Parents from Red Deer Lake School are no closer to a resolution over their concerns with a new report card format that is set to be rolled out next September.

Parents are giving mixed review for the Foothill's School Division's new Learning Profile, which was distributed to younger students last week.

Officials from the Foothills School Division (FSD) met with about 60 concerned parents last week to again discuss the Learner Profile, which will replace the current report card. The Learner Profile uses four words to describe the student’s academic assessment and does not have any numerical grading.

A group of parents from Red Deer Lake School, which is located on Highway 22X southwest of Calgary, said the new report card is not appropriate for junior high students. A committee has been formed to look at the issue and Cindy Poole is the head of the school council report card committee.

She said the last meeting was not productive because the presentation from the FSD was repetitive and most parents just wanted to have their concerns addressed.

“You could tell the parents were quite frustrated with the way it was going,” Poole said, calling the meeting lively. The meeting went on for more than three hours and finally had to end without some parents being heard. She said the school division has a list of questions they will respond to in writing.

Most parents are concerned no numerical grading will cause problems as their children transition into high school, Poole said.

“Red Deer Lake is kind of unique because we have students from Calgary that will be going to high school in Calgary at Centennial High School or in the Catholic school division,” she said.

Certain programs, such as the International Baccalaureate program, require students to have a certain grade-point average and principals also need to determine a level for subjects like math and English, she said.

The parents are asking the school division to use a hybrid report card, similar to ones being used at the Edmonton Catholic Junior High, that use both percentages and words to grade a student.

Poole said the school’s own policy, as well as the Alberta School Act and a directive from Alberta Learning mandates parent councils have a say in how report cards are handled at their children’s schools.

She said if the school division would not implement a hybrid report card they will involve the Minister of Education, but does not believe that will be necessary.

“I think this is something we can solve quite easily at the divisional level,” she said.

FSD assistant superintendent Stacey Meyer said the division is not considering using any numerical grading in future report cards.

He said the hybrid report card in place at other schools uses marks from provincial achievement tests to provide a numerical grade for each subject.

“Our issue with that is it doesn’t test the entire curriculum,” Meyer said.

He has met with the school principal from Centennial High School and said the Learner Profile was well received, particularly because each topic learned in each subject is graded.

“He said it gives him much more information,” Meyer said. “It gives him what outcomes they are strong in.”

Meyer plans to meet with more Calgary schools and principals from the Calgary Catholic School Division to discuss the Learner Profile.

The FSD is also surveying parents, students and staff at three schools piloting the new report card. This spring the school board will decide if the full implementation will continue in the fall based on the feedback, Meyer said.

“We need to listen to the people who are in the field with this,” Meyer said. “We are hearing some of the same concerns we are hearing from Red Deer Lake.”

Meyer said Heritage Heights School has not had numerical grading on its report cards since its opening, including its junior high students.

Other public schools with junior high students, like Oilfields Junior/Senior High in Black Diamond have not heard many concerns from parents.

Oilfields principal Ric Morales said many of the schools that send their students to him already have a similar report card and are not worried about it carrying on as they get older.

“The response of the parents has been positive,” he said.

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