Florence Unified School District No. 1Department of Academic Achievement

Maribel LopezDirector of Research Development and Data

March 2014 __________________________________________________________________________

Director’s Summary

Vail School District had its annual BT Mega Conference. It was great to hear what other school districts (Benson and Queen Creek) have done to ensure student achievement. In working with BT this year, I feel that we are headed in the right path, with school sites taking ownership of data, and showing teachers to focus on each individual student's needs.

I attended Nancy Frey's Literacy 2.0 training. This training was focused on students, using more technology and not just to type a report. She shared many great ideas that begin with kindergarten.

Third quarter benchmarks were delivered to each school site. When completed, I will run the analysis. Student test scores will be updated and e-mailed to each school site.

I attended PARCC Sample Test Analysis training in Mesa. The focus provided us a navigation guide for PARCC online student practice. I will meet with our testing coordinators next week to go over important information on how to prepare teachers for the upcoming field test. A reminder of the field test is that PARCC is not assessing students, but assessing the test itself. No scores will be provided. There were over 200 people in attendance, so when it came time for us to sample the online test, everyone had many different answers. There were no correct answers for us to look at, so it was interesting to hear why several of us chose a specific answer. A recommendation for us was to also look at Smarter Balanced. We are to continue preparing for the PARCC assessment until we hear any further word from the State Board of Education.

The AIMS high school assessment was delivered to each site. We counted the assessments to ensure they were correct. These assessments will be returned on March 10th for scoring. The high schools will then begin testing third benchmark.

Our department attended the Professioal Learning Communities (PLC) training with school sites. This information will allow us to better prepare for upcoming staff development. Our department has begun looking at professional development for the upcoming school year.

Perception surveys went out to each school. They were to be given to parents and returned at the end of February. The surveys will be returned to the research company to run data for each school site. The school sites should have their recommendations before the end of the school year.

Maribel LopezDirector of Research Development and Data

Board of Education

Jim Thomas, President Denise Guenther, Vice-President Rose Marie M. Monks, Member Bob Dailey, Member Janeane Candelaria, Member