RWE assessment and goals

School is now well underway and teachers and staff at Ralph Witters Elementary (RWE) are pressing forward with their goals for the school year, including some changes to reach those goals.

In the 2016-17 school year, they embraced two goals, one, that 85 percent of students meet their projected growth goal, plus one point, based on the math MAP assessment, by spring of 2018, and two, that 85 percent of students meet their projected growth goal, plus one point, based on the reading MAP assessment, by spring of 2018.

Although those goals missed the mark, principal Laurie Graves said the teachers agreed they were still exceptional goals, and even though they are lofty, they still felt they could be attained.

To help with the reading goals, the library is currently undergoing a bit of renovation, moving things around, adding kid friendly furniture, but most of all, creating a special space for books dedicated to a reading leveling system.

In the leveling system, Fountas and Pinnell, students are first tested to find where their reading benchmark is in the system, from A-Z. That testing for RWE will be taking place throughout October.

Once their benchmark is set, students will be doing reading and writing at their particular level with a focus on improvement in order to move up to the next level.

What makes this system special is that it allows students at different grade levels to be in a reading group of other students at their reading level. In other words, if a second grader is actually reading at, say, a fourth grade level, that student will be placed in a reading group comprised of fourth grade level readers, regardless of grade level.

Graves said the teachers are very much on board with the Fountas and Pinnell system and are excited to use the system school-wide.

Right now, they have a huge chart set up along one wall in what is being used as a teacher meeting space.

If you look at the chart, you will see ‘sticky notes’ in colors that represent each grade level and a student’s name written on each note. This allows the teachers to see, at a glance, where their students fall as far as reading level.

As the year goes along, students will be moved from one spot to the next, making the chart a fluid representation of where the school is as far as the reading goal is concerned.

Currently, 50 percent of first graders are in a level below their target and 23 percent are reading above their target goal.

Second graders also have 50 percent below level, but have 30 percent who are reading above target. Third graders are 54 percent below target, 43 percent above, and fourth graders are showing 49 percent below target and 31 percent above target.

Graves pointed out there is even one kindergartner that is in the system right now, reading on a first grade level.

It may seem a lifetime away to parents with little ones at RWE right now, but by creating more rigor in the classroom now, students are actually preparing to be more in line with assessments such as the ACT.

Benchmark testing is going on through October, but there will be another assessment in January and a third one in the spring to see how things are going. Once these initial benchmarks are created, there will be a need for just one assessment each spring, cutting down on the amount of testing needed throughout the year.

One thing that should be pointed out is students didn’t lose growth over the past two years using a different system. The reason for moving to the Fountas and Pinnell system is to up the bar for all student’s success.

Right now, the teachers are meeting on a daily basis, working with the data and the system itself to integrate it in the best possible way in each classroom and are working their way toward ‘where do we go next’ in these children’s educational process.