Spring Breaking News

Today MidSun says goodbye to our Assistant Principal, Mr. McKnight who has decided to retire after a full and robust career with the Calgary Board of Education.  We all appreciated the hard work and dedication that Mr. McKnight brought to his work. We especially appreciated the way he supported our staff with our move to outcomes based assessment and his ever present question "Is this good for kids?".  We wish him well as moves on to spending more time with family, riding his bike and playing a few rounds of golf!

On March 31, 2014 we welcome Sherri Chatani, our new Assistant Principal, who comes to us from Crossing Park School where she has been the Assistant Principal for the last 5 years.  Ms. Chatani brings leadership experience in technology and assessment.  She will be a great asset to us as we move forward with the new report card coming out in September.  Welcome Ms. Chatani!

Myths about the New Report Card
I have heard some parents say that they feel the new report card will tell them less about their child's learning when in fact, it will tell you more.  Percentage marks are often biased because they average your child's learning instead of looking deeper at their actual achievement.  Take this example:

	Quiz 1	Assign 1	Quiz 2	Assign 2	Final Exam	Average
Sue	80	80	80	60	40	68
Mary	40	40	60	60	90	58
Joe	20	70	70	70	70	60

If we assume this set of data is around a certain learning outcome, a simple average would tell you that Sue, who declined in understanding over the course of the unit scored the best but did she demonstrate more understanding of the concept than Mary who consistently improved and scored a 90% on the final?  The average would suggest that Mary understands less than Sue but the data story tells us she understands more.
Joe's marks show he consistently works at a 70% but he only scores a 60 % as an average.  Should the 20 % he earned at the start of they unit count when later on in the unit he demonstrated his understandings of the concept?

Our new report card will start to tell the learning story of your child in a way that will help them understand what they are good at and what they need to work on.  It will change our discussion from what number did you get to what concepts do you understand.

If parents want to know more about the new report card, they are invited to join us at School Council meetings to ask questions and get informed.  The next one will be held on April 9, 2014 at 7 PM in the library commons.

Have a wonderful Spring break,
Veronica Saretsky