Report card

A report card, or just report in British English, communicates a student's performance academically. In most places, the report card is issued by the school to the student or the student's parents twice to four times yearly. A typical report card uses a grading scale to determine the quality of a student's school work. Throughout North America, the grading scale consists of grades scored in classes taken by the student.

Report cards are now frequently issued in automated form by computers and may be mailed to parents and students. Traditional school report cards contained a section for teachers to record individual comments about the student's work and behavior. Some automated card systems provide for teachers' including such comments, but others limit the report card to grades only.

The term "Report card" is used to describe any systematic listing and evaluation of something for information. For example, many states in the United States have their education departments issue report cards on schools' performance. Political advocacy groups will often issue "report cards" on legislators, "grading" them based on their stances on issues.

In Former Yugoslavia the role of report cards is widely fulfilled by Svedočanstva ("Testimonies"), in which all final (annual) grades throughout the entire level of education, as well as any negative or positive critic the student is given, and all of his other school institution-related accomplishments are kept.

In some elementary schools students typically receive three report cards. The academic year is separated into three terms (Sept-Dec, Dec-Mar, Mar-June) and at the end of each term the student will get a report card. It is often followed by a break of some sort. For example; First term Christmas Holidays, second term March break and third term Summer Holidays.

In some secondary schools students receive two report cards, one at the end of each grading period. They also get mid-term report cards midway through the grading period. For example; a semester goes from Sept-Jan and Jan-June. This would not count for summer school.

Additionally, in the United States, progress reports may be issued to track a student's performance in between report cards. They are typically issued at the midpoint of a grading period, (for example: 4½ weeks into a nine-week grading period, or three weeks into a six-week grading period) and contain virtually the same information as the report card. These reports allow students and their parents to see if school performance is slipping and if intervention is required to bring up the grade.

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