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Stone Valley Middle School
By Shaun K. McElroy, Principal
Thank you parents and staff who attended our Fall Party and Auction! It was an amazing night of festivities through eight countries! Thank you to our gracious hosts, Bobby and Sharon Waal, who shared their magnificent home and grounds! Hats off to our party planners, Chris Janze, Johnette Mass, Carla Munoz, Kristen Calderon, and Heidi Barbera, who so creatively took us to far off lands! Thanks also to our volunteer staff members, Mrs. Johnson, Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Andrzejewski, Ms. Lawver, Ms. Sass, and Mrs. Jacobs, who dressed the part and guided us on our trip! We appreciate everyone’s contributions and efforts as it is all for the kids! Early returns show we exceeded our fund-raising goal.
Common Core State Standards - Assessments
Danville Today News ~ November 2013 - Page 9
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On October 3rd Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill* eliminating the STAR test for the 2013-14 school year. The STAR test was a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act. The goal for all schools, districts, and states was to have every This report is courtesy of J. Rockcliff Realtors #01763819. Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract. Copyright © 2013 student proficient in language arts and mathematics by 2014. The absence of the STAR test does not relieve schools of the Monte Vista High School responsibility of measuring student progress, just a one-year hiatus from standardized testing. The tests that students will begin taking in the spring of 2015 originate from the Smarter BalBy Janet Terranova, Principal anced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). The new standardized tests are adaptive, computerOctober is almost over and it has been based exams that challenge students ability to reason more effectively than STAR. The tests an amazing month with great memories and adjust based on the students’ level of competency. If students move through problems quickly so much to anticipate as the year continues. the test changes the difficulty level. Conversely, if a student struggles, the test become easier. Our first quarter is finished, and we know that students at Monte Vista take academics Language Arts very seriously. As a school community we Here are a few examples of the types of questions student will encounter. In this example are very proud of our students and their sucstudents are asked to read a non-fiction passage from Planes on the Brain by Elisabeth cesses thus far. Academically, our students Deffner and answer the following questions: • Highlight the parts of the text that provide evidence to support the idea that the Tuske- continue to excel in their coursework. From the core academic subjects to our wide array of elective classes, we encourage students gee Airmen group was historically important. • How does the author emphasize the point that the TAM program was a positive influ- to take the most rigorous courses to meet their individual needs. Homecoming Week is always a part of October, and once ence on the sister’s lives. Use details from the text to support your answer. again our students’ creativity and sense of school pride was evi• What does the author mean by “the sky is no longer the limit”? • How does the meaning apply to the Anyadike sisters? Use details from the text to dent throughout the week. The theme this year was board games; from Candyland (9th) to Battleship (10th) to Jumanji (11th) to Life support your answer. (12th) students created floats, decorated the hallways, participated Mathematics in dress-up days, held a rally, played a football game, and finally Gene has two cats, Pele and Nikita. 1) Pele eats 3/4 of a can of cat food each day, and Nikita eats 1/2 of a can of cat food ended the week with our Homecoming Dance with over 1,200 each day. Cat food costs $5 for three cans. It is only sold in three packs. How much does it students participating. And the anticipation…we will be having the opening of our cost Jenny for a 60-day supply of cat food for her two cats? new Workday Student Center on October 30th. This is an incredible 2) Find the cost of cat food for a 29-day supply, a 30-day supply, and a 31-day supbuilding and gift to the Monte Vista community that will last for ply. Show your work. For more information, visit the Smarter Balanced website www.smarterbalanced.org. generations of high school students. The building houses both the library on the second floor and a student center on the first floor. The direct link to the practice test is www.smarterbalanced.org/practice-test. The Student Center includes a large state-of-the-art classroom for How Will we Judge Student Progress this Year? During the month of October every student at Stone Valley took a baseline assessment teachers to reserve, the college and career center, a technology in language arts and math. We use these assessments to determine which students may kiosk so students can check out laptops and iPads for use in the need additional support in reading, writing, and mathematics. A targeted intervention plan center and library, a café, a conference room, an ASB room, student is being developed to support those students throughout the school year. Student will also collaboration rooms, and areas for students to gather. The library is truly the library of the future with state-of-the-art technology, take three benchmark assessments during the course of the school year. For more information, visit the SRVUSD Common Core website at https://sites.google. student conference rooms, and meeting rooms. The entirestbuilding was designed for students to study and collaborate in a 21 century com/a/srvusd.net/common-core. This is the fourth in a series of articles about the Common Core State Standards learning environment. Our deepest thanks and appreciation go to Workday and the implementation. Next month I will focus on the newly adopted Next Generation Science Standards. Preview them at www.nextgenscience.org/next-generation-science-standards. Duffield family for providing such an amazing gift to our students. If you would like more information about Monte Vista and * STAR science will still be administered at grades 5,7, and 10. events at the school, please visit our website at www.mvhigh.org.