Improving East Bridgewater Jr / Ny High School Essay

Test scores are still dismissed, and state officials have expressed concern that the pace of improvement is not fast enough to show the benefits of the common core standards. Districts have also seen varying success in changing how teachers teach, something that was supposed to change under the new standards.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were developed nationally in 2009 with the intent of better preparing students for college, and their eventual careers. Faced with the option of whether to adopt or reject CCSS, the state of Arizona chose the former. The Arizona College and Career Ready Standards (AZCCRS) were officially adopted in 2010, with required implementation starting in the 2013 school year. The approved common core subjects are English and math, and place a heavy focus on the development of real world, critical thinking skills. Common Core standards were adopted by the state of Arizona because of the perceived need to enhance students’ abilities to transition from K-12 grade levels to college and the career world. The AZCCRS clearly dictate what Arizona children should know at each grade level (Expect More Arizona, 2014) Aside from updating everyday classroom standards, there has also been a push to replace the outdated Arizona’s Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test. While there was debate over which standardize test to administer, the state of Arizona has decided that Arizona’s Measure of Educational Readiness to Inform Teaching (AZMERIT) will be the best tool to measure the success of the new educational standards. As with most new policies, there are strong opinions about the new standards.

all students would be proficient at reading and math by this year. Schools missed this utterly

Noura Wilmot September 26, 2016 ENC 1101 Evaluation Education would be considered the most valuable element that an individual can acquire. Learning about real world problems, meeting people, sharing life experiences, getting a job based on your abilities and becoming a success because of your knowledge. This is all stemmed from the one institution in which is the most important: School. Pembroke Pines Charter High School was the school I attended. The slogan “College, Citizenship and Community” played a very important role throughout the school program. VISION & GOAL The vision that Pembroke Pines Charter High School wants to achieve is in “collaboration with students, parents and the community, endeavors to create a challenging and supportive organization of lifelong learners” and to “actively engage in a continuous process of intellectual, emotional and social growth that is unified in direction, yet diverse in approach and instruction.” I appreciate the message that the school is displaying. The theme of the family unit being utilized brings about that no one should work alone only through teamwork which can result in success in the future. SIZE & ECONOMICS The school is fairly huge but has a very wide open space which makes the school seem huge. Buildings spread out across giving the students a chance at having some fresh air while navigating to their next class on their schedule. The school has about 1,716 students from grades 9-12th. The percentage of gender is 53

Even though I did have some adjustable faults throughout the program, I did show improvements in my test grades. I was able to bring

I am an average student in Passaic Arts and Science Charter Schools.To be successful in 8th grade I would need to be more proficient and I would need to be prepared for anything. I would need to be prepared for high school since it is the next year and I can’t have any obstacles in my way. I have to do my best so I can get to a good high school and then go to a good college. I would also need to be academically ready. That is what I will need to do be ready for 8th grade.

To answer the question, I believed I have improved the most in reading. As I said earlier I tend to get easily distracted, however, the numerous response papers that I have done throughout the semester have helped me to put into practice my reading skills. At the beginning of this semester I used to have trouble with reading the journals in Norton Mix, 3rd edition (BCC Custom), because the way the authors wrote their passages were with a vocabulary more advanced. As a bilingual person, my first language is Spanish thus I had trouble most of the time with difficult sentences. However, I took this course as a challenge to make myself improve in all the areas I was having troubles with. I realized that knowing the “why” behind a text is more important than just being able to read with accuracy. To do so, I learnt I have to evaluate the text when reading and ask high-order

In the 2017 school year, only 63.40% of West Shore Middle School students achieved their target (average percentage of target achieved) on the English Language Arts Smarter Balanced Assessment. By the 2018 school year, 70% - 75% of West Shore Middle School students will achieve their target (average percentage of target achieved) on the English Language Arts Smarter Balanced Assessment.

In analyzing the PARCC and MCAS assessments I found both similarities and differences. On the one hand, I found that the PARCC/MCAS are similar in the content and multiple-choice format. They each use the combination of both to answer an understanding of the question. On the other hand, the PARCC, in my opinion, includes more open-ended questions that involved multiple steps and usage of critical/problem solving skills. Also, when taking the PARCC, I found myself making a few minor mistakes and as a result did not get the correct answer (I used the correct big idea in finding the answer). Lastly, I found the PARCC assessment entails requires some prior knowledge activation of math

There had been many times in which I noticed that in 3rd grade math in elementary school students still could not do basic multiplication let alone solve fractions. I understand and I am all for the push for college and career readiness among students in elementary, middle, and high school, but the common core alignments that have been recently instated, students need more help reaching the set goals and not all students progress at the same rate so their mathematic skills often are not met well because teachers must rush through the topics. There is a time and place for teaching students the intermediate algebra that is needed to complete courses that lead in to college algebra, but if we are forced to move our students through mathematics that they are not ready for yet, then how will it benefit any student?

The scores for the Madison the next year jumped from 28% to 41%, which is a huge increase, but then went back down to 27% in 2017. I wonder if the huge jump in test scores was because of the students or if the school did something different in 2016 to promote math more in the curriculum. One idea to increase the scores in math is to make math more fun for students to learn. Therefore, the teachers might have to go outside the box to teach the standards that day. I would include centers or a rap song to increase the desire to learn from the students. The highest category for Math in 2015 was met expectations and again in 2016, but in 2017 it falls to the approached category of 40%. Therefore, between those three years the school had an increase and a decrease.

The trends in academic performance are based on two very different benchmarks because the state has changed the test in the last two years. Prior to the 2014-2015 school year, students took the paper reading and writing High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) in a large group setting. They took the End of Course (EOC) in math and science. In 2014-2015, students took the reading and writing and math Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) which is based on Common Core and is delivered digitally. Because of this transition, it is somewhat difficult to determine how well our students are doing. In 2013 and 2014 , our students increased from 86% to 93% passing reading, 95% to 92% passing writing, 79% to 72% passing math, and our biology scores were suppressed by the state. In 2015, our students participated in the SBA pilot. The test was quite different than what students and teachers were used to because it was administered online, not on paper. It was also broken up into different segments. Instead of

All School Improvement Plans should include the following: Goal centered on student academic learning. Strategies to accomplish the goal. Evaluation of the plan. Development of alternative measures of assessment that will provide authentic assessment of pupils’ achievements, skills, and competencies. The methods for effective use of technology as a way of improving learning and delivery of services and for integration of evolving technology in the curriculum. There must be ways to make available in as many fields as practical opportunities for structured on-the job learning, such as apprenticeships and internships, combined with classroom instruction.

For the last ten years, I have taught third grade. Though mathematics is just one of the many areas of discipline I am responsible for to teach my students, it is definitely the hardest curriculum for my students to both understand and master. With both formative and summative assessments, including the annual state standardized assessments, it seems as if every year my students are struggling more and more with understanding and applying mathematical concepts. This is also evident with an increasing number of mathematic Academic Improvement Plans (AIPs) that my students bring with them from second grade.

The results of this study indicated that the 21st CCLC afterschool programs proved to be significant in improving two of the five target areas, math and language arts. Students in fourth grade who participated in the 21st CCLC afterschool programs