Principal's Letter

Dear Parents,

On behalf of the Faculty and Staff, thank you for your very thoughtful and 
generous Christmas gifts. We hope you had a peaceful and blessed Christmas season.

Students in Kindergarten to 8th Grade will participate in round two of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) Assessment. The MAP assessment will once again be administered in the computer lab. Students in Kindergarten,
1st and 2nd grade will participate in a Reading and Mathematics Assessment, and students in grades 3 to 8 will participate in Reading, Grammar and Mathematic Assessments. Each test, while untimed, typically takes less than an hour.

As a reminder, the MAP Assessment is an adaptive form of technology, meaning that it will adapt to the student's individual progress. Every student will be presented with individualized questions, tailored to their specific needs. If your child answers a question correctly, the test follows up with a more challenging question. Conversely, if your child answers incorrectly, the test follows up with an easier question, until a baseline can be established.

Students are not given a grade on the assessment, nor will it be used towards the promotion or retention of any student. The MAP Assessment will give students a RIT score, which is strictly used to measure a student's
achievement level at different times of the school year and to compute growth.

The data gathered from this second round of assessments will be used as a tool to monitor the growth of our students over the last three months.

As the MAP Assessment is done electronically, student results are made immediately available. With this immediate feedback, we will be able to work towards addressing differentiated instruction for each student without delay.

If you would like to see a sample of the MAP Assessment, please visit warmup.nwea.org. Should you have any questions of the MAP Assessment, please feel free to reach out to me.

Midterm exams begin, January 16th for grades 3-8. The first semester will end January 29th and report cards distributed February 8TH. You will receive two copies of the report card; one for your records and one to be signed and returned to your child's teacher. Report card conferences are required only for students doing poorly at the end of the semester. Please make note that if in June, a child is failing one subject they may be required to attend summer school but if they are failing two or more subjects they may not be promoted to the next grade. (There will be a parenUteacher conference in the third quarter.) Report Cards will not be released to families with outstanding tuition or afterschool bills.

We have a number of Open House opportunities during January and February including Touring Tuesdays. Please check the calendar and spread the word to your friends and neighbors about our great school. Registration for Kindergarten is open! Parents of PREK4 and UPK students please refer to registration packet for details.

Wishing you Peace, Health and Happiness for 2018!


Geraldine Lavery 
principal