To help you put pen to paper, educators from Missouri to Manhattan offer the following words of wisdom for writing clear and constructive evaluations that build students' confidence and encourage parents to support children's learning. Susan Shafer, a former elementary school teacher, holds a doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. A report card summarizes the salient aspects of a child's progress. Many families use the report card as an occasion to sit down together to talk about the child's progress. Gathered at the kitchen table or seated on the living room couch, parents and children often read comments together.
Report cards help fuel a dialogue between home and school.
Effective reports can motivate children to set higher goals. Many parents save their children's report cards, storing them in shoe boxes in the attic so they have a record of the child's development through time.