Snow closures impacted hicap testing and notification dates
Website dates are under review and will be adjusted
Hoping to know final dates by end of March
Anticipate being done by Monday March 25th for large group testing, may be more follow up after that for stragglers from oversight and mistakes – not makeups. NMS is last on 25th
Tentative dates: convene MST on March 19th, which is before end of testing to set internal thresholds for already tested kids. Start notifying kids the week following spring break. As kids test those kids will be categorized as Passed, DNQ or Need a look from the MST. All Notifications will go in backpack mail this time, not email. Emails are sent in batches and this confused families who got the robocall but no email yet. Then robocall will go to qualified families saying they got a letter in backpack mail. Then phone call to qualified families if they don’t respond.
Appeals: 10 business day window and reconvene MST (No extension). May hear about appeal by first week in May.
Backpack mail has a unique link to accept services, no sharing links
Grades 8-12 - closed
Not testing these grades, portfolio review only
Process has ended as of end of February. 6 families will be reviewed and get results first week in April by email.
Non-enrolled students – opens today till june
Non-enrolled students- on website
Must register as an NSD student first
Second – get ID number to submit in step 2
Waiting till May or so might give the student more info in the portfolio for MST to consider
District team will consider items from a menu of items plus anything else
Standards the child has been learning should be submitted
Want child to be in a classroom to learn things they have not yet learned
What has your child already learned?
Jen cannot ask for info from the school, parent has to get that info
Kindergarten
K is done and data is updated
Holistic status has been assigned and services have started
Spring portfolio review Grades 1-7
Absent, illness, not on campus, family missed the permission window
Left makeup inclusion up to schools
School may choose to put absent students in a later testing date, but hicap dept is not making this choice
Some schools have many testing days and may have extra space in classrooms and have capacity to do this
Other schools are smaller with less space and cannot do this
1st graders can only test with 1st graders, 2nd-5th graders can test together
Late April for parent notification of portfolio review determination
Online under eligibility and testing – form to request portfolio review online
They will email all families to ask if they want to have a portfolio review if they were absent, etc.
They do not need any info for the portfolio, they have it already
Teachers should not write letters of recommendation
Outside testing will not be considered for Appeal or for Portfolio review
For portfolio review, student only has current grade info to consider where tested student has grade above test…how can current students with portfolio review look like they are ahead when they are not tested a grade ahead?
Jen can only use the data points of district administered assessments – reading is only Fall and June… can we get a winter assessment added? Can ask the assessment committee.
Middle School
Students gave permission for testing and see other students testing and wonder why they aren’t testing
Wanted to reduce required testing as much as possible
If step 2 in 6th or 7th grade had 95 or above on SBA, they did not need to take IOWA for that content area
94 or below would still take the IOWA in that content area
High correlation between IOWA and SBA performance
Hicap dept missed that communication telling parents. Will double check then respond to parents. If a mistake was made by hicap dept they can retest week of march 25th
AAP
Does not have a separate curriculum
Start with assessment, then compact, increase pace, reduce repetition. This gives time to add additional projects, add a novel in ELA, go farther in springboard
In class where Challenge kids were added, it’s more difficult. Need to differentiate
Microsoft Teams can be used for building teachers to share ideas on how to differentiate in these mixed ability classrooms
Rubric seems to imply that the highest grade cannot be achieved unless extra outside work is done…equity issue. Should not require Saturday participation or NHD for example.
Jen and Asst. supers will determine the composition of Middle school classrooms next year
Next month we can invite curriculum and instruction asst supers to talk about this.
‘Challenge for all’ being expanded to all middle school grades makes it even more important to make AAP a unique level that is not infringed upon.
If middle school teachers expect hicap students to be organized and academically advanced without any instruction on basic executive function they are setting them up for failure on more than just their performance on a test. Need to teach teachers hicap kids aren’t necessarily advanced in social emotional aspects and executive function
A couple of years ago the descriptions for gened/challenge/aap in a catalog were slightly different. NHD was required for AAP but not others, AAP had an extra novel required. Now the catalog does not have these differences
Canyon park says single subject qualifiers will be placed in aap class as space allows
Counselor visits to elementary and tours at middle schools
No equity in school tours and visits from middle schools for EAP kids not in feeder elem
Middle schools don’t seem to remember they have EAP kids coming from schools that are not their feeder schools
Newly qualified 5th grade kids need a transition to Math 7/8. Should be doing tenmarks 6th grade standards to bridge the gap.
How is math being handled in neighborhood schools for EAP kids with no EAP classroom?
Professional learning communities within the buildings to look at data of grade level to implement strategies for increased results
Hicap dept is charged with fixing math model in elementary
Some small schools are small enough to do walk to math
District math committee recommended walk to math for fall of 2020
5th grade has issues: technology access, one building teacher that teaches higher level math, Minecraft for education – M$ partnership is working on this. 6 schools, 25 teachers trained march 28th April 1st, may be able to get a surface for every kid in those classrooms. Minecraft has been aligned with WA state learning standards for math up to 7th grade standards. Hope to do full implementation in fall. All kids can be assigned appropriate level and all work in the environment.
Hope to have a recommendation to present to the board in the spring with implementation by fall of 2020
Comment: For PACE most families won't move to Bear Creek from Wellington or to Frank Love from Lockwood
Q: is K-12 for Northshore Family Partnership (NFP) being taken into consideration in this plan? IF so where would it be housed
A: Not currently considering K-12 for NFP, not part of the planning
Q: Is EAP in the Home school for all schools being considered?
A:No, haven't looked at what it would take to implement multi-ability in same classroom (questioner asked: Isn't that what single subject kids are doing right now? A: Yes)
Comment: PACE gives more to Wellington that you may realize in terms of community and volunteering
Q: How many years can the new changes hold new growth?
A: Looking into 2026 for EAP
Q: Did the district do a survey of PACE parents and ask them if they would move to a new site?
A: No we did not. But we can
Q: Has the district thought about what all the moves and not having a bond to the community and school is doing to our kids? Are we causing psychological harm to them?
Q: Will current EAP teachers have an EAP position in the district if Bear Creek EAP is moved?
Q: Can current EAP students get priority for waivers to stay with their community and friends if it splits or moves to another school?
A: Maybe
Q: Did district look at changing boundaries of all schools to fix the previous adjustment that clearly wasn't a long term fix?
A: Looked at expanding boundaries of BEar Creek to have at least 2 classrooms per grade and that wasn't possible without eating into other schools with low enrollment. Did not look at redistricting whole district, mainly looked at Bear Creek to minimize disruption.
Q: Can district publish the data used to make these suggested changes?
A: EDTF data is on website... (can we get that site?)
Q: What are the special academic programs referred to?
A: EAP, NFP, PACE, Dual Language, Special Ed, Early Learning
Q: How many kids are you projecting adding to NFP by 2026?
A: Looking at 100-150 kids in the program (not taking into account adding grades 7-12 to program or program growth as NFP parents are projecting.)
Q: Did you consider closing the Bear Creek Building?
A: Considered moving Gen Ed out of building but not closing building completely. Urban Growth boundary will move at some point and it's expected over 10k more kids will be added to district at that time. Need the space.
Comment: NFP should be planned for K-12 sooner rather than later
Q: Did you consider all the aspects of moving a PACE program to another building? New teachers to be hired, new parents to be placed in roles, Financials (funds are tied to the building. if you move buildings you have to give the money to the building and start at new school with nothing or parents have to vote for money to go to new school. if parents aren't moving schools with program they might not vote to move money.)
A: We did not fully consider all of these aspects and have learned a lot in the last 2 weeks. Will consider all of this and do more research
Q: If EAP leaves Bear Creek where will the kids go?
A: kids will be split between Sunrise and Canyon creek based on their home school.
