Results day - Go deeper than the report card

Its the result / report day for your young one. Most parents are more jittery than their kids who actually took the exams. We want to know how did they perform, will they be rewarded for their and our hard work, will they score well in maths and science and are they skilled in lan guages? Thousand questions that need answers from the report card. But are their some answers that need to be looked independent of the report card?

I think results day is a very important day. Not only because you get the report card, but because you get a chance to see the teacher/s who have taught the kid for one year and have had a chance to observe him/her and evaluate his/her performance in comparison to 50 other kids in the same class. They have a perspective that we lack because they are exposed to hundreds to kids of that age over the years and can spot some real trends which we can not. Its important to use this opportunity to dig deeper than the report card. So what must you really ask the teacher and how? 

Understand what the teacher thinks of the student OVERALL: First thing to do, is to ask the teacher what he/she thinks of the student based on his/her experience over the years. The reason is that how a child behaves in school is vastly different from how he/she may behave at home. Things to probe are

• How does the student behave in the class
• What interests him/her most in the class (subject and activity)
• What is the learning style of the child? How does he/she learn best? Is he/she a self starter? 
• Any other thoughts that the teacher may have on the child

Now ask for the report card and analyse the report card: Now ask for the report card. Take some time to go through the marks and comments on the report card and THINK if this matches with your expectations. Where did the kid do better than expected and where was it as per your expectation. It is very important to spend a few minutes thinking a bout this.  

Understand the child's performance from teacher: Once you have read through the report card, now ask exam performance specific questions to the teacher. Specific areas to probe with the teacher are 

• Understand what the teacher thinks of the performance in various subjects? Is it at par, below par? Also, how is it with respect to the teacher's expectation from the student
• Explain your thoughts after you went through the report card and share where you thought the student performance was below your own expectation? 
• Now probe on specific subjects and ask what are the possible reasons for poor performance? How could you help the child do better the next time?