Toronto, Peel boards will not issue term 1 elementary report cards due to ongoing job action

Both Toronto and Peel’s school boards say they will not issue elementary report cards for term one due to ongoing job action by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO).

In a statement released on Tuesday, the TDSB said the ETFO has been engaged in legal job action since November of last year which includes “sanctions related to report cards.”

In accordance with the sanctions, teachers will not complete or file term one report cards, file progress reports or Kindergarten Communication of Learning reports and will not undertake the role of report card administrator.

Teachers will provide school administrators with a list of marks for various subjects or one brief comment per frame for the Kindergarten Communication of Learning reports. However, since the marks and comments will not be entered electronically, the TDSB says they cannot produce report cards for their approximately 174,000 elementary students.

The Peel board also said teachers are writing and providing remarks for elementary students and in each section of a student’s Kindergarten Communication of Learning report, but are not inputting them electronically.

Without the electronic data, report cards for more than 100,000 students cannot be produced. Marks will also not be provided at this time.

“Beyond the logistical challenges, providing marks without comments and context would not be considered fulsome feedback on student achievement of curriculum expectations,” said Peter Joshua, Director of Education for Peel, in a statement.

The Peel board says secondary students will receive term one reports cards with marks only, as teachers are not writing comments.

Lecce accused teacher union leaders of risking student success and preventing parents from seeing valuable information about their child’s performance in class.

“It underscores our government’s insistence that teacher union leaders cancel these strikes that are hurting our kids,” he said in a release.

Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for both boards will continue to be updated during the job action.

“We regret that report cards will not be produced as we know they are an important measurement of student progress,” said John Malloy, Director of Education for Toronto, in the statement. “It is important to note that teachers are still expected to assess and evaluate students and respond to your inquiries.”

TDSB parent-teacher interviews scheduled for Feb. 14 are expected to continue as normal.

With files from the Canadian Press