Student reporting is one way your child's teacher shares information about their progress with you. Throughout the school year, you should expect to receive at least five updates about your child's learning. You will get at least 3 Written Learning Updates that are like report cards, and 2 informal Learning Updates, such as parent-teacher conferences. For students in grades K-9, the Provincial 4-Point Proficiency Scale and descriptive feedback will now be used to explain where a child is at in their learning and how they can improve. This approach focuses on students' strengths and views learning as ongoing. In grades 10-12, letter grades and percentages will still be used to ensure successful transition to post-secondary. Students in 10-12 will also receive descriptive feedback on their report cards to clearly explain where they are at in their learning, and how they can move forward. They will also receive a graduation status update to help families know where their child is at in relation to completing their graduation requirements. In all grades, students will self-reflect on their Core Competencies and set goals for themselves. This gives them control over their learning and helps them keep growing throughout their lives. Finally, student attendance will also be displayed on each Written Learning Update.

Your child’s teachers and school principal and/or vice-principal will be best equipped to answer your specific questions about what instruction, report cards, and reporting look like in your child's classroom.

British Columbia, along with many other high performing jurisdictions (i.e., Finland, Singapore, Japan, New Zealand, etc.), have made curriculum changes to better align with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that are required for students to thrive in our ever-changing and complex world. BC's redesigned, competency-driven curriculum was implemented in 2016, but report cards and the way student learning is communicated haven’t really changed for decades. Report cards and assessment are now changing to align with BC's competency-driven curriculum and to help ensure that every student in the province is set up for success in their learning.

Unlike other school districts, this provincial shift in student reporting is not a significant one for Central Okanagan Public Schools. For example, the majority of K-9 schools in our district have been using a proficiency scale instead of letter grades for student assessment and reporting. More than 90% of our K-9 schools over the past few years have been using the provincial proficiency scale or a similar version of it. The major change for our school district when is to align all K-9 schools in using the same 4-point scale as is required for all schools in British Columbia under the new Ministry Reporting Policy.

The province has been piloting changes to the Student Report Policy, including the use of the Provincial Proficiency Scale for Grades K-9 for the past several years. Throughout the development process, the province surveyed parents at multiple points and collaborated with the BC Confederation Of Parent Advisory Councils to do focus groups with parents and to hear their needs. After extensive consultation and piloting, which included parents and caregivers throughout, it was decided that the Provincial Proficiency Scale would be used in grades K-9 in all BC schools moving forward. The Provincial Proficiency Scale unifies all BC schools on one scale, rather than the innumerable locally developed scales that were previously being used throughout the province in K-9, as well as the Ministry-mandated performance scale that was previously used in K-3 over the past few decades.

The 4-point proficiency scale is a provincial legislative requirement for all schools in British Columbia in the new Ministry Reporting Policy that came into effect on July 1, 2023. As such, letter grades cannot be requested or used for students in kindergarten to grade 9. At the same time, it is a legislative requirement letter grades and percentages are used for all students in grades 10-12.

Yes. Provincial policy shifts in K-9 reporting have been informed by school and district innovations, along with extensive academic research, national and global findings, and engagement with B.C. parents and educators. Prior to the outset of piloting the upcoming reporting changes, the Ministry partnered with three post-secondary institutions to do a literature scan of best practices in assessment and reporting. The University of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, and Vancouver Island University conducted a review of current academic research and literature on assessment, evaluation, and reporting. Key findings include the following: Frequent communication: Researchers stress the importance of ongoing, comprehensive, and timely communication with parents. Increased communication between home and school has a positive impact on student learning, engagement, motivation, and effort. Focus on proficiency: Traditional report cards (with letter grades) have been found to reduce motivation and diminish student learning. Assessment that is focused on student proficiency in relation to the established learning standards leads to improved reliability of assessment results and increased student engagement. Self- and peer-assessment: Student assessment, both self and peer, leads to an increase in student confidence in their abilities, improved performance, greater responsibility for their own learning, greater student satisfaction and independence, and positive and productive learning environments. You can find a summary a full summary with citations on the Ministry website.

Letter grades and percentages will remain in Grades 10-12. The Ministry of Education & Child Care has been working with the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education & Future Skills, as well as international organizations like the NCAA to ensure BC students will be successful in their transition to post-secondary and life after high school.

Yes. British Columbia is part of a movement of high-performing jurisdictions around the world that are using a variety of modernized reporting practices to communicate student learning and help all students achieve their full potential. New Zealand (one of the highest performing educational jurisdictions in world) recently implemented a similar new reporting policy. Their new policy emphasizes descriptive feedback instead of letter grades or percentages. In Finland (frequently ranked at the top of highest performing educational jurisdictions in the world) students in grades comprehensive school (years 1-9 are also graded on a 7-point scale instead of using letter grades or percentages). Japan as well (another high-performing educational jurisdiction) has shifted their reporting practice in a similar direction to BC. They use a 5-point scale to communicate student learning and they have significantly shifted the focus of student reporting to be about learning habits and behaviour, rather than a student’s marks. Singapore has followed suit as another high-performing educational jurisdiction, in using proficiency scales with their students and families. The shifts to student reporting in BC are in alignment with all other high-performing jurisdictions, and based on global research of the competencies that today’s learners need now to be successful in an ever-changing future.

BC has been piloting these assessment and reporting changes in BC schools since 2016. During this time, Canada remains a top-performing country in reading literacy, math, and sciences, with BC typically outperforming all other jurisdictions. PISA (Program of International Student Assessment) results show Canada outperforming all other G7 countries (Canada, US, U.K., Germany, France, Italy, and Japan) in reading, only coming second to Japan in math and science. British Columbia specifically achieved significantly higher average reading scores than all G7 members.

Throughout the development process, the Ministry of Education & Child Care surveyed parents at multiple points and collaborated with the BC Confederation Of Parent Advisory Councils to do focus groups with parents and to hear their needs. The province released a suite of parent and caregiver support materials, including materials on the scale and letter grades and percentages in 10-12. They are posted online in eight different languages on the following Ministry website page: K-12 Student Reporting Information for Parents and Caregivers. Parents seeking more information of the different reporting policy elements, are encourage to explore these provincial resources (many of these resources are also conveniently listed below this section on this webpage).