standard such as "vocabulary and concept development" (one part of the "reading" standard.

The traditional report card uses A-f grades. Grades can reflect an individual teacher's expectations, student effort and achievement. Grades do not indicated a student's proficiency level on the academic content standards. The SBRC uses numerical levels that indicate mastery of the grade level standards. Achievement, effort, and learning behaviors are reported separately.

In a traditional system, the curriculum and instruction are teacher selected, textbook driven and do not necessarily relate to the standards. The SBRC is based on the standards that each student is required to meet for each grade level. The curriculum (what we teach), the instruction (how we teach) and the evaluation are all aligned to the standards.

The scoring and proficiency levels on the SBRC are not comparable to the previous report card. The SBRC is based on the content standards. The previous report card was not based on these standards.

If a student has an IEP (Individual Learning Plan), the IEP determines the standards that the student must master. In this case, the bottom section of the SBRC, Special Services, would show a check in the RSP box and in the Out of Grade Level Standards Apply box. In the case of a special day class student, the progress report is also based on the IEP and is narrative in nature.

If a student is redesignated from special education to regular education, the student is then responsible for meeting all of the standards for his grade level .

All students in grades 2-11 in California are required to take the STAR tests. These tests measure basic skill acquisition as well as student acquisition of California's academic content standards. The SBRC supports the teaching of and evaluation of the standards. The SBRC and the STAR testing program work together and are mutually supportive.

All of the textbooks used in K-6 classrooms are less than four years old and have been adopted by TUSD with tremendous teacher input. Textbooks come from the publishers already aligned to the standards. Since 1998 California schools have had unprecedented funding for standards based textbooks.

Old textbooks are often founded on basic skills only and are not necessarily aligned to the standards.

California standards are considered to be "world class" standards. They are extremely rigorous and exceed most standards adopted by other states. It will take our students and teachers several years to completely align to these standards. Travis has made an excellent start during the past three years!