Parents/Guardians: How Do I Monitor My Child's Progress Using Kiddom?

At this time, Kiddom does not have parent accounts to be able to access your student's work. However, we recommend sitting down with your student and having them open their Kiddom account with you. By accessing their account, you will be able to see all of their completed work, grades, feedback from their teacher, and progress towards mastery on standards and skills.

What is Mastery-Based Learning?

One of the main differences in Kiddom’s reports is communicating student progress.

This means that the focus is whether or not the student is mastering certain standards rather than their grade average.

Standards are objectives of what students should know and be able to demonstrate for grade-level expectations. For example, a Common Core ELA standard for a fifth grader is to “write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.” This is a major standard that may have some smaller substandards and assignments to support the student achieving this overall expectation. 

Mastery-based learning is called a few names—whether it is skill, standards, proficiency, or competency-based learning—all of these terms represent the shift towards measuring student progress toward specific, measurable competencies. Students are encouraged to focus on a skill until they have shown that they have mastered it, often with several attempts, before moving on. 

Mastery-based reporting is a different mindset than traditional grades. The goal is not to be an A-student but to show mastery of appropriate skills. Most students will not be exceeding; if they are, this might mean that they are not being challenged and may need to move on to the next grade-level competencies.

What is the Value of Mastery-Based Learning?

Mastery reports provide you with a detailed view of how your student is doing in each of their classes and give you a holistic view of their progress. It answers: What is my child learning, and are they progressing?  In addition, it puts emphasis on their growth, not achievement. You’ll notice the following terminology on a mastery report supports this mindset.

How Do I Access the Mastery-Based Reports?

When you open your student's Kiddom account, navigate to your student's reports tab by opening the student's class and clicking on the Reports tab (N-shaped graph line icon) in the lefthand toolbar.

When opening this tab, you will find two main sections: Class Grade Average and Class Standard Mastery.

The Class Grade Average chart shows the student's progress over time. Ideally, you should see positive growth overall, though it is not uncommon to see some bumps in the road where the student loses some ground.

The Class Standard Mastery shows your student's progress on individual standards being measured by the assignments in Kiddom. Clicking on a standard will show you more details about how the student has been assessed on the standard.

Here you will find the description of the standard, a graph showing your student's progress over time with the standard, and a list of assignments that are tied to the standard. Clicking on an assignment will take you to the grade view so that you can review the questions and your student's responses that are being measured by that standard.

Terminology

Mastery reports are based on the standards and competencies that your student’s teacher is tracking in their class. To show development aligned to the skill, there is a different language:

• Developing (pink): If you see this next to your student’s assignment, don’t fret! It merely means that we have to work a little bit more on this particular skill set. You’ll notice that your student might even have a few resources assigned to them on Kiddom to help build their skills in this particular standard. 
• Approaching (orang): When a student is approaching mastery of a skill set, it means that they have a general ability to complete assignments associated with that skill and understand the minimum content knowledge necessary to complete those tasks, but they still need support in fully completing tasks that require that skill set. Students that are approaching mastery are doing just that: working hard to meet their academic goals. 
• Mastery (blue): Your student has made it! When you see “mastery” listed next to a standard, that means your student has achieved the skill sets necessary for that particular topic in class. They are completing it just as intended and age appropriately. 
• Exceeds (green): Your student must be working really hard to further enhance their skills if they are getting this particular indicator on their reports. Exceeding mastery is going above and beyond what is expected of them at a certain age or grade level based on the skill being assessed. Indeed, many teachers will see this as an indicator that students can take on more complex skills and assign them the next grade level work.

How Can I Use This to Support My Student?

Reviewing mastery reports allows you to have a deeper understanding of your child’s academic development and growth. What’s really great about the reports is that they provide you with a description of each of the standards that your child is working on during each reporting period, so you can understand what they are working on, what they are struggling with, and what they have mastered.