Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Mid-Term Progress Reports

 

 Mid-term Progress Reports 


You will be very shortly receiving an Empower Mid-Term progress report for your child(ren).  This report will be used with all students moving forward, to clarify students in grade 7, 8, and 9 will receive only Empower reports.  Students in grades 10 and 11 will receive an Empower report for Proficiency Based classes AND a Powerschool report for traditionally scored classes.  Students in Grade 12 will get an Empower report with only the Habits of Work reported AND a Powerschool report with all their traditional scores.  All students are receiving a Habits of Work report, which is one piece of eligibility for co and extracurricular involvement for all students.
We do have Empower parent accounts set up for all students and their families.  Please contact the school if you would like your login information as soon as possible.  Otherwise our plan is to have login information available for you during Parent Teacher Conferences on Thursday, Nov. 10th. We will also we offering sessions on how to access Empower that day beginning every 30 minutes to help parents navigate this new Learning Management System. More information will follow shortly concerning Parent Teacher Conferences.
Just a reminder to parents – the proficiency scores the district has adopted is not comparable to the traditional 100-point scale.  For example a 4 does not equal a 100, our 4-point scale is used to indicate the student's growth in meeting learning targets. A score of 2 or 2.5 shows that the student is in the process of learning the skills and strategies necessary to reach the level of complexity necessary to meet the rigor of the standards.  Meeting the standards necessary for graduation is the basis of our work here at MSAD #27. A score of 3 means the student has meet the standard a score of 4 means the student can apply the information at a higher degree of complexity, it does not mean they have a 100. We will be offering opportunities for 4 level work in both the middle and high school. We will continue to educate students, parents, and the community on this shift away from traditional grading practices.
Middle school parents are also receiving their students STAR reports in Math and Language Arts. (We no longer use NWEA.)  High School students will receive their reports during Parent Teacher Conferences on Nov. 10th.
Please contact the school should you have any questions about these new learner reports.  We welcome the opportunity to help you understand these educational changes and how it applies to your child(ren)’s progression through the curriculum.