Preparing for new assessments for students in grades 3-8, 11

Beginning this month, San Diego Unified students in grades 3 through 8, along with those in grade 11, will join students across California in taking new online assessments that will serve as an additional tool to identify how prepared our students will be for college and careers by the time they graduate.

Since the things we want students to know and be able to do have changed, state assessments have had to change as well.

These new measures, named "Smarter Balanced" assessments or tests, are aligned with our new Common Core State Standards, which were designed to encourage critical thinking, analytical writing and real-world problem solving. These are skills students will need to be successful in school and in life.

Moving forward, the new assessments will provide more information quicker, allowing educators more time to plan professional development and fine-tune curriculum. Interim assessments can be used by teachers throughout the year to monitor student progress and identify specific student learning needs.

The new assessments were created by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, a collaborative, state-led group comprised of educators, researchers, policymakers and community groups. These assessments are a tool in a larger plan for ensuring high-quality teaching and learning in every school. The plan also includes higher academic standards, more decision-making in the hands of schools and communities, and more resources dedicated to schools and students with the greatest needs.

How Can Parents Help Prepare Children for the New Assessments?

Learning doesn’t end in the classroom, and parents can help provide support and a home environment that will help children succeed at school.

With new academic standards for English and math and new assessments aligned with them, it’s more important than ever for parents and schools to partner to make the most of students’ time in the classroom.

There are a number of ways parents can help students prepare for these new assessments.

A good start is to run through one of the practice tests available on www.smarterbalanced.org with children and ask them to explain their reasoning as they select answers.

To encourage children to think critically as called for in the new standards, parents can ask their children to analyze whatever they are reading and to back their answers up with information from the book.

Other strategies that can be helpful, depending on a child’s age, include reading to them or encouraging them to read, discussing their day at school, playing word games, helping them understand academic vocabulary, setting high expectations, focusing on the process rather than the answer, encouraging them to see math in the real world and asking them to explain why they think a certain answer is correct.

Helping children learn important computer skills such as typing and mouse control can also help them navigate the online assessments.

More fundamentally, it’s important to have a space and schedule that are conducive to learning. This can be accomplished by creating a quiet place for your child to study; setting aside uninterrupted time every day for your child to concentrate on reading, writing and math; and sitting down with your child at least once a week for 15 to 30 minutes while he or she works on homework. During the actual testing period, make sure your child gets plenty of sleep and eats a healthy breakfast.

What Will the New Assessments Look Like for Students?

The exams will be completely online and feature a variety of different types of questions. There will be fewer multiple-choice questions and more short answers and extended responses that will require a deeper understanding of key concepts. The computer-based testing will include embedded supports that will give all students the opportunity to fully demonstrate their knowledge and mastery of the state standards.

After logging on to a computer, students will answer questions of the two-part assessment in clusters. Students will be able to flag and return to questions they weren’t sure about.

There will be about 60 questions in the first part of the assessment. Depending on whether students answer the questions correctly or not, the test will adjust with easier or more difficult questions.

Students will then take the second part of the assessment. This portion includes the performance tasks, which will require students to complete more in-depth projects that demonstrate analytical skills and real-world problem solving. This portion will typically be given over a two-day period.

The English portion is expected to take a total of between four and 4 ½ hours, depending on grade level, and the math portion is expected to take between three and four hours over the course of a few days.

Universal tools, designated supports and accommodations are available to students with disabilities, English learners and other students as needed.

What Will the New Results Look Like?
When parents get results from the new statewide academic assessments, they will look very different from the results of the past.

Within a couple months of students taking the new online assessments, parents are expected to get printed copies of the results. Online reports may also be available.

These printouts will include scores presented in a totally new way. Students will receive an overall score as well as placement in one of four tiers: “standard exceeded,” “standard met,” “standard nearly met,” or “standard not met.”

The new assessments are aligned with new, more rigorous content standards in English and math, raising the bar for all students and requiring a deeper understanding of key concepts.

Considering the increased rigor, it should not be surprising if fewer students score within the top tiers on the testing spectrum. This does not mean that students have fallen behind or learned less. It simply means that we’re expecting more from them and aligning what’s being taught in the classroom with what they will need to know and be able to do when entering college or the workforce.

The new assessments are fundamentally too different from the old exams to make any reliable comparisons between scores from previous assessments and new scores. Rather, this year’s results will establish a baseline for the progress we expect students to make over time.

The results from these assessments are only one source of information we will be using to monitor student progress. Teachers will also gather other valuable information about each student’s learning through classroom assessment and daily student work.

A letter from Superintendent Cindy Marten has been sent to all of our families, advising families about the new Smarter Balanced testing and the role the test plays in the wider set of assessments used to monitor student performance. (View the letter here)

For more information about the assessments, visit our Testing websitehttp://www.sandi.net/testing or the California Department of Education’s CAASPP website.

San Diego Unified showcases Farm to School Program for national audience

As part of a national food services conference, more than 60 school district representatives, members of the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and members of National Food Service Management Institute took a trip to Crawford High School to observe San Diego Unified’s Farm to School program in action.

Attendees were welcomed by Gary Petill, the director of San Diego Unified’s Food Services department.

“We all know about the challenges of the stigma associated with school food over the years,” said Petill. The meals served at schools across the district do not look like the typical school lunches of the past. They are colorful, with vibrant hues revealing the focus on serving fresh fruits and vegetables.”

As part of their trip, attendees had the opportunity to tour Crawford High’s garden and kitchen facilities.

Crawford High has implemented a Garden to Café program, allowing fresh produce to be grown and harvested on site and served in the cafeteria. Members of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) run internships at Crawford High for students to work in the garden, gaining job experience and learning about nutrition.

Pictured: Jomar, Susan, Shafie, Pawlay and Irene

This afterschool garden club allows for students like Susan, Irene, Pawlay, Jomar and Shafie to participate in a social activity while growing various crops such as lettuce, spinach, radishes or kale.

“It’s interesting because when I came here, it had been three months that I’d been in the United States,” said Jomar, a junior. “I wanted to compare gardening here to in the Philippines.”

Crawford High has a prep kitchen that services the surrounding school campuses in addition to its main campus. While touring the kitchen, attendees were able to meet some of the San Diego farmers who sell organic crops to San Diego Unified.

Some of the more surprising foods served to students include kabocha squash, cremini mushrooms, jicama and kumquats. George Edwards, an attendee from New York City’s Department of Education, explained that even though these foods may be unusual to serve to elementary school students, children can easily learn to like them.

“Yes, kids are picky.” said Edwards. “Adults are picky. Sometimes it’s easier to convince a child to try something new as opposed to an adult. Usually it takes one child, and the rest seem to follow.”

To conclude their trip to Crawford High, the attendees were served a California Thursdays lunch. This meal, presented by the Center for Ecoliteracy in collaboration with San Diego Unified, features California-grown food and includes a Mary’s Chicken drumstick.

The Major Cities Training Symposium by NFSMI was an opportunity for individuals from food services departments in school districts across the nation to exchange ideas and information. Crawford High and San Diego Unified served as an example of a successful and innovative Farm to School program.

San Diego Unified students stand out at Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair

Students from 13 San Diego Unified schools took home awards, including the Senior Sweepstakes award, after competing in the 61st annual Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair held at the end of March.

More than 650 students in grades 7 through 12 attending school in San Diego or Imperial counties entered projects in this year’s fair. Topics of entries ranged from animal science, biochemistry and computer science, to mathematics, medicine and health science, microbiology, and electrical and mechanical engineering.

Projects were judged and winners were selected in either the senior division, which covers grades 9-12, or the junior division, which covers grades 7-8.

This year, La Jolla High School junior Chloe Kuo was named the Senior Sweepstakes – ACFEA winner for her project on ways to improve movement on manual wheelchairs. Kuo created a prototype wheelchair that featured a hands-free, voice activated locking and unlocking mechanism for the axels that allow the user to use one hand to propel both wheels at once, then unlock the axels using a voice command to operate them separately.

Kuo, a tennis player, was inspired to create the wheelchair after playing a round of wheelchair tennis. She was recognized for her win by the San Diego County Board of Education at its April 8 Board Meeting, where she described her inspiration and showed how here wheelchair prototype works. http://stream.sdcoe.net/wc/boardmeeting040815/ (starts at 32:35)

Other sweepstakes winners and runners-up include:

• Sebastian Mellen from Mt. Everest Academy - Junior Division Physical Science Sweepstakes winner and RED Award recipient (Project title: MathSuite: An Innovative Android App that makes Dreaded Calculations... FUN!)
• Ananya Rao, Marshall Middle School - Junior Division Life Science Sweepstakes winner (Project title: Comparing the effects of natural and chemical oil dispersants on brine shrimp)
• Janie Kim, Scripps Ranch High School - Senior Division Life Science Sweepstakes Runner-up (Project title: Developing a Contact Lens Solution with Increased Antimicrobial Activity).
  
• Laurel Norris from Marshall Middle School - Junior Division Life Science Sweepstakes Runner-up (Project title: Swimming in Sweetness The effects of artificial sweeteners on Daphnia)

Twenty-five students, and three potential alternates, from San Diego Unified have been qualified to enter the 64th annual California State Science Fair (CSSF) to be held in Los Angeles on May 18-19, where they will compete against an expected 1,000 students in grades 6-12 from 400 schools throughout the state for awards totaling $50,000.

Additionally, 17 students from the district have been nominated to participate in the Broadcom MASTERS national competition, a Society for Science & the Public affiliated science and engineering fair that represents the top 10 percent of students in grades 6-8 in the United States.

Marshall Middle School was a stand-out this year with 20 first place winners, 16 CSSF Qualified entries, two CSSF Wait List entries, 15 Broadcom Nominated entries, one Junior Division Life Sciences Winner, one Junior Division Life Sciences Sweepstakes Runner-Up, and 14 second through fourth place winners.

Other notable schools were Wangenheim Middle School with 22 first through third place winners, Morse High School with 25 second through fourth place winners and De Portola Middle School with 15 second through fourth place winners.

Two San Diego Unified teachers were also recognized at the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair. Shirley Miranda, AP computer science and robotics teacher at Morse High School, was named the Senior Division Science Fair Teacher of the Year and Dan Grendziak, 8th grade physical science teacher at Wangenheim Middle School, was named the Junior Division Science Fair Teacher of the Year. Science fair students nominate their teachers for this award and the Student Advisory Board of the Science and Engineering Fair selects the winners.

For a complete list of winners, please visit the Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair website.

Nation’s School Districts Take A Seat At San Diego Unified’s Table

IN THE NEWS: Food service officials from 30 school districts from across the country on Thursday stopped by Crawford High School for lunch. The officials were there to learn about San Diego Unified School District's farm-to-school program. The Department of Agriculture brought the school food bosses to San Diego for a symposium hosted by the National Food Service Management Institute. Read and watch more from KPBS.

JROTC cadets attend Patriotic Education Seminar on East Coast

Eight JROTC cadets from district and county schools recently attended the Patriotic Education Seminar, a week-long event that included visits to two primary cities with significant historical impacts – New York City and Washington, D.C.

Primarily centered on student-to-student teaching techniques, this experience challenges each cadet to research and present on assigned historical sites, monuments and leaders throughout the trip. In group settings, the cadets discuss foundations of national government, policy and leadership, citizenship responsibilities and key American historical events. Most significantly, students are assessed for their own personal leadership qualities, participation and subject knowledge.

“Learning history from a book in the classroom is one thing, but being able to personally experience it through this trip brings so much more meaning and understanding,” said Cadet Yovana Contreras, a Serra High School junior.

This year's attendees included: Marco McCartney, Scripps Ranch HS; Katherine Solchaga, Kearny HS; Sophia Nguyen, Patrick Henry HS; Yovana Contreras, Serra HS; Parker Grubenski, University City HS; Juan Sanchez, Hoover HS; Aylin Curtis, Morse HS and Ahmad Xallen, Coronado HS.

In New York City, the cadets visited the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Sept. 11 memorial and the United Nations Headquarters. Washington, D.C. was highlighted by visits to the U.S Capitol, the U.S. Supreme Court, the Library of Congress, Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S Holocaust Memorial Museum, the National Archives, all war memorials and several Smithsonian Museums.

This educational trip was sponsored by the San Diego Chapter of the Military Order of the World Wars, a patriotic Veterans Service Organization founded to promote good citizenship, patriotic education, and military and public service.

For more information on the JROTC program, contact Program Manager LTC. David Guzman at dguzman@sandi.net.

Crown Point’s Music Education Program receives national recognition

Crown Point Junior Music Academy has been awarded the SupportMusic Merit Award from The National Association of Music Merchants Foundation for its outstanding commitment to music education.

The SupportMusic Merit Award is given to individual schools that demonstrate outstanding achievement in efforts to provide music access and education to all students. Crown Point is one of 120 schools nationwide and 18 schools in California being recognized by the NAMM Foundation for their school-based music education programs.

The NAMM Foundation presents this award as part of the Best Communities for Music Education program through the SupportMusic Coalition, an advocacy effort for the promotion of music education as a core academic subject in schools.

Crown Point is known for its focus on strong academics through music education. Following their motto, “Music Opens Minds,” teachers at Crown Point focus on integrating music into their entire curriculum which helps improve students’ intellectual development and musical skill.

“Crown Point is a small school with a big vision,” said Principal Muriel Bartolini. “All stakeholders involved in the school believe music to be a vital part of a child’s education, and because of that, our teachers work hard at incorporating music in all they do within the students’ day. Receiving this award has honored our vision.”

This is the first time Crown Point has received this award.

National recognition for two Mira Mesa JROTC students

Two JROTC Senior cadets from Mira Mesa High School recently received national recognition for their academic and leadership achievements.

Emily Le	Chloe Crisostomo

Emily Le received the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT) Award, and Chloe Crisostomo was selected by the Girls World Expo National Committee as a San Diego Girl of Merit.

The NCWIT honors young women at the high-school level for their computing-related achievements and interests. Le was selected for her computing and IT aptitude, leadership ability, academic history and plans for post-secondary education. This multi-tiered competition includes recognition at the national level, sponsored by Bank of America, and at the local level, sponsored by Microsoft. The competition serves 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Girls World Expo National Committee selects 10 girls among hundreds of applicants who have proven themselves as exceptional members of their community through their actions, activities, leadership and positive influence on others. Crisostomo’s selection embodies the organization’s goal to, “Spark a movement in every corner of the country, giving girls the inspiration and determination to become the best they can be.”

Le and Crisostomo also serve on the JROTC Brigade staff which leads more than 2,600 cadets throughout 13 high school programs in the district.

More information about these prestigious awards can be found at http://www.aspirations.org/ and http://girlsworldexpo.com/.