The Report Card

In the two weeks of school before the end of 2025, it’s business as usual in the classroom sprinkled with intermittent reminders that this is the holiday season. During free time, students might be making handmade gifts for parents, creating tree ornaments (oh, the glitter!), or hearing Christmas music playing softly in the background. And while holiday traditions begin, the faculty are in assessment mode. Performance continua are coming!

Before accessing the performance continua — the “report card” that informs the quality of student learning this semester — the faculty assesses the evidence. Individual student behaviors, general dispositions toward learning, the level of engagement in learning, writing, drawing, problem solving, perseverance, observational notes of small group discussions, actions relevant to the discipline such as music, art, or physical education.This triangulation of evidence ensures that students have opportunity to demonstrate understanding in many ways. The Learner Profile traits that inspire performance and which students aspire to achieve are the gold standard.

Unlike the reporting made to parents for since the mid-1800s, the performance continua developed by the Epiphany School teachers and refined by the Mid-Pacific faculty over time, provides a deeper understanding of learning development over time. Thus the continua concept. Not as convenient to decipher as letter grades or numerical scores, the continua reports our current understanding of each child’s cognitive and physical development and expectations for ongoing growth. Moreover, the Specialists who teach art, music, character education, and physical education provide brief narratives for each student that are included with the performance continua.

Preschool parents receive a longer narrative that analyzes the early literacy performances of their own children captured in a “check-in” video of Daily Plans and other examples of thinking made visible.

While these assessment processes run undercurrent, teaching and learning are fully implemented amidst the laughter, singing, and excited conversations anticipating the joys of Christmas. I can faintly hear the echoes of ho!ho!ho! around the bend of the week.

E Kūlia Kākou! Let’s strive and aspire together!

For our children,

Edna L. Hussey, Ed.D.
Principal