From Grades to Growth at Great Hearts Harveston
Great Hearts Harveston February 20, 2024 -
Parents at Great Hearts Harveston have noticed many differences in the education their children are receiving at the new academy since it opened in East Baton Rouge last fall. The first Great Hearts academy to open in Louisiana has made good on its promise to be a community where intellectual curiosity, moral virtue, and academic excellence are nurtured and celebrated. Something that has stood out for parents during the inaugural school year is the inclusion of student evaluations that have accompanied report cards.
“A student evaluation is a qualitative look at a student’s performance and progress so far through the school year,” said fifth-grade lead teacher, Brianna Rogers. “It’s not just letter grades. It’s not just test scores. It looks at the student holistically.”
“My child did not receive a student evaluation to coincide with report cards at any of his former schools,” said Ms. Saunders, mother of a fifth grader in Ms. Rogers’ class. “My experience with report cards from my child’s former schools were basically the traditional report cards in which, I believe, provided a very vague method of monitoring my child’s academic progress. The report cards didn’t provide any in depth feedback as to how my child even came about the grades in which he received for each nine weeks.”
While report cards alone are a conventional means of conveying student progress, letter grades are often criticized for their tendency to offer a narrow perspective on a student’s abilities, primarily emphasizing academic performance. This restricted focus fails to comprehensively reflect a student’s development, strengths, and areas needing improvement in other crucial domains, including social and emotional growth, creativity, critical thinking, and practical skills.
At Great Hearts, these shortcomings of a traditional report card are addressed through the accompanying student evaluation. “When I’m writing an evaluation about a student, I like to consider the heart and the mind,” said Rogers. “Of course, we do look again qualitatively at academic data. We talk generally about their areas of growth and suggestions of how they could do better. We love to look at the virtues that they embody. So, what virtues are they currently practicing? How do they show those virtues to their friends and their classmates and adults in the building?”
Rogers said she sits down to write evaluations with each child in her mind and thinks about the progress that they’ve made so far in the school year. “It is definitely an emotional experience sometimes to think about how far they’ve come academically, socially, and emotionally in our virtues,” she said. “It’s really just a gift to be able to reflect on that and then share that gift with the parents. They were able to see their child, not just as a letter grade, not just as a test score, and know that that’s how we see them too.”
Saunders said reading her child’s evaluation for the first time as a parent was a significant and emotional experience. “It was an exciting and proud moment to see my child’s progress and accomplishments documented in an official capacity. I felt a sense of pride and joy as I read about my child’s strengths, talents, and achievements. The positive feedback from my child’s teachers were incredibly rewarding,” she recalled. “It also prompted important conversations for his dad and I to discuss his progress and for us to explore different avenues where we can both assist him in areas that are his weakest for the completion of the school year.”
Great Hearts Harveston families can agree that evaluations are just one distinctive of what makes a Great Hearts education so special. Looking at students in a comprehensive way, considering all aspects of their development and learning, helps create a supportive school environment where every student can thrive and succeed.
Do you have a story or know of a story that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts? Please contact jmoore@greatheartsamerica.org.