The Beginning of the New School Year Starts in April: Student, Staff, and School Transition Activities to Help Prepare for a Successful New School Year
Dear Colleagues,
While many schools across the country are
currently finishing up their state's "high stakes"
assessments to determine their students' academic proficiency--once that is
over, it is important to remember that:
The New School Year (in August) begins this Month
(in April).
The Need to Conduct End-of-Year
Student, Staff, and School "Transition" Evaluations
That is, before
the end of the current school year, schools need to look at their students,
staff, and the school itself to identify (a) what has or has not worked
effectively this year, and (b) what services, supports, or other resources are
needed for success next year.
These
evaluations are particularly important for schools that are in
Improvement status, and/or that have large numbers of academically
struggling or behaviorally challenging students. Indeed, we need to think about
the "lessons" that we have learned about these students this year
so that effective, successful instructional settings and intervention
approaches are ready for them on the first day of the new school
year.
In
addition, as part of this process, you need to know the functional literacy,
math, oral expression, and written expression capabilities of all students at
the end of this school year so that you can strategically organize your
classrooms in preparation for the coming year according to the existing
skills and needs of your students.
At the
elementary level, for example, this ensures that teachers have the right
"mix" of students in each class (e.g., no fewer than three different
functional skill groups) so that they can truly differentiate instruction.
At the
secondary level, for example, this ensures that 10th grade
science teachers know the incoming reading and math skills of their students on
the first day of school so that they can modify lessons, materials, and
activities to maximize their students' understanding of the science
content-even when they have difficulty reading the textbook or understanding
needed mathematical calculations.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Free Resources to Help You Conduct
End-of-Year Evaluations
To
help you to successfully complete these transition processes, we would
like to provide you with a FREE national webinar, and a FREE Technical Assistance Paper
on how to evaluate the current (and past) academic and behavioral status of
your students.
The webinar
(see below) is entitled,
The New
School Year Starts in April - Systematically Transferring Academic and
Behavioral Response-to-Instruction Success
The
Technical Assistance Paper is entitled,
Conducting Quarterly
Student Achievement Review (Q-STAR) Meetings to Evaluate All Students'
Academic and Behavioral Progress
and it can be found
toward the bottom of the following webpage on the Project ACHIEVE
website:
CLICK HERE for QUARTERLY DATA MEETING TA PAPER
_ _ _ _ _ _
We hope
that these two resources are useful to you as you prepare for the end of your
school year- while you, simultaneously, prepare for the successful beginning of
your next school year.
For
schools that are in (Priority or Focus) school improvement status, or that have
large numbers of students receiving Tier II or Tier III services, we hope that
these strategies will help turn-around your student instruction and achievement
processes.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
As
always, if you need more in-depth attention to these (and other school
improvement, student discipline, RtI/multi-tiered service) issues, we are
always available to provide a lending ear and a helping hand- just give us a
call or drop us an e-mail so that we can help you plan now for your
next great school year.
Meanwhile, I hope that your state assessments have gone well, that (if
relevant) you had a great Spring break, and that you and your colleagues are
geared up to finish the last 30 to 40 school days of the current school year
proactively, productively, and successfully.
Best,
Howie
