HiCap Parents Council Meeting
No reading/discussion today; if you have a reading suggestion, contact Austina
Amity updates
Makeups will happen in January
Invited to test
1,300 K
1,500 1st
~490 got 95th plus percentile
~662 passed 0 screeners (including iReady)
690 invited to test
434 tested in Math
398 tested in reading
These numbers should be the same since all 1st graders take both sections, but kids miss for various reasons and will be caught up in January
400 2nd (includes referrals and new to the district)
500 3rd
400 4th
1,200 5th
350 6th grade
Fairly high number of students testing in 6th and 7th grades
Some kids missed the NNAT3, so will have to test those
Will pull NVP students in in January either by bringing them in for the test or back at their home schools if they return to in-person learning
Amity and Elizabeth hosted an evening for early qualifiers
Approximately 100 families attended
Some parents want a firm answer on where students will attend, but Amity doesn’t have sole control of the situation. Advise these parents to say yes now and back out if the schools don’t work for them
Austina has a sense that people are moving to the district for EAP and asked how many new to district students there were this year and how it compared to the past
This is a tricky question to answer directly as all K students are new to the district and some 1st graders may be as well due to skipping virtual kindergarten during the pandemic
Angie gave answers to this a few minutes later:
3,470 students were new to the district in 2019-’20
2,758 new students in 2020-’21
3,013 new students in 2021-’22
About 1,500 in kindergarten for each year
Council questions
No High School updates
Steven opened eyes to what the district can do as far as making a better, more searchable course catalog, but they probably need to do something through their own systems, and this is probably best worked on through Angie
Amity, Obi, and Angie need to meet regarding the infrastructure
Steven offered to attend this meeting if it is helpful
Some of the course registration data is in a database and some isn’t; they need to figure out those details as well
Myriam wants us to not get distracted from the core issue of more useful descriptions and equivalent rigor between the comprehensive high schools
These are more difficult issues to attack but at least it is a place to start
Maybe the database combination brings it together?
Question about stopping iReady for AAP
Amity hasn’t had a chance to discuss this yet
Amity has no need for the diagnostic at this level (or for programs beyond hicap)
Question about students being tested without parents’ permission
A few kids will accidentally be tested
Amity apologizes to parents if it happens
A lot of attention is paid to this
Mistakes happened mostly in middle schools where 150 students come in at once and proctors are working hard to get everyone signed in and testing so the 30-minute test can be completed in the allotted 45 minute testing session
Question about dual taught classes: more information is needed
Why is there no accelerated math before 4th grade?
Some schools have figured out how to accelerate math for younger students within their own building (this doesn’t need Amity’s oversight)
We focused on 4th and 5th grade because if there is no EAP in the building NO ONE is teaching 6th/7th grade math there
Hillarie says she’s heard this complaint from non-qualifiers and wondered if this is perhaps a curriculum problem; not challenging kids leads to behavior problems
Sunrise used to have walk to math but they don’t now in the pandemic
Karishma suggests sharing the best practices of what is working in s some schools
There is a feeling from parents of single-subject qualifiers of, “Why test my kid if you offer them nothing?”
There are also parents asking for walk to reading as well
Karen reports that at Kenmore clustered hicap and bright kids come together for math enrichment (and the same for reading), but it seems this solution is teacher dependent
Question about school next year for Hicap class at Kenmore Elementary
Hilliarie reported that the addition of a hicap class at Kenmore has gone well, but parents are worried about what will happen for school next year
It seems that the school/teacher aren’t comfortable telling the families that they will stay next year
Amity said that the expectation of schools outside of the prior feeder pattern that wanted to add classes was that they were required to see those students through the rest of their elementary years
Amity isn’t fond of 3rd/4th grade splits but they can do that if necessary
Amity cannot promise that the program at Kenmore will grow
There was a request that teachers and families be officially told that they will remain at Kenmore next year and Amity said they already have been told this
More on testing
Amity will NOT test elementary students during the first week back from break (many simply haven’t come back yet) but may try for middle schools if students are back
Karen wanted to know if, to grow the program, you can add kids who didn’t qualify on the test but could handle the material
Answer is no
Also, no pencils are involved in testing so that gets rid of a lot of dysgraphia concerns
Amity, Angie, and Nancy leave the meeting
Council updates
Treasury update with Lauren
We currently have $1,677.13
We do get some donations and some Amazon Smile donations
We don’t feel the need for a major fundraiser
We are renewed (not-for-profit paperwork) with the state
Update on council conferred Teacher awards?
Imen, who volunteered to lead, was not in attendance
We probably need to start the nomination process by February
Terri Kashi is willing to reach out and work with Imen on this
We asked for them to report back to the council
Update on priorities
High school updates with Myriam
Have met and Amity is meeting with Obi
Not sure much will change for registration this year as the process starts in February
Myriam will touch base with Amity at the end of the week
Conversation about AP classes and how much info they are covering and whether students would be able to get a ⅘ based on what was taught in class
Want to look at score data at different comprehensive high schools to see
Content may not be challenging enough for all students
Laurie Ferraiolo, a former council member, is getting involved and sent an email to Juan and Amity about how AP test scores are used for credit by several colleges/universities
Not all (students/family/staff/teachers) understand that a 3 on the AP exam is NOT sufficient to get a student college credit for AP coursework
Teacher grades have nothing to do with whether or not a student receives college credit; credit given is determined solely on performance on AP exam
It is a problem that teachers aren’t aiming to help kids get a 5
Schools have records of AP scores (also the College Board and OSPI)
Historically, arguing on principle has not been effected, so we need to try arguing based on data, which principals should already have
Science & Social Studies Curriculum with Hillarie
Karen volunteered to help
Group hasn’t set up a meeting yet
Guessing that Terra was the one who said she had information for Hillarie on this topic
Writing Curriculum with Terra: no update; Terra not in attendance
Professional Development (PD) with Audrey
A few people involved will look at PD in schools, district, and state
On Dec. 14th, Audrey got an email regarding a bill in the state legislature that didn’t make it to the governor; learned that the new version of the bill removed the PD piece
Austina said that in the past they had thought to require PD in teachers’ colleges but that part needed more work and had to be removed from the piece of legislation
Bill includes a mandate for universal screening at or before 2nd grade and at or before 6th grade
Amity helped with this by providing financial data showing that universal screening is 50% cheaper than referral with out of school testing
Saturday is an overtime day and testing everyone at once requires a ton of proctors
Universal screening also attempts to catch ELL, free/reduce lunch, and twice-exceptional students (who might not receive a referral)
Austina said the bill was aiming for items that don’t require money since the financial committees don’t want to allocate money for hicap and because they have not managed to get any hicap related bills to pass in the last 4 years
Audrey was going to reach out to School Board Member Amy Cast
We know that all teachers need PD
Steven stated that he has a client in Bellevue, Bureau of Education and Research (ber.org), who runs continuing education classes for the country and opined that perhaps we could create a course for them to offer
Austina shared that there are statewide free PD classes for hicap already and that the people who need the training don’t volunteer to use clock hours on this topic
Discussed that we might be at the point where ALL teachers need an hour of training on the topic of highly capable students/education (with Dr. Reid’s support)
Voice a hope that teachers who teach hicap students are required to show up
Given the current student mental health concerns, the district is providing mental health training
Perhaps we could pair hicap to this effort by discussing concerns over these students’ emotional health
Can tie to lockdown anger as a request for change, but this approach is tricky because you don’t want to paint HC students as a threat or all suffering from mental health issues
Liz is working on getting more challenging books for the Hollywood Hill library
