May 13-17

Hi Everyone!

As you may know last week we finished with our California Standards Testing (CST’s) and we look to get those results in early August. This week many of our students have begun taking the District Local Measures Assessments, measuring progress in Reading, Writing and Math. These assessments are more aligned to the new Common Core Standards and therefore are very rigorous compared to the CST’s. The biggest difference is rather than filling in a multiple choice bubble, students must be able to fully explain their answers. In most cases this requires students to write out their answers in full sentences and/or through the use of pictures. Also, since our focus this year has been on California Standards and not the Common Core, teachers are still becoming familiar with the new standards as they continue to improve their instructional techniques. I would expect most students to have contradictory results, where they show proficiency on one assessment, but not the other. In my opinion, this is fairly typical when implementing new standards and assessments. Knowing this challenge exists we are committed to ensure your children receive the necessary  instruction to be successful in all measures and will work diligently to prepare ourselves.

What follows is a letter being distributed by the District to give you more information about the Local Measures Reading Assessment taken by all 2nd through 6th grade students:

LevelSet is an online reading assessment tool that measures your child’s nonfiction reading skills.

Achieve3000’s LevelSet offers a scientific means of matching students to informational text.  Developed by Achieve3000 in conjunction with MetaMetrics Inc., this summative assessment provides a measure of student ability to read and comprehend non-fiction texts.

Here’s how it works:

  • To begin the LevelSet assessment, students simply log onto Achieve3000 Solutions using their pre-assigned usernames and passwords.
  • They read a series of approximately 30 paragraph-long passages and answer a cloze style (fill in the blank) question about each one.

The assessment usually takes just one class period (30-40 minutes) and results in an individual Lexile placement score for each student.

Frequently Asked Questions about LevelSet and the Lexile Framework®

What do the Lexile® results mean?
LevelSet reports student performance on a Lexile scale. The scale ranges from one for beginning readers to above 1350 for highly advanced readers. The Lexile Framework is a scientific approach to reading and text measurement that has become the most widely adopted reading measure in use today. For example, if a student scores a 600L, his score is translated to a 3 and he receives reading materials appropriate for a student reading at approximately a third grade level. Note that BR indicates that the student is a beginning reader. AR indicates that the student is an advanced reader.

Is my child on track for college and career?
The chart that follows can help you understand whether your child is considered “on track for college and career readiness” as defined by the Common Core State Standards. Refer to the appropriate grade level to see whether your child is on track. For example, if your child is in the fourth grade, refer to the Grade 4 row. This row indicates that a Lexile of 740L and higher is considered on track.

An additional PRE reading level is available upon request for students who score below a 150 Lexile. If teachers do not enable the PRE level, all students who score below 290 Lexile will receive the BR level.

College and Career Readiness

Not   On Track

On   Track

Grade

Falls   Far Below

Approaches

Meets

Exceeds

1

-111   and Below

-110   to 185L

190L   to 530L

535L   and Above

2

150L   and Below

155L   to 415L

420L   to 650L

655L   and Above

3

265L   and Below

270L   to 515L

520L   to 820L

825L   and Above

4

385L   and Below

390L   to 735L

740L   to 940L

945L   and Above

5

500L   and Below

505L   to 825L

830L   to 1010L

1015L   and Above

6

555L   and Below

560L   to 920L

925L   to 1070L

1075L   and Above

7

625L   and Below

630L   to 965L

970L   to 1120L

1125L   and Above

8

660L   and Below

665L   to 1005L

1010L   to 1185L

1190L   and Above

9

775L   and Below

780L   to 1045L

1050L   to 1260L

1265L   and Above

10

830L   and Below

835L   to 1075L

1080L   to 1335L

1340L   and Above

11/12

950L   and Below

955L   to 1180L

1185L   to 1385L

1390L   and Above

May 6-10

Happy Gloomy Rainy Monday Everyone! Well even though this week has started with gloomy weather, I hope you all had a great weekend and I’m looking forward to a great week.

STAR testing is just about over for all the kids (whew!), but we still have our local District assessments (Local Measures) that we’ll need to give during this week and the weeks to come. Students will be assessed in Reading, Writing, and Math. These assessments give us another opportunity to assess student mastery in their grade level. In many ways these assesments are much more challenging than the CST’s, as they are aligned more closely to the new Common Core Standards and they require students to fully explain their responses. Most teachers have just begun introducing these new standards, but the information from the Local Measures give us a baseline starting point where we can identify where the gaps are and work towards closing them. Please continue to send your kids to school on time and ready for the day.

This is also a special week because on May 8, it is officially Teacher Appreciation Day. Our teachers work extrememly hard and generously give their own time and hard earned money to make sure the students can be successful. I’m always amazed at how often I see teachers stay far past their contracted (3 pm) release time. Most teachers provide after school tutoring, or support kids during their lunch and other breaks. In addition, the complexity of the new standards require hours of preparation, most of which is completed on their own time. However, this is all done happily, especially when they see the positive impact this has on the kids. I encourage you to write a simple note to your child’s teacher thanking them or maybe sharing a story of the academic growth or excitement you have seen in your child this year. I would also encourage you to see if you can find one of your teachers that made an impact in your life and let them know how you’re doing. These are the things we love to hear!