Tag: 5th

Summer School Action Plan

Written by admin on . Posted in STAAR | EOC Testing. 25 Comments

Thanks to Sherry Neeley who has put together this seven step action plan if you get a notice of summer school.  TPERN notes are in italics.

1) Send the summer school letter

This should be your first response whenever the school tells you unilaterally that your 5th or 8th grader has to go to summer school as a result of STAAR.  Accelerated Instruction decisions (including summer school) are made by a GPC after the results of the second administration are received.  If you have not had a GPC, the school is not following the process.

2) Wait for the GPC.

3) Educate before going in to the GPC

Have you read:

-SSI manual?

This is the most important thing to read.  It makes it clear that AI determined by the GPC should be individualized and that there is great flexibility in what can be agreed upon.  Know the sections about accelerated instruction, and don’t be fooled by statements that specific things (like summer school) are required.  There is so much flexibiity that literally no specific activity is required.

-The GPC guide?

This is a pretty confrontational guide.  It may be needed, but we always encourage parents to enter into the GPC process with the idea that we are here to make an agreement with the school.  Neither side should demand or dictate.  We should all work together to make the best decision for the student.

-seen the summer school info?

4) have some simple at home accelerated instruction plans to offer the school in place of summer school such as Prodigy, Nessy, a reading log, a tutor, a worksheet, etc.

This is very important.  If a school is demanding strict compliance with the law, some AI must be given before the student can be promoted.  How much and what type is completely up to the committee.  Parents can kick start the process by having a clear plan that is matched to the needs of the student.

5) have the waiver of the 3rd assessment completed

Schools do not have to agree to this.  The more documentation of harm to the student you can show, the better. I recommend a note from a medical provider. Even if the school rejects this, you can still refuse to participate.  The waiver is the one time a school can agree to let the parent refuse assessment.  You will learn a lot about their attitude by how they respond to this request.

6) go ahead and have a simple letter typed up that states that you understand that by opting out retention is automatic and this is your formal appeal to the GPC to promote based on grades and classroom performance.

7) know that you can hire a lawyer if things are going badly

No, You Don’t Have to Pass STAAR in 5th or 8th Grade

Written by admin on . Posted in STAAR | EOC Testing. 17 Comments

OK, so a mom from Kissam Elementary is being told that passing STAAR is required to go to 6th grade.  Let’s examine how we know this is not true.

First, search for the Academic Performance Report for your school from 2014-2015.  It is located here:

Academic Performance Report

The cover looks like this:

cover

Now let’s look at the STAAR passage rate for 5th grade Reading, the only one that counted for SSI last year:

apr1

We can see that the failure rate for 5th grade reading last year was 23%.  Now if STAAR passage is required for promotion, then the retention rate in 5th grade would be 23%.  Basically 1 out of ever 4 kids would have to repeat 5th grade.  So let’s see what the Academic Performance report says about retention in the 5th grade:

retention

We see that rather than a 23% retention rate, the actual rate was 0%.  (For full disclosure, 15% of special ed kids were retained, but that number gives total retention of about 1.3%, nowhere near the 23% that would be required is STAAR passage was necessary for promotion.

As you can see, every kid who appealed their retention to the GPC was promoted.

gpc

This is one example of many.  The idea that passing STAAR is required for promotion is utter nonsense.  Know the facts and arm yourself!

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