Thornton’s Middle School does not use grades for assessing student progress.  Instead, each quarter, teachers write extensive reports describing student work, effort, participation and behavior. Teachers recommend next steps for each student in their subject areas, while also noting significant growth and success during the preceding quarter. 

At the end of each semester, students complete a lengthy and probing portfolio self-assessment process with the assistance and guidance of their advisors.  Typically ranging in length from about six to fifteen typed pages, these self assessments are then orally presented in conference to the student’s parents and advisor. 

For each class the student is taking, they answer the following questions in a paragraph or two: 

• List the topics that you covered in this class.  What did you do in this class?  What did you learn?

 

• List any projects or assignments that you did in this class.  Describe them.  How were they related to the class?

 

• What skills did you gain or improve upon in this class?  What did this class teach you how to do?  What do you know that you did not know before taking this class?

 

Additionally, they write a concluding essay in which they address the following questions: 

• Where am I succeeding academically?  Why?  Where can I make some improvements?   How?

 

• How am I doing socially at Thornton?  What is my relationship like with my peers, with  my teachers?  Would I like anything to change?

 

• Are there other  ways that I want to grow?  If so, explain.  If not, explain why not.

 

Through the self assessment process, students acquire a sense of the value of self reflection, both broadly and within specific aspects of their personal, community and academic lives.  They also develop strong skills of self assessment and self advocacy, celebrating successes while acknowledging and seeking remediation for places of difficulty.  And most importantly, students develop the skills of goal setting, within a process of growth.  They move through middle school, then enter high school with a deep sense of their own power and limitations, and ways they can harness the former and overcome the latter.  They also develop a powerful sense of who and where they want to be over time.