What Parents want to Learn from a Report Card Comment

When writing a report card comment remember that parents are your audience.

Avoid using educational acronyms. Teacher jargon is mostly meaningless to parents.

Keep your communication straight forward, and to the point.

Parents want to know where their child is excelling and where they need improvement.

Give examples of the child's good work, and provide suggestions for things to do at home to help improve in areas they may be struggling.

Remain positive. Offer praise.

Encourage parents to engage with their child.

Be sensitive to the fact that you are writing about their child.

An effective report card comment will communicate to the parents what's going well, what is not so good, and how best to support their child.