By News Editor Emma Stancey

As a result of discussion among district officials as well as suggestions made by Future Focus representatives at the Jan. 6 Board meeting, changes to the district report cards are under consideration.

According to Jackie Romberg, president of District 203 board of education, the recommendations propose ideas to improve report cards at all levels.

“One of the recommendations was to consider alternates to reporting junior high and high school student progress in addition to standard grade reports, whether that be on a social/emotional level or just look at that whole process of reporting,” said Romberg.

Communication Arts teacher Karen Quinn is a member of the “effective habits” committee at NNHS, which originated after the district discussed the potential of evaluating junior high and high school students on a social/emotional level.

“Our initial meeting was last year, and it was a group of staff members that volunteered to see if there was some way that we could report out on more of the social/emotional learning competencies,” said Quinn.

According to Quinn, the committee began by looking closely at the academic integrity code, while also considering other things that are important at NNHS like personal integrity and social integrity.

“Then you talk about, well is integrity a good word? Can you grade integrity? And there’s been some really rich discussions about that,” said Quinn.

The initial goal was to create some type of report card that would allow students and parents to receive feedback about social/emotional competencies in a less time consuming manner.

Senior student government representative, Cameron Snyders, believes there are definite pros and cons of assessing students’ social and emotional progress.

“There are benefits as well as consequences; we could help some students succeed by encouraging them where they’re lacking, but we will also in turn limit potential for individuality,” said Snyders. “Diverse qualities that differentiate people are what makes society successful and balanced.”

As for the district, “nothing has been presented to the board yet, so it’s in the administrator’s courts to work [with the community’s suggestions] with the different district levels, elementary, junior high, and high schools, to put that plan together,” said Romberg.

According to District 203’s Chief Academic Officer Jennifer Hester, Future Focus sessions have helped aid the board in brainstorming ideas to better the district and community.

“Parents and community members noted the need to reconsider our reporting practicing for overall student success through our recent community engagement sessions, entitled Future Focus,” said Hester. “A revised report card that more effectively communicates student’s progress was part of that recommendation.”