News and Notes
Friday, November 11, 2011
1. Reminder: No School on Tuesday, November 15th due to a teacher professional development day.
2. Below is some information regarding recent changes in our state as we work to “raise the bar” for every student. We have been working diligently as a staff to prepare for the new rigorous curriculum and below are 5 things that would be helpful for parents to know as we endeavor to keep you informed.
5 THINGS PARENTS NEED TO KNOW
A NEW DEFINITON OF PROFICIENT ON STATE REQUIRED TESTS
1. Each year, public school students in grades 3-5 take the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test.
2. The Michigan State Board of Education recently approved new MEAP “cut scores” for Mathematics, Reading, Science and Social Studies. A cut score is the score that separates test takers into various categories, such as advanced, proficient, partially proficient and not proficient.
3. The new cut scores are higher and “raise the bar” for our students. They are intended to be a better measure of student progress toward being career and college ready.
4. While we anticipate an initial decline in the number of students reported as “proficient,” we are confident this change will be temporary due to ongoing school improvement efforts and student support.
5. If your student is reported as “not proficient,” it does not mean that your student isn’t gaining academic skills or is falling behind. It means that on the day of the test, your student was not yet proficient on the material being tested. Several other measures are used in our district throughout the year to insure that your student is making academic progress.
We maintain high standards for our students and their test scores are consistently among the highest in the area. We anticipate this trend will continue even with the new cut scores.
If you would like additional information about changes to the MEAP please feel free to contact me.
Have a wonderful and safe weekend! Don’t forget the Family Movie Night tonight at BCHS auditorium.
Rod Dishaw, Principal