OSP Connected
February, 2019-Office for School Performance-Volume 26
Message from Dayle
One of the most interesting aspects of my job is what I hear about “the district”. When I am talking with someone serving kids in a school and they tell me about a frustration or concern about a rule, the story often ends with “the district said/won’t let us/expects….” The frustration is real.
Now, I know there are rules that we have to abide by and follow. Many of them are laws, some are policy, and some are contracts. Many of these rules are in place to ensure equity, access, student rights and to protect staff. That’s good. There are other rules that were created by groups of staff or other stakeholders that created them for good reason. But other rules we follow because it’s just “what we have always done” , some are simply unchallenged and the worst of all because “someone told me to”.
To be honest, there are only a few people who are viewed to be more “the district” than me. There are so many people who work at the AC who had previously worked in our schools in every capacity as your colleagues - teachers, administrators, bilingual assistants, classified staff, and some who were your former students! We are all trying our best to work to strengthen our system, and we are so thankful for the input and suggestions of the staff as we walk through the buildings, sit with you side-by-side in meetings, and gather input from surveys. We know that no one knows better than the people in the classrooms with kids what it is like day-to-day; the more communication we can all have around the needs of our students, the more the "rules" we have for kids can be relevant and purposeful.
For those of you who know me you know one of my guiding statements is, “I follow all rules that make sense for kids.” Let’s face it--some of the rules we are following make no sense for kids and they need us to question them. We need to ask about the root of the rule and if it needs reexamined. These rules need us to ask about their applicability to the kids we serve now.
Grant Corliss, Audrea Neville and I are always walking your buildings with your administrators. Our jobs are to support the work of schools on behalf of kids and help the adults be amazing. Please continue to ask us if a “rule” seems off so that we can dig into the challenge and find out if the rule is still applicable to the kids we serve. Don’t follow rules that frustrate you and don’t seem right- as a district let’s talk about it and learn together. I never mind a question with kids' needs at the center. Not everything can be changed but some things can! If you are in a meeting or a discussion and this issue comes up, say something! Continue to advocate for what you believe is best for kids and we will work to improve it. I am not “the district”. I’ve looked high and low and I can’t really find “the district”. Because, collectively it’s us. Let’s be “the district” that follows (and creates, alters and improves) all rules that make sense for kids.
HSD Focus 2018-2019
INSTRUCTION: Activating Learners as Instructional Resources for One Another
Another key strategy for Assessment for Learning that drives instruction from Dylan William focuses on activating students to be instructional resources for one another. The Handbook for Embedded Formative Assessment by Solution Tree addresses effective ways in which teachers can enable students to work collaboratively to become meaningful, valuable resources for each other’s learning. Collaborative groups must be structured in a way that students are working toward the same goal and central theme, have individual accountability, emphasize higher-level thinking, receive input from other groups, and roles are assigned to each member. William states that this is essential in student learning because of the following four main factors:
Motivation: student help their peers learn because, in well structured cooperative settings, it is in their own interest to do so, and so effort increases.
Social cohesion: Students help their peers because the care about the group, again leading to increased effort.
Personalization: Students learn more because their more able peers can engage with the particular difficulties a student is having.
Cognitive elaboration: Student who provide help in a group setting have to think through the ideas more clearly.
When these factors are strategically considered when creating collaborative groups, students begin to take ownership of their own learning and find the intrinsic motivation to achieve their goals. Consider analyzing your collaborative group structures and sharing your techniques with your colleague next door. For more collaboration techniques check out this link.
BUILDING STRONG RELATIONSHIPS through Culturally Responsive Teaching: Therapeutic Encounters
CAREER & COLLEGE READY: Purposeful Dual Credit
Dual credit is the opportunity for high school students to earn college credit while still in high school, some of our partnerships are Northwest Promise, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland Community College, Portland State University, Southern Oregon University, and Western Oregon University. Upon completion of the course, students can earn both high school credit as well as college credit that is reflected in a transcript from the post-secondary institution. It should be known that when students enroll in a high school dual credit-articulated course, it is not guaranteed they will receive college credit. Students who elect to take dual credit should consider how the course will align with their post-secondary goals. Unsatisfactory and/or failing grades can have a negative impact on a student’s financial aid opportunities and potential OSAA eligibility. Additionally, credits earned in high school count toward the 90 credit maximum for the Oregon Promise grant, for more information on this please click here. If you are interested in offering dual credit within your high school course the application is open for 2019-20! Please speak to your building administrator and contact Raya Nichols, nicholsr@hsd.k12.or.us.
New This Year: Revised Science Assessment
This year, the mandatory science test for students in grades 5, 8 and high school is all new and fully aligned to the Oregon Science Standards (Next Generation Science Standards - NGSS), which were adopted by the Oregon State Board of Education in 2014.
Important Changes
The revised assessment will be more accurate in determining how well students are doing learning science concepts in our classrooms.
Students will now have a single opportunity to take the science test.
Schools will no longer be allowed to retest students when they do not meet the standard nor retest with parent permission when they do meet the standard.
High school students who met the proficient level on the previous OAKS Science assessment in grades 9 or 10 will not be required to take the new NGSS Assessment in 2018-19.
High school students who have not achieved a proficient level or higher score must participate in the assessment again in order to meet high school testing participation requirements.
Students will not see instant scores after finishing the test as they had in previous years.
The District will be providing scores to students and families as soon as they are available from the state once that process is completed - likely sometime in the fall of 2019. The testing window for science opens February 6 and closes in early June. Each school sets their own schedule for when state tests will be administered within the testing windows. You should be hearing from your student’s school regarding the pacing of the science assessment along with other state tests in math and language arts.
More information about the new assessment may be found on the Oregon Department of Education website. For additional information about state testing at HSD, please visit the Standards and Assessment page of our website.
New Standard Implementation
We are working on a health crosswalk, to be completed in March. Continue to teach your current standards and we will fully implement the new standards in the fall. Current Health Standards and Resources found in Teaching and Learning by grade level:
Language Arts Adoption Update
DCA Corner
Each month we will highlight a dashboard, report, query or feature in DCA that you can use to make thoughtful, well-informed, data-driven decisions to better help students be successful.
On January 8, the 2018-2019 testing window opened for the ELPA Summative Assessment (aka ELPA21.) In March, the first batch of ELPA assessment results will begin to arrive for all students who have tested between January and late February. These results are important for determining the English language proficiency of our English learners in order to tailor instruction and to exit students into the four year monitoring status if they have met the standard for proficiency on the assessment.
Most of the state assessment reports in DCA include the ability to select ELPA as a parameter for the report. However, there is one report that has been specifically designed to provide detailed and longitudinal results not only in student’s overall proficiency score, but also broken out into the individual testing domains of reading, writing, listening and speaking. That report is named, “ELPA 21 Student Performance by Domains” and may be found in the “English Learners (EL)” category of DCA reports.
As can be seen in the screenshot below, it is possible to configure the report parameters to show student results for more than one year at a time. This enables teachers and case managers to see at a glance if students are making progress from one year to the next. In addition, the disaggregation into each of the four domains enables users to determine which domains are the most challenging for students.
To access the report, navigate to DCA and then select Reports > English Learner (EL) > ELPA 21 Student Performance by Domains.
If you have questions about this report, DCA in general, and/or would like training in your building on using DCA, contact Tom Luba (lubat@hsd.k12.or.us.)
Coffee Conversations - Person First Language (Episode #4)
We are excited to present our 4th episode of Coffee Conversations with student voice on an important topic - Person First Language. If we all work together, we can help change the way we see and talk about others by recognizing the many parts that make us, us. No one should be defined by disability or difference.
You can find all our Coffee Conversations in the Student Services Handbook. Click on the picture below to watch the video!