October 21, 2008

Harris School Community Council Agenda

3:15

• Pinnacle
  • The Good
    • Parent viewer
    • Consistency between teachers
      • common content
      • between content
    • Focus
      • Linking
      • Tracking
    • alignment
    • the speed
    • attendance
    • seating
  • The Bad
    • reports
    • differentiating excellence from grade level
    • assessment and objectives to match higher level thinking
    • Life Skills (which to use or not)
  • The Ugly
    • Student recognition
      • Breakfast of Champions
      • Honor Roll Party
    • School to School

Harris School Community Council Minutes

• Pinnacle --The Good

  • Keith talked about how the standard based grading and assessment came about and to accomplish this there needed to be a new grade book management system.

  • Pinnacle was the best on the market

    •     Sent out a programmer who was not as proficient as she needed to be' the installation was poorly done and the entire district and schools are suffering.

  • Parent Viewer is getting better and better

    • Able to see a lot more information for students

    • Keith feels that parents will notice more consistency between teachers, departments, and content

    • The next Proficiency Report will show practice and assessments linked to state objectives

  • Attendance is easier and faster to do.  Substitutes can also do attendance.  Teachers have the ability to build random seating charts.

• The Bad

  • Reports - some are hard to read but are getting better; district working on them

  • Some of our students are becoming unmotivated believing that they cannot do better than a three so why try.  We need to help students find ways to stretch themselves.  (Some members of the council expressed this same concern.)

  • State Standards are written at a lower thinking level.  Our test is to have assessments for the higher level thinking students.

    • During the upcoming summer, rubrics for practices and assessments will need to be developed for the purpose of meeting all student needs.

  • Life Skills - as important is the academics.

    • Parents cannot access on Parent Viewer as of today but will be able to in the future

    • Staff will discuss whether or not "working in groups" will be on the Life Skills portion of the Proficiency Report

    • Keith asked the council how they felt about "working in groups."  Responses included:

      • Is putting N/A a possibility if teachers don't have their students work in groups?

      • Just leave it off

      • Give more information to parents for understanding how parents use "working in groups".

        • How well they engage

        • All students doing share of the work

      • Will teachers make up a score if they don't use "working in groups"?

  • The Ugly

    • Student Recognition

      • Breakfast of Champions and Honor Roll Party - still working on how to determine

      • Keith gave the following information on reports that he had run.

        • 620 students

          • 27 students with an average of 3.5 in all classes

          • 0 students with a 3.5 or higher in every class

          • 13 students with a 3.3 or higher in every class

          • 89 students with an average 3.3 or higher in every class.

    • Keith went over the Flow Chart and the new improved Rubric and asked the council for feedback.  Here are some of the council members responses:

      • Parents are equating a 2.5 to a "C: and giving their children a hard time for not meeting their potential

      • Getting parents to understand a rubric and not equating to a letter grade is difficult.  One parent thought a rubric was only for Life Skills

      • Administration admits that there are problems with the system and it is being worked on--parents appreciate this honesty.

      • Are we teaching to the test?  Keith's answer: Yes we are teaching to the test (standards), but not teaching the test.  There is a big difference.

      • Concerned about students planning on college--will there be a score from 0-4?  Keith believes that higher secondary teachers will teach the standards, but will transfer to a percentage.

      • Keith restated that teachers need to give students the opportunity to remediate.  Remember that "practice" is to prepare and "assessments" are to demonstrate.

      • Teachers also need to help students connect and align knowledge and to transfer skills learning to other areas in their life.

    • Suggestions for Parent Teacher's conferences

      • Poster size "Proficiency Report" to explain how to interpret the grades for parents.

      • Copies of the Flow Chart and Rubric for parents

      • Keith and Randy will be available for parent concerns

      • One council member had a concern about one particular core.  Totally student driven and not able to visit with teachers at all.  Would like to see the teacher at least half of the time.  Asked Keith to discuss this with those teachers.