Report cards look different this year for Winnipeg School Division

The city's largest school division is doing report cards and parent-teacher conferences a little differently this year. The Winnipeg School Division did send out a letter recently to parents, so telling them parent-teacher conferences will happen before report cards are sent out this fall. So parents effectively won't know how their kids are doing in school before they speak with the teachers for that sit-down. To talk about the change, why it happened, and who it impacts, we have Winnipeg School Division Superintendent Matt Henderson joining us live on Zoom. Good morning. Good morning. So for clarity here, because in the letter it focuses a lot on early years. So just for a point of clarity to start, who does this affect in the school division? What grade levels? This would be K-12, where we've decided to really ensure that we're having family meetings before that report card is sent home so that, A, there aren't any surprises, but that so that teachers can really sit down with families and really talk about some of the celebrations, some of the milestones that are being hit, but also some of the things that they're going to work on with their children so that they can really access learning. So part of the change it says in the letter you know that you're talking about doing this because it will also help with time for teachers to fill out report cards as well. So can you elaborate a little bit on that? Yeah there's there's a bit of a significant amount of newness I would say with our assessment. And so there are some pragmatic reasons and there are some pedagogical reasons. And certainly, you know, we have a new student information system and we wanted to give teachers a little bit more time to really generate their report card comments in a new format. We, of course, there's a new early reader screener that our early years teachers have had to adjust to. And then this has provided us an opportunity to really develop a new kindergarten report card That's outside of the provincial... And so we feel that this is just better for learners overall. So is this a permanent change then? This will be a permanent change moving forward, absolutely. So the extra time was part of it as you outlined, but also it's about the nature of the conversation in these parent-teacher conferences, the tri-conferences. Thank you very much for your responses. Can you elaborate on the benefit of having the conversation before the report card is out? What is gained by that in the nature of understanding your child's learning? Well, a couple of things. I mean, we're also printing out hard copies so that, you know, the family can look at it together with the child side by side, but that teacher can sit beside the learner and the family. You know, we've been sending it home for years digitally, and often the learner's not getting a chance to look at it, and there aren't those conversations between families and teachers and learner, sort of that triangle of support. And, you know, just like how we're evaluated in the workplace, we want to make sure that we're meeting with folks regularly, That we're getting their perspectives, that we're sharing information before that final report comes out. We also know that the report card does not have a significant impact on student learning. It's an important document, but it doesn't push learning forward. And so we really want to have those formative conversations. Where parents can ask questions, they can still say what are the marks, what are they good at, what are they struggling with, what are you going to help my child with in terms of getting better. We're going to do better. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that these conversations are as formative as possible. The letter actually says that the tri-conference meetings will, quote, help inform any necessary adjustments to report cards. What does that actually mean for parents in terms of the actual discussion about a grade? Well, I mean, it just it opens up a conversation about what the next steps are. And if there if there are any questions, I mean, everybody's fallible and we can we can, you know, parents can have an opportunity to ask teachers what you know, what did you. You know, what is my child struggling with? You know, they missed this particular assignment or I'm just wondering about what we can do at home to support. And that's really what we're driving at here so that the report card doesn't come home and it's a shock to the system. I mean, we always ask our teachers to call home early and often if there are difficulties or if they're noticing challenges. But this is an opportunity, again, just like with a medical test, to have that conversation. In a manner that is really forward thinking. Some parents might be concerned that by switching the order of things, it might not be enough time for them to prepare before they speak to their kids' teachers. Because the teacher will go in having a sense of the grade, but maybe a parent might not have a full sense. What would you say to those parents to that concern, and maybe how to get ready for this new order? Well, I think, you know, and that those are valid concerns. I think coming into family meetings, you know, our teachers will be prepared to share those celebrations, to talk about gifts, to talk about the next steps that the teachers are going to take. And then when that report card comes out, we can always have more family meetings. You know, the times allotted at each reporting session are not the only times that we want families connecting with their teachers. In fact, there should be all sorts of dialogue, whether that's through phone calls or meetings in the school. We do home visits, all those types of things. So this is not the only time that families can connect with teachers. Why are you changing to a printed report card instead of a digital version? What's behind that switch? Well again we you know as I mentioned just previous we found that lots of students weren't accessing their report cards because it was sent to the families and and that was some of the feedback that we received and so this allows a teacher to sit down with the child and actually review a hard copy of it. It allows the family to sit with the child at the dining room table and review it and sort of say what do you know look at some of the successes but the next steps. And it just really allows that teacher then to sit down with the family with that hard copy so that we're actually talking about something and not just something that was sent home electronically. Thank you very much. You've also mentioned that the division recently modernized the Central Student Information System. So this includes the new report card system. We talked to the Winnipeg Teachers Association about that. It's called Power School. We have them talking to us in September. At that time, they said. You said that teachers had concerns about some glitches and technical problems. Has PowerSchool contributed to the delay and the need to send out paper copies, or is it solely the reasons you're talking about to make the switch? No, no, just as I said before, there's some newness with PowerSchool, and any time you change any information system, you know, whether it's MPI or Regional Health Authority or a school division, there are going to be some bumps in that shift. And so we wanted to provide teachers with a little bit more time to adjust to the report card system. We've been doing significant professional development as it relates to that. The feedback we've been getting has been excellent. We've got a crack team that's really working with individual schools, smoothing that process out. But also with that early reader screening, we wanted to make sure teachers had time to assess. We've had a lot of statutory holidays in the middle of the week. This also allows for Our teachers to really know learners more fully by pushing it back a little bit. And so it's been a culmination of many things that has allowed us to really rethink from a pedagogical perspective, from a teaching and learning perspective, what makes more sense. All right. Thank you very much for your time today. Of course, any time. That is Matt Henderson, the superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division. I want to ask whether or not you want to weigh in on this. If you're a parent, it's changed for you in the way that you'll be having those meetings. And then when the report card will come out after instead of before your discussions with the educators. So what do you think of that? What do you like about it? What concerns you about it? If you have concerns, 788-3205.