What do transcripts look like for elementary and middle school?

[Drama Llama]

I need to register my kids for public school this week, so they can be in the lottery for the schools we want next year. They aren't going to attend this year.  DS10, who is in fifth grade needs report cards or transcripts from 4th and 5th grade.   He's applying to a specialized program that takes grades into consideration. We have his first semester report card from 4th, before we pulled him out, but I don't even know what to begin to create for the past two semesters.  

DS13, isn't going to transfer any credits, but he still needs something to show that he covered middle school curriculum, I think. 

[Ellie]

They don't do transcripts. They do report cards. The report card doesn't show that middle school curriculum was covered. It shows their grades in the subjects that were taught.

Here's a whole bunch of sample report cards.

[sweet2ndchance]

@Farrar posted a really nice middle school transcript/report card template a while back. I can't find the thread where she posted it but maybe if we ask her really nicely she will post it again? :-) Or maybe point us to the other thread? lol

[Drama Llama]

Part of my issue is that I don’t have grades.  My kids go back and work their assignments to mastery.  I have a few test grades but not enough for a meaningful grade.  

[domestic_engineer]

29 minutes ago, sweet2ndchance said:

@Farrar posted a really nice middle school transcript/report card template a while back. I can't find the thread where she posted it but maybe if we ask her really nicely she will post it again? 🙂 Or maybe point us to the other thread? lol

Here's the post: 

 

[sweet2ndchance]

Yup that's it! Thanks @domestic_engineer

[Gobblygook]

Good question. I also need to create a middle school transcript for my son who will be applying for a private high school. 

[Drama Llama]

So, how do people decide what to write for grades?

When my 5th grader went to school, he got mostly A's and some B's.  The B's were generally because of something scatterbrained or careless, not because of lack of skill.  He didn't do an assignment, or he left it on the kitchen table, or it asked for three paragraphs but he turned in one because the sun was shining and he wanted to go outside and play.   

Being home prevents all that.  He can't tell me that he doesn't have math work, because I assigned it.  If he leaves something in another room, I send him back to get it.  If he hands me one paragraph, I hand it back and tell him to add two more.  For math, he uses a lot of materials where you just keep going until it's right.  

So, do I just give him all A's?  Even though I can't really back them up?  He's moving through the curriculum faster than he would be in school.  

 

 

[8filltheheart]

I teach my kids to mastery all the way through graduation. If they actually do the work to mastery, I give them an A. I dont give my kids tests, either. All is good. It has never been a problem and they have all gone on to be A students in college.

[EKS]

8 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Part of my issue is that I don’t have grades.  My kids go back and work their assignments to mastery.  I have a few test grades but not enough for a meaningful grade.  

If they work to mastery that means they get an A, unless they're working below level, in which case I don't know what you'd give them.

[Ellie]

9 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

Part of my issue is that I don’t have grades.  My kids go back and work their assignments to mastery.  I have a few test grades but not enough for a meaningful grade.  

You will have to come up with grades. Below high school, it isn't really a big deal. Really.

[Drama Llama]

10 hours ago, Ellie said:

They don't do transcripts. They do report cards. The report card doesn't show that middle school curriculum was covered. It shows their grades in the subjects that were taught.

Here's a whole bunch of sample report cards.

I'm not sure who "they" are in this context.  The school system is asking for a "transcript or report card for 4th grade, and the first semester of 5th grade".

The public school report cards in the district we're submitting this to do indicate which curriculum the student followed.  For example, a middle school report card would indicate whether the grade was based on Algebra or Math 6 or whatever.  

[wendyroo]

2 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

When my 5th grader went to school, he got mostly A's and some B's.  The B's were generally because of something scatterbrained or careless, not because of lack of skill.  He didn't do an assignment, or he left it on the kitchen table, or it asked for three paragraphs but he turned in one because the sun was shining and he wanted to go outside and play.   

How I think about it...

Way back when I was in elementary school, our report cards had academic grades and "citizenship" grades. In a homeschool setting, where the "teacher" has more time with few kids, it is possible to separate out academics, social skills, executive function, etc.

I can give my oldest an A in Spanish 3 even though he writes nothing by hand (no notes, no verb charts, no filling in worksheets) and his autism means he only wants to talk with his tutor about board games. He would do horribly in a classroom setting, but he is rocking the Spanish 3 material (he has an amazing Spanish tutor who is integrating all the vocab, tenses, sentence structures, etc into playing board games with him).

So I can differentiate that his Spanish skills earn an A, even though what that looks like, and how he gets there is clearly impacted by his writing aversion, very weak executive function, and inflexible social thinking. Those same issues obviously impact most of his school subjects, and clearly we are working to build and strengthen those skills daily (hourly, minutely 😏), but in the meantime I don't have to let them bring down all of his grades when he truly is excelling in the various subjects.

In schools, at least in general ed, it may make sense (or at least be most feasible), to give a perfect assignment a B if it is carelessly left in the wrong spot. But at home we can give it an A for math skills and make a separate mental note that the kiddo needs more habit training focused on putting things where they belong.

 

[8filltheheart]

It is a fallacy that homeschool academics need to in any way resemble ps approaches in order for grades to be validated.  Goodness, a failed system does not have control on valid academic approaches.

[Drama Llama]

15 minutes ago, 8filltheheart said:

It is a fallacy that homeschool academics need to in any way resemble ps approaches in order for grades to be validated.  Goodness, a failed system does not have control on valid academic approaches.

Given that I'm a public school teacher, creating a report card to send with my crisis schooled kid's application to an excellent public school gifted program, this is probably not the time for me to be sending a message about "failed systems" though.  

ETA:  I looked at examples of public school report cards, and at his report card from the first half of fourth grade when he was in parish school.  The parish one is much simpler, so I'm going to copy that one, and then add a little about how he's working above grade level, since that information would be on a public school  report card.  

I will give him all A's, and hope they don't ask for documentation.

Edited January 27, 2021 by BaseballandHockey

[8filltheheart]

Just now, BaseballandHockey said:

Given that I'm a public school teacher, creating a report card to send with my crisis schooled kid's application to an excellent public school gifted program, this is probably not the point to be sending a message about "failed systems" though.  

Shrug.  It doesn't send them any message bc they could careless about the opinions of homeschoolers. 🙂  Unless they expect you to submit portfolios of graded work to prove his coursework, then how you conducted academics in your homeschool is really irrelevant.  You are the teacher.  You have control over your "classroom."  You provide the assignments.  You determine how to assign grades.  

Sorry, even an "excellent public gifted program" is teaching a classroom full of kids and not approaching education in a tutor sort of environment.  There is no reason to need to "prove" or "justify" how he earned the grade you assigned based on their educational approach. 

[Not_a_Number]

5 hours ago, BaseballandHockey said:

I will give him all A's, and hope they don't ask for documentation.

That sounds fine to me. It's not like middle and elementary schools are particularly strict about their grades, and your kids sound like they've done good work. 

[Ellie]

On 1/27/2021 at 10:07 AM, BaseballandHockey said:

I'm not sure who "they" are in this context.  The school system is asking for a "transcript or report card for 4th grade, and the first semester of 5th grade".

The public school report cards in the district we're submitting this to do indicate which curriculum the student followed.  For example, a middle school report card would indicate whether the grade was based on Algebra or Math 6 or whatever.  

"Algebra" isn't a curriculum. It's the subject, or the course title. Of course subjects would be on the report card, with a grade for each subject. The "curriculum" would be the course description, the content of what was covered in Algebra, or Math 6. I have received cumulative files from schools with the curriculum on the folder itself (the folder holds all the papers in the cum file), sometimes the textbooks used (but not usually). 

The school system probably makes the same request of children for all ages, elementary (which does report cards) to high school (which does transcripts). So there's one blank statement ("transcript or report card") for all students, and the receiving school (or parent, in your case) sends the appropriate document.