Excellence with Distinction

Laurelville Elementary earned the rating of Excellence with Distinction on the Ohio Report Card. This is the result of high standards and much hard work by students and staff.  This is the first year for this rating that follows several years of steadily improving scores on the Ohio Achievement Test. 

Students at Laurelville are remarkable in the amount of effort they put into their assignments.  Each year students amaze me with their effort and positive attitude.  The great test scores from students in Reading Workshop  year after year show a history of students' success.

Great job to all of the students and staff!

You can see the Laurelville Report Card here.

An Easy Way to Practice for the Ohio Achievement Assessment

Want an easy way to practice for the Ohio Achievement Assessment?   All it takes is a computer and Internet access.  Today, students in Reading Workshop accessed the ODE test portal. The Ohio Department of Education has set up a website with a lot of information. There is a section just for the Ohio Achievement Test.  

Students can practice using test passages and questions from previous years. They have a choice of setting up an account to save their results, or they can Take a Test without Logging In. Parents and students can see what is expected, scores, and what they mean.

We Don't Have Time For Fun/Fluff

I recently attended a district-wide grade level inservice. This is a required "training" where testing, test results, and teaching for better scores are discussed. The meeting had just started when the presenter started talking about an extremely successful friend from another district.

She took the fun out, and just concentrated on the curriculum from the content standards approved by the state. Well, not the fun, but the fluff. She only taught 'what she was supposed to teach.' If we want to be successful we need to get this fun or fluff out of our teaching and only teach what we are supposed to teach.

Hello--did you check out our report card? According to it we are an excellent school. And who would believe it, we actually had a little fun. Even if we were only an Excellent school, not Excellent with Distinction, would you really choose to give up all of the fun, just for test scores? Is this what parents in our district really want? I can assure you it is not what students want.

So where do we go from here? Should the district have scripted teaching where fun/fluff is removed and teachers are told what to teach? Should testing and content standards be so important that they totally drive instruction? If a student has a question that doesn't fit in with the day's script, should we say, "sorry, but we can't discuss that because it is not on our curriculum map until May?"

Maybe we should have the new Reading Workshop. We teach the content standards and only discuss indicators as outlined by the Ohio State Department of Education. Students can think and can question, but only if it relates to the indicators we are teaching today.

I don't think so.

Study Island

Students work daily in reading with the online learning program from Study Island. This program is based on the Ohio State Standards. It has lessons that help teach each topic and remediates when students do not pass a topic. Students can do sessions anywhere they have internet access.


Each day a Study Island Student of the Day is chosen from each class. The winners receive an award certificate, a piece of candy,

AND THEY GET THE CHAIR FOR THE DAY!

You can tell by looking at Briann, that when a student gets "The Chair" they spend a day in class living in luxury!







Congratulations to today's Study Island Students of the Day--Breann C., Samantha R., and Jolene M.

Excellent School Rating

Laurelville Elementary received an EXCELLENT rating on the State of Ohio Report Card. Each year, the Ohio Department of Education rates schools based on student performance on Achievement tests. Laurelville's Report is available on the ODE website.

The great news is, based on the number of students passing the Achievement tests, and the growth (in most cases more than a year) shown by our students, we made Adequate Yearly Progress. This is the second year in a row that Laurelville students have exceeded the growth criteria.

Great job to all of the staff and students at Laurelville Elementary for reaching our goal of being rated as an Excellent School!

Achievement Test, Some Took it, Some Didn't

Great job to the students that took the Ohio Sixth Grade Reading Achievement Test. Sorry to those that didn't get to take it, but your version of the test hasn't arrived yet. In an unbelievable move last week, the Ohio Department of Education told our district that students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP) had to take a certain "version" of the test. And, because we hadn't received these yet, these students could not take the test with their peers. Even though most of these students spent every minute of every class in the regular classroom, they are excluded from testing until "their" version arrives.

Now, supposedly this test is no different that the other versions ( of which there are several), but for some reason, which was not explained to the district, all IEP students must take this specific test. These will then, without a doubt, be graded as a group.

For more information regarding this law read the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, also know as No Child Left Behind. Basically this law requires schools and districts to focus their attention on the academic achievement of traditionally under-served groups of children, such as low-income students, and students with disabilities. The whole purpose of this act was to guarantee that all students achieve and are treated equally. It makes a teacher wonder why our Ohio Department of Education claims to be supportive, but then forces IEP students to all take a specific version of the OAT. Oh, and by the way, students will take the test whenever they arrive.

You can read more about this in the Columbus Dispatch's article State Goofs, Prints too Few Tests.

Achievement Vocabulary

Tune up that achievement vocabulary. "What," you say, "is achievement vocabulary?" Certain words are contained in Achievement Test questions. Now, I am not going to say that their only purpose is to challenge students, but they sure make the questions harder to understand.

Why say: How does the ending show what the writer felt?

When you could say: Analyze how the author's purpose is defined throughout the conclusion. Use detailed description to illustrate your position.

Now, I get that this is a reading test, but geesh, ask the question! It almost seems like the test writers from the Ohio Department of Education find the most difficult way possible to ask a question.

Anyhow, today we looked at specific words necessary to understand test questions. You can view most of the words at the Reading Workshop Wikipage. Students studied in rotating four person groups and then we had the big challenge. Students played Around the World, defining the words.

Congratulations to the winners: Shayna T., Micah L., Connor H., and Shelby C.

Are You Smarter Than a 7th Grader?

Everyone has heard of Fox's show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? hosted by Jeff Foxworthy. In Reading Workshop, I didn't settle for that. I wanted to see if students are smarter than a seventh grader.

Yesterday, students were given an assignment straight out of the Ohio Seventh Grade Reading Achievement Test. As I told them from the start, "this is seventh grade work." The grandmother of Connor, a Reading Workshop student looked at the work and said, "this looks like 12th grade work to me." Obviously, this assignment was challenging.

You can view the test at the ODE website. Just follow the link to the 7th reading March 2006 Full Test. The answer key is there also. Students read a haiku poem and a passage, Do You Want to Write Haiku.

The passage had seven multiple choice questions and two extended response. As students worked on the passage yesterday, they put forth tremendous effort and concentrated on their work. Tension was high today as students scored their answers.

Student success was determined based on cut scores from the Ohio Department of Education, that determined reading proficiency for Ohio students in the seventh grade. Remarkably, in the two classes, 38 out of 43 students passed! I am amazed by such a successful sixth grade class!

Practice Makes Perfect-Achievement Test Preparation

Today we took a practice run at the Ohio Sixth Grade Achievement Test. We tried to make today as similar to the actual test as was possible. The test format was the same. Passages and questions were from a previous test. The time allotted and class structure was the same as when students will take the reading test on May 5.

On March 28, Mrs. Stevenson, Mrs. Caudill, and I will score the tests using the same score sheets/rubrics as the state used. I will share the results with students on the week of March 31, and we will review areas of difficulty.

The practice today serves several purposes. When students take the actual test in six weeks, hopefully they will be familiar and comfortable with the process. This should allow them to perform at their highest level. The data from the test results will help me intervene on an individual and classwide level. I will be able to see specific academic areas that need addressed, and other areas that students have mastered. I can tailor instruction to best help the students learn what they need to learn.

The Ohio Department of Education has set up a website with a lot of usual information. There is a section just for the Ohio Achievement Test. Students can practice using test passages and questions from previous years. They have a choice of setting up an account to save their results, or they can Take a Test without Logging In. Parents and students can see what is expected, scores, and what they mean.

Students worked extremely hard, and with their accomplishments, the results will help us do the best job possible in preparing for the test, and learning what students need to be successful in upcoming grades.

Great job to all of the sixth graders for their effort!