How do you write effective report card comments?

The research on feedback is clear on one point: process feedback beats person feedback. A comment that names what the student did and what to do next changes behavior; "great job!" and "a pleasure to have in class" do not. Empty praise feels good and teaches nothing.

A strong comment makes three moves:

1. A specific, observable strength. Not "good worker" but what you can actually see: "Marcus explains his reasoning out loud before he writes." Name the behavior, not the trait.
2. One honest growth area, framed as a process. "When a problem has two steps, Marcus tends to stop after the first — pausing to ask 'is there a second part?' will close most of the gap." It's actionable: the student and parent know exactly what to practice.
3. A next step they can take. Feedback that doesn't require an action is just a grade in sentence form.

Avoid the trait language ("bright," "lazy," "a joy") that fills most comment banks — it's unfalsifiable and unhelpful. Describe behavior a second reader could agree they saw.

Doing this for 25–30 students by hand is the part that eats a weekend. Generating a process-focused, specific first draft per student — that you then personalize — is what turns report-card season from a weekend into an afternoon.