Monday, March 25, 2019

Minutes from the 3/4/2019 Meeting

  • 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.
    • April 16th 10am next meeting