Viking Cheers!! Focus on the Fabulous!!
At our all staff gathering, it was so impressive to hear about all the accomplishments our district has made over the last year! From launching rockets, to TCAP successes, to the variety of recognitions and awards our teachers and schools have received… all I can say is- it’s good to be a Center Viking! What a great way to get us pumped up and motivated for a brand new year in our beautiful building. It’s rewarding to see how everybody contributes to the process and works together to make great things happen. It is evident in our district that EVERYONE is committed to excellence in ALL they do EVERY day.
TCAP results
Mr. Welsh gave an overview of each school’s performance on TCAP
at the all staff gathering. All the hard work of our middle school staff has paid off again and we were able to maintain our growth above the 50%ile for another year in reading, writing and math. Way to go Skoglund Staff! I would say good job, but we learned at our Kagan training that that is just too general, so instead I will say, “Your educational brilliance astounds me!” I will review the data in detail with staff at our next middle school staff meeting, but wanted to give you a little more of a breakdown to acknowledge your efforts. Looking at the historic trends of our TCAP results in reading, we increased our scores by 9 points in 6thgrade and 19 points in 7th grade. The historic trends compare different groups of students, last year’s 8th graders to this year’s 8th graders. This type of comparison gives us a general idea of how each grade is doing on average each year. Looking at growth margins, which compare the same group of students over time, our 6th grade class showed an increase of 2 percentage points, and our 7th and 8th graders showed an increase of 10%. Overall, our students showed growth in reading across the board! Our historic trend in writing at the 6thgrade level was an increase of 7 points and at the 7th grade level there was an increase of 7 points. Our growth percentages were up 3 in 6th grade and up 8 in 7thgrade and about the same as last year in 8th grade. Our 6th grade math students showed a 5 point gain historically and a 13 point gain in 7th grade. The growth margins in math were up 3% in 7th and 8th grade. Our 7th graders were probably our strongest performing class, but each grade level showed solid growth in two of the three areas tested!
at the all staff gathering. All the hard work of our middle school staff has paid off again and we were able to maintain our growth above the 50%ile for another year in reading, writing and math. Way to go Skoglund Staff! I would say good job, but we learned at our Kagan training that that is just too general, so instead I will say, “Your educational brilliance astounds me!” I will review the data in detail with staff at our next middle school staff meeting, but wanted to give you a little more of a breakdown to acknowledge your efforts. Looking at the historic trends of our TCAP results in reading, we increased our scores by 9 points in 6thgrade and 19 points in 7th grade. The historic trends compare different groups of students, last year’s 8th graders to this year’s 8th graders. This type of comparison gives us a general idea of how each grade is doing on average each year. Looking at growth margins, which compare the same group of students over time, our 6th grade class showed an increase of 2 percentage points, and our 7th and 8th graders showed an increase of 10%. Overall, our students showed growth in reading across the board! Our historic trend in writing at the 6thgrade level was an increase of 7 points and at the 7th grade level there was an increase of 7 points. Our growth percentages were up 3 in 6th grade and up 8 in 7thgrade and about the same as last year in 8th grade. Our 6th grade math students showed a 5 point gain historically and a 13 point gain in 7th grade. The growth margins in math were up 3% in 7th and 8th grade. Our 7th graders were probably our strongest performing class, but each grade level showed solid growth in two of the three areas tested!
Rewind
As a district, all of our teaching staff spent the first three days of last week at Adams State learning about Kagan Cooperative Learning Strategies. This was a great training as we were able to see how these strategies could be incorporated into daily instruction. We learned by doing, as we had numerous opportunities to participate in effective ways to actively engage students in the learning process. This is one of the areas that we will focus on as a district to ensure that we are providing students with high quality instruction, and this in turn, will lead to high achievement for all. We will add this component to our lesson plans and will identify how students are being engaged in classes during our walkthroughs.
Wednesday afternoon I attended the first middle school Athletic Directors’ meeting for the year. We reviewed changes that were made to the by-laws last year and finalized schedules for our upcoming fall sports seasons. Practices for middle school football, volleyball and cross country will be starting up in a couple of weeks and games will be held the first week of school.
I will be sending out the schedules as soon as coaching positions are finalized.
Thursday I spent the majority of the day working on the Jump Start schedule. Students initially qualified for JS based on Unsatisfactory and PP low scores from TCAP. This year we had quite a few more students attending JS based on NWEA testing and the students’ fall scores not falling in the specified range compared to spring scores. Our Jump Start program
reinforces our core belief that with our support all students can achieve at high levels. The students that will be
attending JS need intensive instruction in specific areas to raise their achievement level so that they are performing at grade level. This core belief will be our guiding principle for the next three weeks- We believe all kids can perform at high levels with our support.
Wednesday afternoon I attended the first middle school Athletic Directors’ meeting for the year. We reviewed changes that were made to the by-laws last year and finalized schedules for our upcoming fall sports seasons. Practices for middle school football, volleyball and cross country will be starting up in a couple of weeks and games will be held the first week of school.
I will be sending out the schedules as soon as coaching positions are finalized.
Thursday I spent the majority of the day working on the Jump Start schedule. Students initially qualified for JS based on Unsatisfactory and PP low scores from TCAP. This year we had quite a few more students attending JS based on NWEA testing and the students’ fall scores not falling in the specified range compared to spring scores. Our Jump Start program
reinforces our core belief that with our support all students can achieve at high levels. The students that will be
attending JS need intensive instruction in specific areas to raise their achievement level so that they are performing at grade level. This core belief will be our guiding principle for the next three weeks- We believe all kids can perform at high levels with our support.
Forward Focus
We will welcome our Jump Start students to school on Monday. Thanks to Marsha, we will
be able to hand out their individual schedules as they enter the building and students will be able to head to their first hour classes. Julio set the bells for us, so we should be ready to roll! Thanks Julio. Wednesday I will be attending an administrative PLC training for
our upcoming RTTT collaborative. I will also be participating in a Reading Plus Administrative Webinar with Lori on Wednesday, to prepare for this new element of our middle school reading program. Thursday morning I will attend a CDE/TED meeting at Adams State to help with their accreditation process and to make preparations for our upcoming partnership. I’m sure the week will be eventful as we try our wings in our
new building for the first time. Have a great week and remember……Cha ching! You’re ALL winners!
be able to hand out their individual schedules as they enter the building and students will be able to head to their first hour classes. Julio set the bells for us, so we should be ready to roll! Thanks Julio. Wednesday I will be attending an administrative PLC training for
our upcoming RTTT collaborative. I will also be participating in a Reading Plus Administrative Webinar with Lori on Wednesday, to prepare for this new element of our middle school reading program. Thursday morning I will attend a CDE/TED meeting at Adams State to help with their accreditation process and to make preparations for our upcoming partnership. I’m sure the week will be eventful as we try our wings in our
new building for the first time. Have a great week and remember……Cha ching! You’re ALL winners!