office of pupil personnel services
TRANSCRIPT
OFFICE OF PUPIL PERSONNEL SERVICES
Middleborough Public Schools
Hello Middleborough Public Schools! Successful schools begin by engaging students in preschool and motivating them to come to school regularly throughout graduation. This may seem obvious, but it includes many layers and requires repeated messages and constant reminders. Teaching our students about the importance of coming to school has to be a full-court press with role modeling, education and encouragement! Research shows that attendance is directly related to successfully completing high school and enrolling in college. No one can drop in occasionally and keep up... especially in high school! We all know it can be hard to get teens to school… aren’t they neurologically wired to be obstinate and moody during their teen years? That is why we must start educating our students about the importance of attendance very, very early … and never give up! We must plant the seeds, water and feed them often and watch them grow! Talk to your preschool and kindergarten students and their families about building good habits to help them have a strong foundation in school. Talk to them about various professions and stress that each of those exciting careers requires them to go to school, graduate and go to college. Talk to your secondary students in terms they can relate to. Help them understand that although school is not a paying job, the dedication they put into it will pay off. Help them see how the attitudes they develop now are the ones they will carry into adulthood. Their attitudes and habits can limit or expand their personal and professional options (e.g., If they repeatedly skip school they will not earn the credits needed to graduate AND In a competitive workforce, frequently skipping work can cost them their jobs). Heather D. Larkin, Ed.D., LMHC
N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 V O L U M E 1 , I S S U E 2
In This Issue:
Career Dress-Up Day
MECC Students Learn About Apples
Kings & Queens of Attendance
Application of the Common Core Students with Disabilities
The Importance of Progress Monitoring
Transition Planning
Special Education Parent Advisory Council (PAC)
MPAC Meeting Dates
Perfect Attendance Football Game
What is Chronic Absenteeism?
The Importance of 3rd Grade Reading Proficiency
McKinney Vento Homeless Assistance Program
Hi-Lighting Our Students
Monthly Attendance Champions
Sachem Pride T-Shirts For Sale
Good teaching is good teaching, no matter the profile of the student.
P A G E 2
Middleborough elementary students know WHERE THEY ARE HEADED! On Friday, Septemeber 25th students at the HBB and MKG dressed up to show their future career choice. From doctors to police men to astronauts to teachers and even a dolphin trainer… it is clear that our children are on the path to success. As Sarah McCollem, 3rd grade student in Ms. Silva’s class at MKG told me, “I’m going to Yale!” Other students, although they were not sure where they would attend college, they knew they were definitely going! “I can’t wait to go to college! But first I have to graduate from high school!” another 3rd grader shared with me. So let’s continue this momentum and talk to our students about their hopes and dreams for their future and help them to chart their course to get them to where they are headed!
The Middleborough Integrated Preschool Program follows the Common Core State Standards. Preschoolers learn through play with the guidance of their teachers, Ms. Carifio and Ms. Ferretti. Learning through play takes a prepared environment that invites children to explore, examine, question, and predict. In the area of literacy development, our preschool program provides children aged 3-5 with opportunities to:
Enjoy and understand books. Acquire emergent literacy skills while exploring print in books and the environment. Begin to read familiar, meaningful print in the environment. Begin to hear and discriminate rhyming sounds, beginning consonant sounds, and syllables.
Along with the start of autumn, students in preschool began a study of apples. The children were exposed to a variety of texts that expand on this theme, including published materials (The Apple Pie Tree, Ten Red Apples, Apples for Everyone) as well as teacher-created materials. Below is just one of the many standards introduced during the unit: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.MA.2 With prompting and support, the students will recall important facts from an informational text after hearing it read aloud. They will apply what they’ve learned to other center-based activities.
Classroom Work Activities: 1. Create a class book titled, “Who Took the Apples?” Each child creates their own page. When completed, the book goes home with each child before going to our classroom library. On the left is a photo of students reading the class book:
2. Create an apple information map
(see picture to Right). After reading through various information text books, the students and teacher completed the information map shown.
Preschoolers at the MECC Learn All About Apples
The Kings & Queens of Attendance!
Queen Larkin visited the classrooms with the highest attendance percentage for September on October 10th. She greeted the class dressed in royal attire, discussed the importance of coming to school (unless they are sick) and made special crowns with the class… adding gems, sequins and stickers! Students from Ms. Lauria’s 1st grade class at HBB, Ms. Thompson’s 2nd grade class at MKG and Ms. O’Halloran’s kindergarten class at the MECC had a wonderful time parading through their school—showing off their crowns—and chanting, “We love school! We are the Kings and Queens of Attendance!”
Application of the Common Core to
Students with Disabilities The Common Core standards articulate rigorous grade level expectations in the areas of mathematics and English Language Arts. These standards identify the knowledge and skills students need in order to be successful in college and careers.
Students with disabilities must also be challenged to excel within the general curriculum and be prepared for success in their post-secondary goals.
Promoting a culture of high expectations for all students is a fundamental goal of the Common Core. However, it may be necessary to implement additional supports and services to assist a student with a disability to participate in and experience success in the general education setting.
The Middleborough Public Schools embraces the Common Core and is working to develop meaningful,
standards-driven IEPs to ensure a collaborative partnership between the special educator and general educator, in the best interest of ALL students.
The Importance of Progress Monitoring In today's education climate, school success is defined as ensuring achievement for every student. To reach this goal, educators need tools to help them identify students who are at risk academically and adjust instructional strategies to better meet these students' needs. Student progress monitoring is a practice that helps teachers use student performance data to continually evaluate the effectiveness of their teaching and make more informed instructional decisions (Nancy Safer & Steve Fleischman, Educational Leadership, 2009) Progress monitoring, is also one of the essential components of Response to Intervention (RTI), and is characterized by repeated measurement of academic performance that is conducted at least monthly. For students with disabilities, progress monitoring may also be used to formulate effective individualized programs (National Center on Response to Intervention [NCRTI], 2010). Successful implementation of progress monitoring is the result of careful planning and thoughtful practice. Omitting key components of the progress monitoring process can lead to wasted time and invalid results. As you plan, use the following checklist to help ensure that these important aspects of progress monitoring are not omitted from your program: * Determine the age-appropriate, reliable, and valid progress monitoring tools that will be used at each grade * Create a preset schedule for collecting progress monitoring data throughout the year * Outline a set schedule and agenda for meeting to evaluate progress monitoring data with a team of educators * Establish the decision rules that will guide the decision-making process and subsequent follow-up tasks * Establish practices to ensure fidelity of the progress monitoring process
When it comes to improving instruction and learning, it’s not the quantity of data that counts…
but HOW the information is used.
September 25– (6-7 pm) Meet Dr. Larkin
October 9th– (6:30-7:30 pm) Safety Night
November 4th– (5-6 pm) Understanding Disabilities with Dr. Deborah Harris
December 8th—(6-7 pm) Understanding the MCAS Alternate Assessment w/ Susan Furtado
January 15th (6-7 pm) —Language Development with Holly Nilson
February– TBD
March 12th– ( 6-7 pm) Easter Seal’s Assistive Technology Loan Program
April– TBD
May– TBD
June– TBD
Why is Transition Planning Important? The transition from high school to young adulthood is a critical stage for all teenagers and especially for students with disabilities. This stage of their lives requires extra planning and goal setting. Factors that students, parents, school staff and community partners must consider include post-secondary education options, the development of career and vocational skills, as well as the ability to live independently. The first step in planning for a successful transition is for the Team to develop the student's transition plan.
It isn't enough to simply be aware that teenagers need support and guidance to transition successfully from high school to the next phase of young adulthood. Very concrete action steps must be taken to guide and prepare teens for college and/or a career, and for independent living. Without this guidance, some students with learning disabilities may fail or flounder in high school and beyond.
Transition services provided by knowledgeable educators and community resources can be tailored to a student's goals and strengths and provide them with options and plans for their future. For more information contact the school’s special education facilitator.
The mission of the Middleborough Special Education Parent Advisory Council (MPAC) is to work toward understanding, respect, support and appropriate education for all children with special needs in our community.
The MPAC promotes a network of parents/guardians of children with disabilities and provides a forum to increase our knowledge and understanding of topics that affect our children. MPAC also allows us to share information and discuss matters of interest or concern. The MPAC also collaborates with the Office of Pupil Personnel Services and the schools to continually improve the educational opportunities available in the Middleborough Public Schools. For more information please contact Heather Montross at [email protected] or Melissa Morrison at [email protected].
Special Education Parent Advisory Council
Meeting Dates @ Nichols Middle School Library
Please Remember…
Transition planning MUST begin when a student turns 16 years old. DESE Indicator #13 mandates school districts to provide youth aged 16 and above
with transition planning that includes coordinated annual goals and transition services that will reasonably enable the student to meet his/her post-secondary
goals in all the identified areas.
Perfect Attendance Game Over 1,200 students in grades PK-12 had perfect attendance for the month of September!
Each student received a letter of Congratulations from Dr. Larkin along with a FREE family pass to see the undefeated Sachems compete against Pembroke High School on October 11th at Battis Field. The 300+ students and family members who attended the game also received a free spirit item, had their face painted and received words of congratulations as they entered the game.
Nichols 8th grader, Brandon Buote, won the special raffle of an iPod Touch and $25 iTunes gift card.
I would like to send a special thank you to Athletic Director- Mr. Perry, school committee member- Tobey Eugenio, 6th grade special education teacher- Rachel Joseph, and Mrs. Bettencourt from Middleborough High School for their assistance at the 1st Annual Perfect Attendance Football
We Are SACHEM Nation!
What is Chronic Absenteeism?
Chronic absenteeism, or missing 10 percent or more of school days for any reason, is a proven early warning sign of academic risk and school dropout. Too often this problem is overlooked, especially among elementary students, because of the way attendance data are tracked. This study confirms the premise that districts and schools may fail to detect high levels of chronic absence because the problem is easily masked by av-erage daily attendance, one of the most commonly calculated attendance measures. While many edu-cators assume a 95 percent ADA rate is an indicator of good attendance, our research found that is of-ten not the case. We found that schools with average daily attendance rates higher than 97 percent rarely have a problem with chronic absence, but that schools with ADA rates between 93 and 97 percent need to analyze their data to determine whether chronic absence is a problem. Moreover, schools with ADA rates of 93 percent or below are almost certainly dealing with high concentrations of absenteeism. A key ingredient for ensuring success in school is helping children, at the beginning of their academic careers, get into the habit of attending school every day. While going to school regularly will not by itself ensure that children learn, missing extended periods of school, especially when children are acquiring the basic academic skills that lead to becoming proficient readers, certainly puts a child at risk (www.attendanceworks.org., 2014). An analysis of national data of chronically absent kindergarten students (those missing 10 percent of school days = 2 days per month) revealed lower academic performance when they reach 1st grade and lower reading proficiency levels in 3rd grade. By 6th grade, chronic absence begins to predict high school dropout rates and by ninth grade, missing 20% of school can better predict of dropout than eighth-grade test scores. Along with behavior problems and failure of core academic courses, poor student attendance is a critical early warning signs that the student will not attend college, have less career opportunities and have less success in their adult lives.
What is the single most important year of an individual’s academic career? The answer is not junior year of high school, or senior year of college. It is third grade. Research tells us that reading proficiently by the end of third grade is a crucial marker in a child’s educational development. What makes success in third grade so pivotal? It is the year that students move from learning to read—decoding words using their knowledge of the alphabet—to reading to learn. The books children are expected to master no longer are simple primers, but fact-filled informational texts. Children who have not made the leap to fast, fluent reading begin at this moment to fall behind, and for most of them the gap will continue to grow. All too often we hear stories of students who struggle through to third grade and find themselves the following year in the “fourth grade slump,” as the focus for instruction changes from “learning to read literary and informational text” to “reading to learn content.” While the more skilled readers in the class learn knowledge and new words from context, poor readers, out of frustration, begin to avoid reading. A
vicious cycle sets in: School assignments increasingly require background knowledge and familiarity with academic words and domain-specific words (literary, abstract, and technical words)—competencies that are themselves acquired through reading. Meanwhile, content clas-ses like science, social studies, and math, rely more on textual analysis, so that struggling read-ers begin to fall behind in these subjects, as well. In this way, they fall further and further be-hind in school, dropping out at a much higher rate than their peers. (The International Dyslexia Foundation, 2014).
The Importance of Reading Proficiency by 3rd Grade
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Program
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law that protects and ensures educational equity for students who are considered homeless. The guiding phrase of the definition states that children and youth who “lack a fixed, regular, and ad-equate nighttime residence” are considered homeless. The definition specifies the following living arrangements that would be considered a homeless situation: children and youth who are sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; staying in a motel or hotel, cars, camp grounds, living in an emergency/transitional shelter, or temporary foster care.
Homelessness has a devastating impact on homeless youth’s educational opportunities. Every time a child has to change schools, his or her education is disrupted. According to some estimates, 3-6 months of education are lost with every move. In a recent study of homeless children in New York City, 23% of homeless children repeated a grade, and 13% were placed in special education classes, many times inappropriately (Institute for Children and Poverty, 2003). Homeless children are thus at high risk for falling behind in school due to their mobility. Without an opportunity to receive an education, homeless children are much less likely to acquire the skills they need to escape poverty as adults.
The Middleborough Public Schools supports all students and families experiencing homelessness. Please contact Dr. Heather Larkin, Homeless Liaison, at (508) 946-2013 or [email protected].
HI-LIGHTING OUR STUDENTS
MyGrandpaFlewaB29inWorldWarIII had a grandpa who died a few years ago. He was the one of the pilots who dropped the nuclear bomb on Japan. He flew the B29 plane. This is his grave. He was a good guy. He never wanted to drop the bomb on Japan because he had friends there. I felt bad that he had to make that decision. He did many things. He fought in a few wars. Here is the story of World War 2. The planes took off! They were flying to Japan. Boats and planes came up and shot them, but they stayed fighting. They kept on pushing forward , and they shot down armored tanks. They fought and they fought. They didn’t know if the war was ever going to end. So they kept on moving. This is important to me because I want all the wars to end so we can have peace in our country and others. My grandfather’s story made me think that he was a good man and he did many good things. It makes me want to make the world easy. By Jonathan Leo Kahian, 6th Grader at Nichols Middle School
Monthly Attendance Challenge
September Winners
Henry B. Burkland Elementary School
The Adventurers Team at Nichols Middle
I would love to hear what you are doing in your classrooms and schools to help Improve attendance and improve educational outcomes for at-risk students and students with disabilities. Please invite me to events, send me pictures, student quotes and work samples.
What would you like to see or read about in
the next issue? Let me know!
Dr. Heather Larkin
Don’t Forget !!! College Gear Day
November 25th Encourage your students to wear gear from
their favorite college or university . They can share with their classmates why they would like
to attend that school and tell about an interesting fact about the school. This may
take a little bit of research but it will initiate an important discussion.
Do YOUR students know where they are
headed?
Sachem Pride T-Shirts For Sale
to benefit the SPED PAC Child $10 (S/M)/ Adult $15 (L/XL)
Call the PPS Office to Order (508) 946-2013