As a North HS community, and as a district, we have obviously been on a journey in pursuing reading proficiency for our students. This is a challenging task...if it wasn’t, there wouldn’t be national discussions about it. Disciplinary Literacy challenges us as educators to teach students how to read as though they are historians, scientists, musicians, etc. So, the expectation is that we, as adults, continue to find ways to engage our students in reading within our specific content areas.
The recent collection of data is showing we are making progress with the students who have been with us for a couple years, and it also shows we are struggling to serve those freshmen who come to us with deficits. While we definitely have celebrations, we also need to problem solve around how to quickly get to those kids who are transitioning to us from 8th grade.
At this point, our main data point is MAP. Soon, we will have a second data point of Aspire for our 9th graders and also another MAP score for all freshmen and selected upperclassmen.
What can we do to continue toward our goal of 80% proficiency? Well...we have familiar tools at our disposal. MAP DesCartes, Achieve 3000, NewsELA, SDW One-Line Rubrics, etc. Programs, alone, will not solve this problem. Students will not be motivated to work on a device to get better at reading. However, they are motivated by their relationships with their teachers and by understanding what it is they need to do to improve. What should be our priority? Continue to build relationships with students, engage them in understanding their strengths and challenges in reading, set goals with them, and be consistent in using the tools we have to help. #1 tool that we need to gain familiarity with to move kids forward is the MAP DesCartes. If you are not comfortable working with this tool, look for an upcoming workshop to explore it. If you know about it...DIG IN! This tool should help drive your instruction and conversations with students.
Strengths:
-Overall, there is a decrease of 90 students who qualify for AO support, which is the “Tier2A.”
-25 fewer students in the class of 2017 (Sophs), qualify for less intervention since SP14.
-50 fewer students in the class of 2016 (Jrs.), qualify for less intervention since SP14.
Challenges:
-The class of 2018 (Freshmen), experienced an increase in the number of students who qualify for more intense interventions, as 38 more students showed a need for “Tier2B” support.
Summary:
-The interventions our Sophs-Srs. have received over the past 2-3 years have seemed to build enough skills in our students so that in the class of 2015, 86% had reached the proficiency SP14. In the class of 2016, 89% of their class of 273 total students have reached benchmark and the 11% of the class that is left is what our state report card is showing to be the population of Special Education students in our building. In the class of 2017, 80% of their class of 310 total students have reached the benchmark. The longer we have students, the more they demonstrate proficiency.
Classroom Connections:
*Teacher analysis of the Des Cartes RIT band breakdown in order to differentiate for kids and then use Achieve 3000 to find resources to address the different needs in the classroom, so that students are reading at appropriate levels.
*Teachers conferring and collaborating with students to create their student learner profile around MAP data and general goal setting.
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