What Is a Progress Report?

Progress reports can be helpful in any business.

A progress report is a document that describes the progress of a particular person or event over a specific period of time. Progress reports are often used to judge the development of a project or person doing a task before or between official reviews. Progress reports are valuable to determine if projects are advancing, if a person is making improvements on a job or task, or for ensuring methods created to reach certain goals are having their desired effects.

Basics

The basics of progress reports will include specific information on the project being reviewed and the time the report covers. It will give an account of the progress that has been made, reasons for the progress, and goals for next period of time. For example, a six-week progress report on the construction of a house may include what work has been completed over those six weeks, problems workers may have encountered because of weather, if contractors are where they expected to be, and tasks that should be accomplished over the next six weeks. A report should have at least one sentence or paragraph as an introduction that describes the purpose of the report.

In Education

In educational settings, progress reports are used as an unofficial measure of a student’s improvement throughout a quarter or semester between grading periods. Progress reports have been used by some high schools to determine the eligibility of students participating in extracurricular activity on a weekly basis. A typical progress report for a school would list the student’s name, the name of the teacher making the report, the period the progress report covers, grades and comments. The comment area can reflect on the student’s progress or lack of progress for that period, problems that may have prevented the student from progressing, and what needs to be done to continue the student's improvement. The end of the progress report may include a line for the student’s parent or guardian to sign, acknowledging receipt and review of the report.

In Employee Advancement

Many businesses use progress reports when employees have specific jobs or tasks that have important deadlines. These reports give employers a glimpse of how successfully a project has moved through different stages. These reports would include the name of the employee doing the project, name of the project and the time covered. The report would include a list of goals and if the employee accomplished them. It would list problems the employee encountered in reaching the stated goals and how they were solved. The report would then close by stating goals to be reached before the next scheduled progress report.

Grants

In the nonprofit world, progress reports are often used to track how money is spent for a particular grant. These progress reports can be requested by the grant funders to make sure the donated funds are spent for its intended purposes. A grant progress report would include the name of the project, the project’s director, summary of work completed over the period, expectations of work completed, percentage of work completed and a project narrative. Grant funders may also request additional documentation of items purchased, salaries and other expenditures.

Research

Progress reports are often used in various research to determine if methods were used successfully. This project report would include an executive summary, which states the main achievements over the period of the progress report, progress in implementation, description of work and anticipated goals and achievements. A research progress report also would document unexpected problems, list meetings and provide an evaluation of results compared with expectations for the period.

References

• Chicago Public Schools: What is a Progress Report?
• Grand Solution Manual: Writing project progress reports
• New Mexico Highlands University: Progress Report Template
• Phil Druker University of Idaho: The Progress Report
• Reach Outand Read: Filing Out a Progress Report