Why do we test? We do a lot of accessing during the year. Currently ISATs don’t give a lot of information to the current teacher—results come back the next year, so they can’t meet the immediate needs of the students.
Assessment should: Evaluate
ISAT Test: Administered in March for grades 3-8, www.isbe.net This test features: Lexiles, National Percentile, content area achievement, scoring report comes back in fall from the spring test, extended response questions, graded by testing companies—scored by 2 people, reading and math assessed at all grades, science assessed at grades 4 and 7. Helpful to look at cohort data over time, this test will go away in 2014-2015 when we have a new national assessment. This provides only one data point of each student.
PARCC Assessment: Partnership for Assessment Readiness for College and Careers. Testing in grades 3-12.
6 purposes for assessment: Determine if students are college/career ready, Assess the Common Core State Standards, Measure the full range of student performance, Inform instruction/intervention/professional development during the an academic year, Provide data for accountability, Incorporate innovative approaches to assessments
PARCC is a national test to meet the Common Core State Standards (less standards, but more specific and higher expectations).
All computer based, results will come back in the same school year, teachers can use as an assessment tool for current teachers. More authentic assessment. Format: technology based, beyond multiple choice, writing (keyboarding). It will be important for students to learn keyboarding—resources: Franklin home page, go through library and links from there to go to keyboarding websites to practice. Students will be expected to do keyboarding at different levels for extended periods of time during the test. A computer will grade writing assessment for PARCC based on keywords, phrases, sentence structure.
Timetable: performance-based assessment at 75% mark (assessment for learning), end of year assessment at 90% mark (assessment of learning)
PARCC vs. ISAT
PBA (1-2 texts, short answer/multiple choice, short answer/multiple choice vocab, research simulation literary analysis, narrative writing)
EOY (4-5 texts, variety of content areas, plus all of the above)
CogAT: The Cognative Abilities Test (CogAT) measures students’ learned reasoning abilities in the three areas most linked to academic success in school: Verbal, Quantitive and Nonverbal. Not a tool for measuring IQ. Taken in 2nd and 5th grade. May change next year with the gifted program changing. Good tool for measuring student discrepancies. http://www.riverpub.com/products/cogAT/index.html
MAP: 1-8 grades, 2-3 times a year, at least once in spring and some in the winter. Adaptive to allow kids to go beyond a typical grade level test. Allows monitoring of student progress over time. Test is used to identify students who need interventions and/or enrichment opportunities, also used for math placement at Jr. High.
Explore Test: 8th grade to predict where the students will score on ACT test. Achievement test and suggests careers for students. High Schools have used it for placement in classes, but this is not the case anymore.
District Writing assessment, not a standardized test. Illinois writing test—2x’s a year. 9 snapshots of letters, sound, listening, one to one correspondence, sight words, developmental spelling.
Fontas and Pinnell—reading comprehension
Math—Snap Math if children are struggling
Standardized testing is one way to measure, not every way. Human capabilities are much more diverse and complex than what is measured by standardized achievement tests or school ability tests. There are many types of intelligences.
Teachers’s Report—Wayne Wittenberg
Report Passed Out:
Kindergarten: Kindergarten is working very hard to fit a full-day common core curriculum into a half-day program.
1st Grade: First grade students are excited about the visit from the DuPage Children’s Museum which is all about geometry. Thank you PTA. The students are getting ready for their combined music program and open house on Tuesday, March 19th. On April 1st (no fooling) the kids will be going to a butterfly presentation at College of DuPage. This will kick off our plant and butterfly unit.
2nd Grade: Second grade has just started their unit on Poetry. The children will be writing their own poetry books.
3rd Grade: The third graders are learning about entrepreneurs in their current social studies unit. In connection with this unit some of our own Ben Franklin parents will be coming to speak to the students about businesses they have created and what it takes be a successful entrepreneur.
4th Grade: In fourth grade we are engaged in a house designing project. Students are finding the area and perimeter of living spaces. Using the lessons on scale in EDM Unit 8, they are creating a model of their living space, complete with wall paper, and floor coverings. We brought in some experts to help us. Mrs. Walker who is an Interior designer and Mrs. Murray’s son who is studying to be an architect at Harvard.
5th Grade: In fifth grade the students are learning about the Revolutionary War. They are engaged in a research project on a historical person from the war. They are synthesizing multiple pieces of information to create their biographies. They will be communicating this information through the Living Museum in April. They are studying the diverse viewpoints that contributed to the war.
Approval of Minutes
Approved from February 2013 meeting
Executive Committee Reports
President Report: Sharon Ick
Tonight: School Board Candidate Forum Meeting 7-8:30 p.m at Hadley, 3 new board members and one incumbent
PTA Council legislative meeting April 22nd 7-8:30 p.m., representatives from our district will represent us in Springfield
Take 5 Essentials Survey, need 10% to take survey to get results back. Link on Ben Franklin PTA website
Week after spring break, April 1st: 1st graders taking field trip to COD for Farfalle show at MAC. An interactive performance incorporating STEAM.
VP Ways and Means: Rebecca Smith
Report read: Vacant Committee Chair positions for next year are the following: Book Fair/Author Visits, Fun Fair/Pumpkin Fest, Adult Fundraiser/Mardi Gras (if we decide to do), Community Outreach, Health & Wellness day/vision screening, New Family/Kindergarten Welcome, Outdoor Play/Cross Country skiing, Reflections, Staff Appreciation Week, Destination Imagination, High Interest Day, Drama Club, Talent Show
VP Report: Linda Galitz
2013-2014 School Year Slate for EC Board: VP Alison Potts, Treasurer Jennifer Chibucos, Co-Treasurer Ericka Dudley (Webstore), Secretary Jackie Wyrick, Open Co-President
Room Party Money--$4/child from parents paid at the beginning of the year. Funds not used will go toward library books: STEAM and STEM books, around $1300. Money will not be used for classroom Year End parties this year, as decided in the beginning of the year. This is money left over that was not submitted for reimbursement. Next year the EC is thinking of giving a budget for parties during the year and not asking parents for $ at the beginning of the year.
Treasurer’s Report Freida Varlas
Fundraising was big this year, we have leftover funds not being used. A PTA should have a zero budget at the beginning of the year. We should have a small budget of surplus. This has been a clean-up year to account for all funds. Next year will be a simplification year. A suggestion was made to keep fundraising separate to support social activities and not charge for social events. PTA cannot fund capital improvements in the school. Suggestion: bump up a charge on One Step—a donation for social events, room parties, etc. For the PTA budget, money has to be earmarked and put into separate funds.
Please turn in all receipts and process checks from the PTA.
Comments from Floor
Language at Lunch: Tina Hutchinson
Spanish added to curriculum for 1st grade. Suggestion to continue language at lunch for 2-5 grades next year and slowly step down over the years. French will be continued.
Book Fair Committee: Sharon Kooy, Loren Bollman, Nicole Krueger
2013-2014 Book Fair Scheduled for Nov. 7th and 8th, 2013 (Thurs./Friday during conferences)
In process of acquiring internal approvals, securing space and finalizing contract with Anderson Bookfair Co. (same vendor as last year)
HID: Meg Crum and Diane McGinley
High Interest Day is Friday, May 3rd! Currently we have 25 classes that will be offered and will be finalizing them by Monday, March 18th. We plan on presenting the list to the 4th & 5th graders and have them sign up for their choices before they leave for Spring Break. After we run their enrollment, we will then come back and offer the remaining open classes to the third graders. We will also start recruiting parent volunteers to help the class leads. For Mrs. Lipera and Mrs. Nardella’s classes, we will be keeping those students together and offer them the same classes, but slightly alter them during their time. We have been working closely with Jamie Martin, who is taking the lead for that group. If you have any questions, please contact Diane or Meg. Thank you!
