Saturday, June 7, 2014
Last Day of School
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Two competing titles..
Two competing titles for this post.
#1 - Making Sense of the Non-Sense
#2 - Why are we shooting for "Proficient"
So - you know it - report card season!
Any assessment for Allison you have to take with a grain of salt. Good doesn't always mean good and bad sometimes just means she didn't feel like taking a test. Even so, I think the system is screwy. Heaven help the teacher whose evals or pay might depend on Allison's mood on testing day.
So - in perfect contradictory form - this is what Allison's report cards plus IEP teacher feedback plus standardized test scores indicate:
Reading:
IEP Feedback - She's made tons of progress in reading! She advanced something like 5 levels (into the 5th grade reading range) and was integrated into the classroom book clubs.
Report card feedback - she became "partially proficient" in 12 of 15 areas. The goal is proficient in all 15 areas. The other 3 - "minimally proficient"
Standardized testing - she scored 3 points lower at the end of the year than she scored at the beginning. three actual points, not three percentage points - she lost 18 percentage points relative to her peers. Whoops.
Math:
IEP Feedback - She has made more progress working with the autism teacher and focusing on one or two ways to solve the problems rather than many ways to solve the problems. She's making steady but not spectacular progress
Report card feedback - "Proficient" in 2/19 areas; "partially proficient" in 13/19 areas; "minimally proficient" in 4/19 areas (though all the minimals were in the math practices area - so things like communicating answers and being efficient).
Standardized testing - she scored 19 points higher at the end of the year - putting her at the 81st percentile. (top 20%).
Summary:
She's "minimally proficient" in most areas of math but in the top 20th percentile for all 5th graders in the district. Note - she hates math with a passion.
She gained more than 5 levels in her classroom reading index, and simultaneously became a significantly poorer reader of standardized tests. But, she loves reading and does it endlessly.
So crazy.
The other things I learned from Allison's report card.... she does not like phys-ed, but all the other specialty areas were fine.
#1 - Making Sense of the Non-Sense
#2 - Why are we shooting for "Proficient"
So - you know it - report card season!
Any assessment for Allison you have to take with a grain of salt. Good doesn't always mean good and bad sometimes just means she didn't feel like taking a test. Even so, I think the system is screwy. Heaven help the teacher whose evals or pay might depend on Allison's mood on testing day.
So - in perfect contradictory form - this is what Allison's report cards plus IEP teacher feedback plus standardized test scores indicate:
Reading:
IEP Feedback - She's made tons of progress in reading! She advanced something like 5 levels (into the 5th grade reading range) and was integrated into the classroom book clubs.
Report card feedback - she became "partially proficient" in 12 of 15 areas. The goal is proficient in all 15 areas. The other 3 - "minimally proficient"
Standardized testing - she scored 3 points lower at the end of the year than she scored at the beginning. three actual points, not three percentage points - she lost 18 percentage points relative to her peers. Whoops.
Math:
IEP Feedback - She has made more progress working with the autism teacher and focusing on one or two ways to solve the problems rather than many ways to solve the problems. She's making steady but not spectacular progress
Report card feedback - "Proficient" in 2/19 areas; "partially proficient" in 13/19 areas; "minimally proficient" in 4/19 areas (though all the minimals were in the math practices area - so things like communicating answers and being efficient).
Standardized testing - she scored 19 points higher at the end of the year - putting her at the 81st percentile. (top 20%).
Summary:
She's "minimally proficient" in most areas of math but in the top 20th percentile for all 5th graders in the district. Note - she hates math with a passion.
She gained more than 5 levels in her classroom reading index, and simultaneously became a significantly poorer reader of standardized tests. But, she loves reading and does it endlessly.
So crazy.
The other things I learned from Allison's report card.... she does not like phys-ed, but all the other specialty areas were fine.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Canoeing addendum
Jacob is back from his canoe trip. He had a great time. Tipped the canoe once. Was rescued by his friend Ian and his dad from the large rock that he'd run into (apparently the water was too deep to touch). He used his $5 to buy exclusively candy - so he's on quite the sugar high.
Canoeing
Right now - as I type - Jacob is on a canoe trip with his school and I'm trying not to worry (too much). It's true that either or Brian or I had the opportunity to go along as well, but ultimately Jacob's decision was "Nah, I'd rather canoe with my friends."
I might have influenced that decision with my lukewarm response when the field trip request came home. (I always feel a bit put-upon at the end of the school year when the kids are taking field trips every other day intermixed with parents-need-to-help at school functions - and I have limited time to finish my work projects before the kids are home for good! - Did I mention my course redesign project and two research papers which are effectively going to be shelved at 3:04pm on Friday?)
Anyway, in hindsight, I should have been more enthusiastic because it's rained the last two days (a LOT) and I'm now convinced that the river is mighty and deadly beast that will eat up my novice canoe-er. Okay, it's a little dramatic. But how guilty would I feel if something were to happen?!
Sigh - this is a good thing. One personal goal I have in 2014 is to let go a little bit with the kids. I'm not always going to be on the canoe trip with them. If I don't give them a little room to make mistakes now, they won't know how to handle bigger mistakes later. So.... I hope Jacob is enjoying the canoe trip. It's a beautiful day. I got 4 hours of work done.
It gets easier, right?
I might have influenced that decision with my lukewarm response when the field trip request came home. (I always feel a bit put-upon at the end of the school year when the kids are taking field trips every other day intermixed with parents-need-to-help at school functions - and I have limited time to finish my work projects before the kids are home for good! - Did I mention my course redesign project and two research papers which are effectively going to be shelved at 3:04pm on Friday?)
Anyway, in hindsight, I should have been more enthusiastic because it's rained the last two days (a LOT) and I'm now convinced that the river is mighty and deadly beast that will eat up my novice canoe-er. Okay, it's a little dramatic. But how guilty would I feel if something were to happen?!
Sigh - this is a good thing. One personal goal I have in 2014 is to let go a little bit with the kids. I'm not always going to be on the canoe trip with them. If I don't give them a little room to make mistakes now, they won't know how to handle bigger mistakes later. So.... I hope Jacob is enjoying the canoe trip. It's a beautiful day. I got 4 hours of work done.
It gets easier, right?
Sunday, June 1, 2014
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