March PCM Family Newsletter
" A monthly communication tool for the families of PCM"
Student and Staff Spotlight
Congratulations to Max who will receive the Superintendent's Quarterly Recognition Award on March 5th for the tremendous progress he has made both academically and social emotionally.
Congratulations to the forty students who took part in the President's Day Long Weekend IREADY math challenge. These students completed over 45 minutes of IREADY math.
Congratulations to Keyonna ( grade 6) and Elijah who were nominated to receive the Unified Sports Michael's Cup Award for their teamwork both on and off the field.
SBAC Interim Block Assessments ( IAB's)
Interim Block Assessments are short online tests which measure each students' ability to understand and apply grade level skills to respond to questions based not her information presented such as a reading passage or a mathematics equation/problem.
Once an Interim Block Assessment is completed, each teacher receives instant data regarding how students responded to each question. If there are certain questions that a student or group of students respond incorrectly to; the teacher can post the question on the board and work with the students on strategies/skills that they can apply to answer the question correctly.
The purpose of IAB's is to provide students and teachers with the opportunity to practice responding to SBAC like questions by applying skills/strategies learned prior to the actual SBAC testing which will begin at the end of March.
Students in grades 5 and 8 only will take the NGSS ( Next Generation Science Standards) state assessment in addition to the SBAC assessments in Reading and Math. We are currently utilizing the IAB's for Science and following the same process described above for the IAB's in Reading and Math.
March Parent Survey from PCM
The survey questions are as follows;
1. I receive communication from the school regarding what my child is expected to learn in his/her current grade level.
2. I know how to access PowerSc tool to remain current on my child's academic progress.
3. I know what my child's IREADY scores in Reading and Mathematics are for the fall and the winter. I know my child's Spring IREADY goal.
4. I know how to help my child access the following online learning tools; IREADY Math, Khan Academy, Epic, etc....
5. In regards to my child's academic or social emotional learning, I would like further information on or further support with....
We are asking all families to complete the survey by March 13th. The survey should be sent back to your child's homeroom teacher. We will use the survey information to plan next steps in supporting our parent engagement goals.
Be on Time and Be Present
Students who arrive late during testing will not be permitted in their individual classroom until the testing is over as not to disrupt the students who began testing on time.
Additionally, it is also important that our students are not absent from school or leaving early as this does not create an optimal educational or testing environment for our students.