 As we enter the fourth week of school, I want to provide you with some clarity in a few areas where there has been a great deal of confusion. While some of this is natural within the unchartered waters of remote learning, I want to be sure we’re all rowing in the same direction when it comes to attendance, testing and communication.
ATTENDANCE | Now that we have some experience under our belt, it’s become evident that we need to make a slight adjustment to how we take attendance in a remote environment.
When we first began remote learning we provided three ways to mark attendance: student participation, logging into Google/Clever/Zoom, or completion of assignments. However, many of our families have experienced unique challenges making it necessary for us to course-correct: - If a student is unable to login for a synchronous session — for whatever reason — we ask that families contact their child’s building principal to explain the circumstance of the absence.
It is our hope by this time in the school year that it is obvious to everyone that we as a district will demonstrate grace when challenges occur. Our desire is to work with our families to ensure each child has what he or she needs to complete assignments and update the day’s attendance to “present.” Our goal with this approach is twofold: - As educators, we believe in working with our students and families to ensure our students have every opportunity to complete assignments — especially under our current strange and challenging circumstances — to provide our students with what they need to continue to learn and grow.
- We believe that building strong, trusting partnerships between our schools and our student’s homes will help our students throughout their educational experience in our district. This extra layer of communication between our families and our schools will allow us to understand unique family circumstances and unforeseen situations so that we can provide our families with the support they need.
TESTING | Districts and schools must adopt policies and procedures for annually assessing the reading skills of each student in grades K-3. Each year, districts and schools must administer the reading diagnostic by September 30 for grades 1-3 and by November 1 for Kindergarten. These tests provide us with critical data about each student so that our teachers can adapt their instruction to the strengths and weaknesses of every child. The tests are given at the beginning of every school year to determine your child’s needs and personalize his or her learning, and then again at various intervals to monitor progress throughout the school year. In short, the tests help us to create an education plan to meet your child needs, and then help us determine if that education plan is working. Concerns about testing were raised this year because historically, the year-to-year data trends from these tests were reflected on the Local Report Card as part of the Third Grade Reading Guarantee, with the Student Growth Measure (SGM) further linked to teacher evaluations. This year the Lorain City Schools will NOT be using this data in its teacher evaluations. Our focus will be to continue to support our staff in their professional growth in the areas of technology, remote learning and student and family engagement. It’s the right thing to do.
COMMUNICATION | I want to thank our staff and families for the extraordinary efforts that went into updating each student’s contact information this summer. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic created conditions in which many families were forced to change addresses, phone numbers and e-mails — right during a time in which communication has perhaps never been more important. Your efforts have ensured we have been able to connect with critical updates about remote learning, technology pick-up, meal distribution and community supports. Even so, we know communication hasn’t been without its challenges. While some of these issues have been on the technology side (for instance, our communications software suffered a nation-wide shut down on the first week of school) we know that some of it is due to a lack of manpower. As we work to rebuild our district communication team, know that we will continue to listen, learn and adjust until we get it right. Your input helps us to know how you’re doing, what you need, and where we need to go to serve you best.
If you haven’t already, please take a moment to share your feedback through the Phase 1 Family Survey. Your responses will directly impact the next phase of our Open with Care plan, and will be reported out at an upcoming board meeting. Thanks for all you do, Jeff |