Ontario elementary school students won't receive Term 1 report cards

Elementary school students won’t be receiving Term 1 report cards due to ongoing job action by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO).

Since November 2019, ETFO members have been engaged in legal job action with regards to negotiations with the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA).

This action includes sanctions related to report cards. As such, teachers will not complete full Term 1 Report Cards. Instead, they will provide school administrators with a class list of marks for the various subjects and strands taught, or, for the Kindergarten Communication of Learning (KCL), offer one brief comment per frame.

Additionally, teacher’s won’t undertake the role of report card administrator, or file the Progress Report or the Term 1 Report Card or the KCL.

“I want you to know that this difficult decision was made after careful consideration and a thorough review of all options,” John Malloy, Director of Education at the Toronto District School Board, said in an open letter to parents and guardians.

“However, it is not possible to produce accurate report cards for the TDSB’s approximately 174,000 elementary students given the significant resources and time required to do so.”

Malloy says that the school board understands that report cards are an important measurement of student progress, and that teachers are still expected to assess and evaluate students and respond to parent or guardian inquiries.

Anyone wishing to speak with their child’s teacher may do so during the school day, he says, and Parent-Teacher interviews scheduled for Friday, February 14 are expected to continue as normal.

Individual Education Plans will continue to be updated during this job action for students who have them.

• See also:
  • Ontario elementary teachers to officially begin work-to-rule strike action
  • Ontario students will be required to take 2 online credits to graduate high school
  • 95% of Ontario high school teachers vote in favour of strike action

Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education, issued a statement on Tuesday regarding the lack of report cards.

“Yet again, teacher union leaders are risking student success and preventing parents from seeing valuable information about their child’s performance in class,” he said.

“It underscores our government’s insistence that teacher union leaders cancel these strikes that are hurting our kids. And it only strengthens our belief that parents want our government to invest in front-line services, not in compensation and other demands, for some of the highest-paid educators in the country.”