If you teach in Ontario, writing report cards is one of the most time-consuming tasks of the school year. The province’s Growing Success policy sets out clear expectations for what comments must include, how achievement levels are communicated, and what learning skills reporting looks like. This guide walks you through every major requirement so your report cards are policy-compliant, meaningful for families, and as efficient as possible to write.

What Writing Report Cards in Ontario Actually Requires

Ontario’s report card requirements are governed by Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools, published by the Ontario Ministry of Education in 2010. Under this policy, report card comments must be clear, specific, and based on curriculum expectations. They must reference achievement level, describe strengths, identify areas for improvement, and suggest next steps. Comments that are vague, generic, or deficit-focused do not meet the standard.

The Four Fundamental Principles of Growing Success

Before you write a single comment, it helps to understand the four principles that underpin everything in the policy. These principles should shape how you think about assessment and reporting at every grade level, from Kindergarten through Grade 12.

1. Assessment for, as, and of Learning

Assessment for learning (formative) informs your instruction. Assessment as learning involves students in self-monitoring their own progress. Assessment of learning (summative) is what gets reported on the report card. Growing Success requires all three types to be present in your practice, but only summative evidence drives the grade or mark you assign and report.

2. Fairness, Transparency, and Equity

Students and parents have the right to know in advance how learning will be evaluated. Expectations, criteria, and assessment strategies must be communicated clearly before evaluation happens. Report card comments should reflect this by being written in plain language that a parent or guardian can understand without a teaching degree.

3. Multiple Sources of Evidence

No single test or assignment determines a grade. Growing Success requires that teachers draw on observations, conversations, and products (often called the triangulation of evidence) when determining achievement levels. This means your report card comment should reflect a body of work, not just the last unit test.

4. Accurate, Detailed, Meaningful Feedback

Comments must do more than assign a level. They must tell a family what their child can do, what the child still needs to work on, and what the next steps for improvement look like. This is the foundation of descriptive feedback report cards under Ontario policy.

Understanding Achievement Levels 1 Through 4

Ontario uses a four-level scale for Grades 1 through 8. Each level has a specific meaning, and your comment language should clearly reflect which level the student is at. Avoid using the word “level” repeatedly in your comments; instead, weave level-appropriate language into the feedback naturally.

  • Level 1 (50-59%): Achievement falls below the provincial standard. The student demonstrates limited knowledge and skills. Use phrases like “is beginning to,” “with significant support,” or “demonstrates a limited understanding of.”
  • Level 2 (60-69%): Achievement approaches the provincial standard. Use phrases like “is developing,” “with some support,” or “demonstrates a basic understanding of.”
  • Level 3 (70-79%): Achievement meets the provincial standard. This is the target level. Use phrases like “demonstrates a thorough understanding,” “applies strategies effectively,” or “communicates ideas clearly.”
  • Level 4 (80-100%): Achievement exceeds the provincial standard. Use phrases like “consistently,” “with a high degree of accuracy,” or “demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of.”

The Ministry is clear that Level 3 represents grade-level expectation, not exceptional performance. When speaking with parents, it’s worth clarifying this because many families assume Level 3 is equivalent to a “C,” which it is not.

How to Write Descriptive Feedback Comments That Meet Policy

The most common mistake Ontario teachers make is writing comments that name the level but say nothing meaningful about what the student is actually doing. A compliant, useful comment has three parts: a strength statement, an area for improvement, and a next step. Some teachers add a fourth element acknowledging a specific skill or habit.

The Strength-Growth-Next Step Formula

This structure is not mandatory under Growing Success, but it maps directly onto the policy’s requirements and helps you write efficiently. A compliant comment might look like this:

  • Strength: What the student does well, tied to a specific expectation.
  • Growth area: What the student still needs to develop, framed constructively.
  • Next step: A concrete, actionable strategy the student (or family) can act on.

Example Comments by Subject

Grade 3 Mathematics (Level 3): “Priya demonstrates a thorough understanding of multiplication and division facts and applies skip-counting strategies accurately when solving word problems. To further strengthen her learning, Priya is working on explaining her reasoning in writing when solving multi-step problems. Practicing math journaling at home, where she writes one sentence explaining how she solved a problem, will support this next step.”

Grade 6 Language Arts (Level 2): “Marcus is developing his ability to organize ideas in written form and produces paragraphs that include a topic sentence with some support. To move toward the provincial standard, Marcus is working on adding specific details and examples that support his main ideas. Reading a variety of non-fiction texts and noting how authors use evidence will help him strengthen this skill.”

Grade 1 Science (Level 4): “Amara consistently demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the characteristics of living things and applies this knowledge with a high degree of accuracy when sorting and classifying examples from the natural world. Amara is now extending her thinking by asking questions that connect classroom learning to real-world observations, which reflects excellent scientific habits of mind.”

Notice that each example avoids vague praise (“great job”), never leads with a deficit, and gives the family something concrete to act on or watch for. You can find additional teaching resources on The Canadian Teacher to help you build comment banks aligned to these principles.

Reporting on Learning Skills and Work Habits

Ontario’s ontario report card policy separates academic achievement from learning skills. Learning skills and work habits are reported using four descriptors: E (Excellent), G (Good), S (Satisfactory), N (Needs Improvement). These are reported in six categories on the Elementary Progress Report and Elementary Report Card.

  • Responsibility
  • Organization
  • Independent Work
  • Collaboration
  • Initiative
  • Self-Regulation

Learning skills must not influence the academic grade. This is a firm requirement of Growing Success. If a student earns a Level 3 on a task but consistently fails to submit work, the Level 3 still stands, but the learning skills rating reflects the habit concern. Keep your evidence for these separate from your achievement evidence. The 5-Rate Assessment Tool on this site can help you track both streams efficiently across your class.

The Ontario Progress Report vs. Term and Final Report Cards

Ontario elementary teachers issue three reports across the school year. Understanding the difference between them keeps your comments appropriately scoped and saves you from over-reporting or under-reporting at the wrong time.

The Ontario Progress Report (Fall)

The ontario progress report is issued in November and does not include letter grades or percentage marks for most subjects. Instead, it uses a three-point scale (progressing with difficulty, progressing well, demonstrating strong achievement) and focuses on early observations about learning skills. Comments here are shorter but still must be specific and forward-looking. Think of this report as a “check-in,” not a final judgment.

Term 1 and Term 2 Report Cards

The Term 1 report (February) and the Final report (June) both include subject grades using the achievement level scale, learning skills ratings, and comments for each subject area. Final report comments should reflect growth across the full year and explicitly note progress made since Term 1. If a student has moved from Level 2 to Level 3 in a subject, that trajectory is worth naming clearly in the final comment.

Practical Tips for Getting Through Report Card Season

Even when you know the policy well, the sheer volume of comments is exhausting. These strategies help Ontario teachers work more efficiently without sacrificing quality.

  • Build a comment bank early. Draft 8-10 sentence starters per subject in September, organized by achievement level. Personalize them as you go rather than starting from scratch for every student.
  • Use your anecdotal notes. If you’ve been taking observational notes throughout the term, your comments practically write themselves. The Classroom Timetable Tool can help you schedule regular observation windows so notes don’t pile up at reporting time.
  • Read comments aloud before submitting. If a comment sounds like it could apply to any student in your class, it’s too generic. Specificity is the mark of policy-compliant feedback.
  • Avoid deficit framing. Start with what the student can do, then pivot to growth. “Has difficulty with” is less useful than “is working toward” because one names a problem and the other maps a direction.
  • Check your level language. Go back through your comments and confirm that the words you’ve chosen genuinely reflect the level assigned. A student with a Level 2 should not have comments that sound like a Level 3.
  • Use the Welcome Letter Tool to establish communication norms with families at the start of the year, so report cards arrive in a context of ongoing dialogue rather than as the first real news parents receive.

For deeper professional reading on Ontario assessment practices, the Ontario Ministry of Education’s Growing Success document is freely available online. The Elementary Progress Report and Report Card guidelines are also available directly from the Ministry.

For lesson-level planning that aligns with what you report, explore the teaching lessons section on this site, or browse our teaching ebooks for unit-planning support that keeps curriculum expectations front and centre.

The Ontario Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD Canada) and the Ontario Ministry of Education both emphasize that strong reporting starts with strong assessment practice year-round, not just in January and June.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Growing Success policy?

Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools is the Ontario Ministry of Education’s foundational policy document, published in 2010, that governs how teachers assess, evaluate, and report on student learning from Kindergarten through Grade 12. It establishes the four-level achievement scale, the learning skills framework, and the requirement for descriptive, forward-looking feedback on all report cards.

How do you write report cards in Ontario?

Ontario report cards require comments that identify student strengths, note areas for growth, and suggest specific next steps, all aligned to the provincial curriculum expectations. Comments must reflect the assigned achievement level using appropriately descriptive language. Teachers must also report separately on six learning skills and work habits using the E/G/S/N scale, keeping these distinct from the academic grade.

What is descriptive feedback?

Descriptive feedback is specific, evidence-based information that tells a student and their family exactly what has been accomplished, what still needs development, and how to move forward. Under Growing Success, descriptive feedback replaces vague or generic praise with targeted commentary tied to curriculum expectations. The key test is specificity: feedback that could apply to any student in the class is not descriptive enough.

What is the Ontario report card template?

Ontario uses Ministry-approved report card templates for elementary students. The Elementary Progress Report is issued in November and uses a three-point scale without percentage grades. The Term 1 and Final Report Cards use the four-level achievement scale, learning skills ratings, and written comments for each subject. School boards may customize the layout slightly, but the core elements are set by the Ministry and cannot be removed.

How do you write comments that meet Growing Success?

A Growing Success-compliant comment includes a strength tied to a curriculum expectation, an area for growth framed constructively, and a concrete next step. The language used must match the assigned achievement level (for example, “is beginning to” for Level 1 and “consistently demonstrates” for Level 4). Comments should be written in plain language, avoid jargon, and be specific enough that they could only apply to that individual student.

Keep the Conversation Going

Report card writing gets easier every year as you refine your comment banks, tighten your assessment routines, and get more comfortable with the language of Growing Success. You are not alone in finding it challenging. Ontario teachers across every grade and board deal with the same pressures every reporting period.

Browse more support in our blog for practical teaching strategies, visit our province-by-province resource links to find Ontario-specific tools and guidelines, or check out our subject-specific resource links to find comment-bank starters organized by curriculum area. Our tools section also has quick utilities that save time during busy reporting periods.

Have a question about a specific comment, a tricky student situation, or how your board interprets Growing Success? Join the discussion at The Canadian Teacher Forum, where Ontario educators share comment banks, ask policy questions, and support each other through report card season.

Writing report cards in Ontario takes time, but when comments are grounded in Growing Success policy, they become one of the most meaningful communications you send home all year. Families deserve to know exactly where their child is, and students deserve feedback that actually helps them move forward.