MANCHESTER, N.H. – If Monday night was any indication, parents of students in Manchester’s public elementary schools can expect to see new types of report cards for their children in 18 months.
According to Manchester School District (MANSD) Assistant Superintendent Amy Allen in her presentation to the Manchester Board of School Committee (BOSC) Teaching and Learning Committee on Monday, efforts to introduce a district-wide competency-based report card for elementary schools is on schedule for full roll-out in September 2022.
The transition toward competency-based learning, or learning that is focused on the ability of learners to demonstrate innate understanding of a subject, has been a focus of the MANSD in recent years. The New Hampshire Department of Education began to urge school districts across the state to slowly transition toward competency-based education and assessment systems as early as 1998.
BOSC Member Karen Soule (Ward 3) noted on Monday night that she hopes the new report card format can be the first step toward a complete transition toward competency-based education.
A pilot program for the competency-based report card model was rolled out at Parker-Varney Elementary School during the 2019-’20 School Year (see below). After feedback from educators and parents at Parker-Varney, Allen and her team now say that the next significant step is integrating the Parker-Varney model into Aspen, the district’s information portal for families.
A final draft of the district-wide competency-based report card is expected this fall, with a request for approval from the full BOSC expected for roll out in several more pilot schools near the beginning of 2022 prior to the hopeful district-wide rollout in September 2022.
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