Parent/Teacher Conferences
We look forward to meeting with all of you during our parent/teacher conferences, which are scheduled for March 21st, from 8:30 am - 8:00 pm, and March 22nd, from 8:30 am - noon. Conferences are scheduled for 20 minutes to provide you with a summary of your child's strengths, needs and areas of growth. Most families signed up for a spring conference during our fall Open House. Teachers will be sending out reminders later this month. Where we have set aside this time specifically to conference with you, we hope that you will be able to attend at your designated time. We understand that some families may be heading out of town during the conference days. If this is the case, an option that may allow you to keep your scheduled conference time, is to conduct a phone conference with your child's teacher. Otherwise, our teachers will do their best to reschedule a time during regular school office hours (8:30 am - 4 pm). If you are new to our school and do not have a spring conference time, your child's teacher will be contacting you to arrange a conference. Our students have worked very hard this trimester and we look forward to celebrating this with you!
A word about ISAT's from the Illinois State board of Education
We look forward to meeting with all of you during our parent/teacher conferences, which are scheduled for March 21st, from 8:30 am - 8:00 pm, and March 22nd, from 8:30 am - noon. Conferences are scheduled for 20 minutes to provide you with a summary of your child's strengths, needs and areas of growth. Most families signed up for a spring conference during our fall Open House. Teachers will be sending out reminders later this month. Where we have set aside this time specifically to conference with you, we hope that you will be able to attend at your designated time. We understand that some families may be heading out of town during the conference days. If this is the case, an option that may allow you to keep your scheduled conference time, is to conduct a phone conference with your child's teacher. Otherwise, our teachers will do their best to reschedule a time during regular school office hours (8:30 am - 4 pm). If you are new to our school and do not have a spring conference time, your child's teacher will be contacting you to arrange a conference. Our students have worked very hard this trimester and we look forward to celebrating this with you!
A word about ISAT's from the Illinois State board of Education
Illinois schools, have begun implementing
the Common Core State Standards, which outline the skills and content our
students must master at each grade level to continue on the path to college and
career readiness. These higher, deeper and clearer standards for Math and
English Language Arts will ensure that our students leave high school equipped
with the proper tools for success.
As we focus on preparing students for college and careers, the performance levels of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) must be changed accordingly. The state has determined that the current expectations for our students in grades 3-8 are too low and do not give an accurate picture of a student’s ability to succeed in college and the workforce. Therefore, the Illinois State Board of Education is raising the bar on the ISAT performance expectations in Math and English Language Arts for elementary and middle school students to bring them into line with the Common Core’s more rigorous standards.
These higher expectations will cause the number of students who meet and exceed standards to drop significantly. Some students who previously met or exceeded standards will be classified as needing improvement. However, these new expectations do not mean that our students know less than they did before or are less capable than they were in previous years. Instead, ISBE is simply expecting more of students going forward to show their progress toward college and career-readiness benchmarks.
The new performance expectations for the ISAT will provide a more accurate reflection of whether a student is on track for college and the workforce. Our staff will be able to provide the appropriate support and interventions for your student based on the new learning standards at an earlier point in their academic career and thus boost their chances for success beyond high school.
The new expectations also pave the way for the state to replace the ISAT tests in Math and English Language Arts with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments. The PARCC exams will align to the Common Core State Standards and provide better information about students’ abilities to master the appropriate skills and content benchmarks for college and careers. Unlike the ISAT, which is given once a year, the PARCC tests will be given more than once during the school year. The PARCC exams will provide teachers, parents and students a clearer, more detailed picture of student’s strengths and areas that need improvement. The transition to the PARCC tests is scheduled for the 2014-2015 school year.
Later this year, the state will provide us with information regarding how our students’ 2012 performance levels compare to what is expected under the new performance levels. The ISAT data collected this spring will then be analyzed using the new expectations and released in the fall.
Though more difficult, these higher standards will better position students to tackle the challenges of college and careers. And we are confident that our students will rise to the occasion.
For more information please click HERE to view the ISAT parent FAQ's provided by the Illinois State Board of Education.
