Think back to the last time you held a Report Card in your hand.

Were you satisfied? Did it capture the truth about your (or your child’s) learning? What about your effort, time management, organizational skills, progress, resilience, and perseverance?

Did it make you want to dive back into learning, try again, ask deeper questions and seek new knowledge?

With no exceptions, the parents we spoke with when we were creating Acton Academy answered with a simple, “no.”

Time for something better. So, we built a more holistic approach to document and celebrate the learning process and its many milestones.

In addition to detailed online dashboards with evidence of mastery in core learning areas, Eagles build portfolios of work, use a weekly Journey Tracker (also called Points Tracker) to track time spent on mastering specific goals each day, receive and give feedback to each other on regular citizenship surveys, and compile their best work into badges to demonstrate excellence and project management.

But parents – including me – have a hard time navigating these resources. The simplistic feedback on a Report Card was, well, simple. This now takes effort for us parents.

To help us all out, we went to the Eagles to give us some perspective.

In this two-minute interview,  Eagles answer the question, “What do you wish your parents knew about your portfolio and Journey Tracker?”

Next up: What We Wish Our Parents Knew About 360 Surveys and Badges.