Focused on Student Understanding

Dear Families,

Last Friday, progress reports for the second quarter were sent home. The reports provide an important opportunity for shared discussion about successes to date and challenges to address as we move forward into the second half of the year. In reviwing assessments for the second quarter, we hope that you will look at the progress for this quarter in a broader context of your child’s overall learning experience. If you have not done so already, I encourage you to take the opportunity to speak with your child about his/her perceptions of the work s/he has completed this past quarter and how s/he sees this work in relation to the work completed last quarter. This will help to frame your ongoing discussions about her/his learning experience.

While progress reports provide an opportunity to reflect on a student’s progress and to think about strengths and challenges, it is important to remember that assessment is an on-going process at LREI; it is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself. Its aim is to improve student understanding of key ideas and skills. In the Middle School, teachers strive to develop assessments that are learner-centered and focused on student understanding in relation to the particular goals identified for each area of inquiry. Rather than being separate from learning, assessment plays a central role in the instructional process. The assessment process also sheds light on which instructional strategies are most effective. Through thoughtful assessment, the teacher gains critical feedback for choosing and utilizing those teaching strategies that can best help a learner progress towards the goals of a particular unit of study. Opportunities for meaningful assessment also allow students to gain deeper insight into areas of strength and challenge and allow them to develop plans to address growth in both of these areas.

Also on the subject of assessment, I’d like to say a few words about the upcoming ERBs, which are scheduled For February 10th-12th. The ERBs represent one piece of the assessment puzzle at LREI and it is important that they are seen in this light. They convey useful information, but not the full-picture of a child’s achievement. While the content of the ERBs is generally aligned to grade-level expectations, there are areas where this is not the case. For example, a math concept that appears on the sixth grade test, may not be addressed in our curriculum until the seventh grade and teaching this concept out of context may not always make sense. Your child’s teachers will make every attempt to identify these particular alignment areas. So while much of our ERB prep is focused on reviewing concepts that have been addressed in the curriculum, teaching general test prep skills, and helping students to feel comfortable with standardized testing conditions, our focus tends not to be on “cramming” new concepts. Please do not hesitate to speak with me if you have questions about the ERB process.

Be well,
Mark