February 22, 2012
From: Ector County
        Independent School DistrictE-news logo
In This Issue
Commissioner defers grading policy
PTA Reflections winners
AVID visit
Education Foundation grants at work
New Tech Odessa
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Commissioner defers 15 percent grading policy for one year

On Friday, February 17, Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced he is deferring implementation of the new 15% grading requirement connected to the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) end-of-course examinations. He took this action after receiving input from parents, educators, and State Board of Education members, as well as statutory clarification from state leaders.

 

Under the new testing system those students who entered 9th grade this year (and younger students) are required to pass 12 end-of-course exams in specified classes in order to graduate. In addition, the state-mandated end-of-course exams are to count as 15% of a student's final grade in that class.

 

Commissioner Scott waived that 15% requirement for this year, but not the requirement that the students pass the end-of-course exams in order to graduate.

  

Learn more about the STAAR testing system on the ECISD home page under STAAR Central  

 

STAAR

 PTA Reflections winners

Each year the National PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) sponsors a contest for students across the country; one in which many of our students participate. "Reflections" is the name of the contest and it offers students the opportunity to create works of art for fun and recognition. Students in grades 3-12 are encouraged to submit works of art in six areas, dance choreography, film production, literature, musical composition, photography, and visual arts.

 

This year's theme is "Diversity Means..." and our local winners are listed; those who received an Award of Excellence have advanced to be judged at the PTA state level. Below the kids are pictured with Superintendent of Schools Hector Mendez and school board president Tom Pace.

 PTA

PRIMARY DIVISION:

Visual Arts

Award of Excellence:      Harris Sewell

Award of Merit:               Allison Barnes

 

INTERMEDIATE DIVISION:

Literature

Award of Excellence:      Brinley Gwilliam

Award of Merit:               Jeremiah Camacho

 

Visual Arts

Award of Excellence:      Halie Douglas

Award of Merit:               Kathryn Spickerman

 

Photography

Award of Excellence:      Hannah Peterson

AVID visit to ECISD

Our District received quite an honor on February 16 when LBJ elementary was chosen to host a site visit for AVID directors from other school districts as well as AVID Center staff members. The group spent half of the day at LBJ visiting classrooms and talking with a panel of our students. The visit was featured in stories by CBS 7 and the Odessa American.

 

In an interview the AVID Center's executive vice president, Rob Gira, said he was impressed. "I'm very pleased. I look first at what the students are doing. How are they behaving academically? How are they taking notes? How are they interacting with their teachers and each other? I was very impressed with what I saw."

PTA

Odessa is touted as the first AVID community in the nation - the program is used in grades K-12 in ECISD as well as being offered at Odessa College and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin.

          

AVID stands for Advancement via Individual Determination. In elementary schools AVID takes the form of best practices for note taking, organizing assignments, and analyzing & discussing topics. In secondary schools it is an elective class that provides support and skills for students to go to college. The elective class is targeted for kids in the middle of the academic spectrum. You can find out more about it by visiting the AVID section of the ECISD web site. Battle of the Bluebonnets

Education Foundation grants at work

Iron Chef

Iron Chef Math and the Battle of the Bluebonnets are a pair of recently completed innovative classroom projects funded by grants from the Education Foundation.

 

Iron Chef Math is captured in this montage of pictures. Libby Sibert's 2nd-grade students at Jordan Elementary used food manipulatives (read: Swiss Rolls, marshmallows, etc.) and the secret ingredients of math and science to cook their way to problem solving. Iron Chef Math and his trusty assistant Iron Chef Science turned these snack food creations into real life reinforcement of major STAAR objectives like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, measurement, time, graphing and estimation. Just picture it...chocolate overcoming fractions! Based on the Food Network hit Iron Chef America, Iron Chef Math is supported by Cisco Ford Equipment.

 

 

 Ed Foundation logo

Congratulations to the team of Savanah Garcia, Adam Lindsey, Catherine Nguyen, Ashton Aranda, Nicholas Pursley, and Braiden Buford (pictured) from LBJ elementary school, the champions of the 2012 Battle of Bluebonnets competition! They beat teams from nine other elementaries - Zavala, Reagan, Blackshear, Ireland, Hays, Travis, Gale Pond/Alamo, Dowling, and Burnet - in the finale on February 10.

As part of the grant, the participating schools received a set of 20 books - books selected as Texas Bluebonnet Award winners. The schools then put together teams of students (from 3rd to 6th grade) who read at least five of the books, to compete in a game show-type atmosphere where each team attempts to correctly answer questions from the books. This is the second year in a row for this grant activity. The goal of the project is not to simply have the students compete but to motivate them to read as many of the books as possible, discuss them with friends and family, and with the help of their teachers identify literary elements and develop critical thinking questions about the books. Congratulations to all of the kids involved (and librarians)!

 

Lining up for NTO

 

NTO

On February 17 about 70 families braved the cold and camped out over night at Ratliff Stadium in hopes of securing their spot in next year's freshman class at New Tech Odessa. There are a maximum of 120 spots in each grade level at NTO -- only the first 60 were accepted on the morning of Saturday, February 18, at this 1st come, 1st serve event. The rest of the class will be filled through a lottery on March 6. The deadline to turn in applications is February 28 -- all applications must be turned in at New Tech Odessa, 300 E 29th Street.

 

New Tech Odessa opened in August 2011 with freshman and sophomore classes. A new group of freshmen will be added in 2012 and again in 2013 to fill the four-year high school. NTO is an academic high school offering Advanced Placement courses and electives. Technology is a key element of everything they do and each student is issued a laptop at the beginning of the year. NTO uses a project-based learning model in which learners must research and analyze projects as part of a team. The projects are then presented before their peers and campus instructors, called facilitators. 

 

Visit the NTO website to learn more.

 

NTO logo 

Phone: 432-456-0000
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 3912, Odessa, Texas 79760
Physical Address: 802 N. Sam Houston, Odessa, Texas 79761

 

Ector County ISD does not discriminate on the basis of gender, age, race, nationality, religion, disability, socioeconomic standing or non-proficiency in English language skills in providing educational services for students' benefits.

 

WORLD CLASS LEADER IN EDUCATION.