Face-time with teachers tough with report card cuts

As parents of children in public schools in Calgary adjust to seeing fewer report cards, some say theyre having trouble getting the extra contact with teachers that was supposed to make up for the change.

Provincial guidelines say Kindergarten to Grade 9 students must get at least two report cards per year, one fewer than most Calgary Board of Education schools had been sending out.

Those report cards are supposed to be supplemented with parent-teacher interviews, emails and phone calls.

However, when Graham Livesey signed up to see his son's Grade 9 teachers, all the appointment times were taken.

"They were so overloaded they just couldn't accommodate us," he said.

The school told Livesey it was already devoting more than 18 hours to parent-teacher interviews.

And with teachers taking on more than 220 students each, they could only see about half the parents for the 10-minute meetings, the school informed him.

Not being able to go to a face-to-face parent teacher meeting at this point, you know, particularly at this stage in his career, is really ...I think unacceptable,

Livesey said he has since connected with two of the teachers.

You know these meetings are pretty crucial. So out of the five core subjects I was able to plug into meetings with two teachers. So in three other core subjects I seem to be shut out, he said.

Frank Bruseker, president of the Calgary Public Teachers Association, said adding more hours to the process would take away from teaching time.

Parents advised to find other ways to connect

Parents who miss out need to find other ways to connect with teachers, he said.

So the parents can either phone the school, send an email or the old fashioned send a note with the child, he said.

If the desire is there I think the communication can happen.

Jim Field at the University of Calgary says report cards are a lot of work and some of the information is unnecessary.

He says small progress reports more often are better.

Field says that information can be delivered on the phone, online, in an email or a face-to-face meeting.

"Just simply taking away the report cards is not going to work," he said."They need the concrete feedback. You need to replace the report card with something better not just take away the report card and I think they're trying to do that."

Naomi Johnson, chief superintendent of the Calgary Board of Education, says the goal is to haveconsistentreporting practices.

"We have talked to our principals about staying in touch. This isn't about just leaving a gap in that time this is about constant communication," she said.

Johnson says the goal is to have consistent reporting practices.

She says each school is still deciding what report cards will look like.