St. Mary’s Schools Restructure Elementary Report Cards To Give Parents Clearer Picture Of Student Progress

LEONARDTOWN, Md. — Elementary students across St. Mary’s County Public Schools will receive redesigned standards-based report cards this school year as district officials introduce a new rating system and quarterly learning expectations to give families a clearer picture of student progress.

The revisions were presented to the St. Mary’s County Board of Education on Wednesday, and school officials said the changes were prompted by updates to Maryland’s College and Career Readiness Standards, part of the state’s implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.

A 40-member committee of district leaders, classroom teachers and parents spent the 2025-26 school year redesigning the report cards to better align with the revised standards while making student progress easier for families to understand.

The revised report cards replace the previous “Partial Command” and “Strong Command” ratings with a new four-point proficiency scale tied to quarterly grade-level expectations instead of measuring progress solely against end-of-year standards.

“The overwhelming feedback that we got from teachers and the community was that [the previous scale] wasn’t a rating that supported what we knew about kids and where they were within the standards,” Anna Fiore said, supervisor of instruction for elementary mathematics, “So, the committee worked throughout multiple months on this component and developed this revised rating system.”

Under the new system, students will receive ratings of 4, 3, 2 and 1, which signify a range from meeting expectations independently to making minimal progress and requiring significant support. A separate designation will continue to indicate when a standard has not yet been assessed.

Rather than measuring students only against end-of-year standards, the quarterly learning expectations show what students are expected to know and be able to do during each grading period.

“For example, in kindergarten, it might be the expectation for quarter one that students are counting to 20, but in quarter two, that might change to students are counting to 40,” Fiore said. “So, in quarter one, a student might receive a four because they’re doing really well with counting to 20, but on that same statement, they might receive a two or a three in second quarter because that progress has stalled.”

Fiore said teachers and curriculum staff have developed grade-level expectation documents for each reporting period that will also be available to parents through the St. Mary’s County Public Schools website.

Fiore said the revised report cards also simplify learner qualities by establishing consistent categories across grade levels, including interpersonal skills, responsibility, perseverance, collaboration and initiative. In addition, specialist teachers will now contribute learner-quality ratings in their instructional areas rather than relying solely on classroom teachers.

“We’re going to use a consistent rating scale now for the academics and for the learner qualities,” Fiore said, referencing the 4, 3, 2, 1 scale. “So, families have a more clear message of what their student is doing in the classroom.”

District Looks To Improve Communication, Plans Ongoing Review Of New Report Cards

Superintendent Scott Smith said the four-point scale will allow the district to collect more detailed information about student performance by individual standards while improving communication with families.

“We will be able to really take a look at learning by standard and by student, with some real numbers behind them,” Smith said. “A much more powerful tool for data gathering.”

District officials said another major change is eliminating most narrative comments that teachers previously wrote for each student. Instead, teachers will select from standardized comments for common situations, while still having options to recognize positive achievements and communicate information such as participation in intervention programs. Officials said the revisions reduce repetitive work while providing families with more consistent information.

Jason Hayes, supervisor of instruction for elementary science and social studies, said the committee will continue meeting quarterly during the school year to evaluate how the changes are working. The district also plans to survey teachers, administrators and parents to gather feedback and adjust as needed.

“We really want to hear from everyone about how the process is going,” Hayes said. “It comes down to making sure that parents understand how well their students are doing and how their students are achieving mastery.”

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