Sahuarita Unified School District provides a Standards-Based Report Card for all elementary (Kindergarten – 5th grade) students. A standards-based report card lists the most important skills students should learn in each subject at a particular grade level. Instead of letter grades, students receive marks that show how well they have mastered the skills. Our elementary report card represents how well a student is performing at the time of reporting. We believe this information will be meaningful to students and families.

On many traditional report cards, students receive one grade for reading, one for math, one for science and so on. On a standards-based report card, each of these subject areas is divided into a list of skills and knowledge that students are responsible for learning. Students receive a separate mark for each standard.

The marks on a standards-based report card are different from traditional letter grades. Letter grades are often calculated by combining how well the student met his/her particular teacher’s expectations, how he performed on assignments and tests, and how much effort the teacher believes he/she put in. Letter grades do not tell parents which skills their children have mastered or whether they are working at grade level. Because one fourth-grade teacher might be reviewing basic multiplication facts, while another is teaching multiplication of two- or three-digit numbers, getting an A in each of these classes would mean very different things. The parent of a child in these classes would not know if the child were learning what he/she should be to meet the state standards.

Standards-Based Report Cards should provide more consistency between teachers than traditional report cards, because all students are evaluated on the same grade-appropriate skills. Parents can see exactly which skills and knowledge their children have learned. The marks/indicators on a Standards-Based Report Card show only how well your child has mastered the grade-level standards, and do not include effort, attitude or work habits, which are marked separately each quarter.

The Standards-Based Report Card uses four Standard and Expectation Performance Indicators to reflect your child’s progress toward meeting the standard in each academic area, as well as communicating your child’s behavior and effort.

Sahuarita Unified School District elementary teachers will report formally to parents during scheduled Parent/Teacher conferences that take place during the Fall Semester and once in the Spring Semester. You can expect to see your child’s report card at the end of each quarter: October, January, March, and May.

The purpose of this guide is to support understanding and interpretation of the new report card. However, if you have any additional questions regarding how your child is doing at school, please feel free to contact your child’s teacher. Our staff is committed to working together as a team to help every student succeed!

Academic Achievement: The elementary report card communicates achievement areas according to a four-point key.