At Anastasis Academy, co-founder Kelly Tenkely has developed a detailed, highly personalized evaluation tool she calls UpGrade.
The circular tool is divided into four broad areas of evaluation, and within each of those areas are either seven or eight sub-categories. The result is what looks like a symmetrical spider web. At its center, instead of a spider, is da Vinci’s Virtuvian Man.
The four broad categories are Ethos (habits of mind and attitudes), Pathos (development of character, compassion, empathy, and discernment), Logos (development of the logical, intellectual mind), and Mythos (development of the abstract mind).
For each sub-category, students are evaluated on a five-point scale, beginning with novice, a 1, and progressing to change-maker, a 5.
To a novice, a concept is new and the student is just starting to learn it.
To a change-maker, a concept and/or skill has become second nature “and can be used to make connections with other learning.”
“It focuses on the learning journey and helps students, parents, and teachers track through that learning journey,” Tenkely said.
Anastasis shares the UpGrade report card with parents four times per year, then holds parent-teacher-student conferences the school calls “Meeting of the Minds.” UpGrade is used throughout the year for an “ongoing conversation with students,” Tenkely said.