Principal's Message...

This is the first of two weeks in which your children take the DC CAS - a subject-specific series of assessments that provide a measure of student learning throughout the year. The testing starts on Tuesday and runs through Friday for the math and reading portions; next week some of our students tackle composition, health, and science. At this stage in the process, the heavy lifting is up to you and your children: get rest, eat well, come to school on time, and be prepared (pencils, reading materials). A special note for some: reading materials must be in the form of books and printed in the old way: on paper and with actual ink. Kindles, Nooks, iPads, and other electronic devices are not allowed. I expect our students to do well, our teachers to comply with every state requirement, and our building and school community to function as smoothly as it does every other day. You should expect nothing less.

I am going to take the next few weeks to introduce Deal families to some plans for the coming year that will have an affect on how your children experience school. There are some very exciting developments underway that will provide new opportunities for our students. The first of these is the expansion of the Approaches to Learning pilot across the school next year.

Approaches to Learning (ATL) is a core element of the IB Middle Years, focusing on the following developmental areas: self-management, social skills, communication, research, and thinking. Over the last few years, we have approached the ATL carefully - trying to balance the need to support students in these areas with the need for a clear academic focus. Next year, we have decided to directly target student growth in the ATL areas, rather than let them be indirectly addressed. In preparation for this, we have created three optional approaches and are implementing them in some classes across all three grades. If your child is in one of these classes (there are about 15) you will receive a letter explaining the process. In a nutshell, teachers will be working in their homerooms to provide feedback to students on their growth; that reporting and process will look different depending on the option selected. Next year, this will go whole school and the full 6 - 8 continuum of growth will be explained in full detail and reported on an advisory basis. Working with three options allows us to determine the most effective and meaningful (to students and parents) way to expand the ATL.

We are excited to be making this shift. The goal is to be clearer with all what it means to be a successful student in practice and to help students grow these skills. One measure for me of the value of ATL will be that it helps students who aren't currently being successful become more in command of their own learning.

Finally, please take the time to come in and register for next school year. Deal has always done an excellent job with getting our students on our rolls; this is essential for our planning for next year. If you have a 6th or 7th grader, please bring your paperwork around during the day or on our Thursday late days. We'd love to have our numbers firmed up as soon as we can.

Have a great week.

Principal Albright

 

DC CAS Testing Schedule:  Deal MS
April 22  (Mon)	April 23 (Tue)	April 24 (Wed)	April 25 (Thu)	April 26 (Fri)
	Reading Math	Reading Math	Reading Math	Reading Math
April 29 (Mon)	April 30 (Tue)	May 1 (Wed)	May 2 (Thurs)	May 3 (Fri)
Health 8th (LaPaz)	Science (8th) Composition (7th)	Health   8th (Mecca)	Health  8th (Firenze)

Daily Schedule for This Week

DC-CAS Test	Time
Reading Section	60 min (9:15 AM - 10:15 AM)
Math Section	65 min (10:40 AM - 11:45 AM)
3rd Period	35 min (12:04 PM - 12:39 PM)
4th Period	35 min (12:43 PM - 1:18 PM)
5th Period	35 min (1:22:PM - 1:57 PM)
1st Period or 6th Period*	35 min (2:01 PM - 2:36 PM)
2nd Period or 7th Period*	35 min (2: 40 PM - 3: 15 PM)

*The last two periods of the day will alternate.

 

o   Students must bring two #2 pencils to the test site each day.

o   Students may bring a book to read quietly when they are finished testing. No electronics (including Kindles or other e-readers) are allowed.

o   Get plenty of rest, be on time (8:45 a.m.), eat a good breakfast, come prepared to do your best.