4/15/24 Principal Newsletter

By Lorraine Duitsman

Sunday, April 14, 2024

Dear Parent, Student, and Educator,

This is ISASP week at GHS. There is no school on Monday for students; this is a professional development day for teachers. Testing will be held Tuesday –Friday, April 16-19th.

Students will report to their scheduled RAMS time in FlexiSched each day. Morning Thrive students will be testing at Thrive. Students in grades 9-11 should arrive at school by 7:45am and report to class when the warning bell sounds at 7:55am. Seniors, remember you don’t test and come later to school. Seniors should plan to arrive by 9:45am and report to your 1st hour class when the warning bell sounds at 9:56am.

ISASP Testing Reminders:

Seniors will not attend during the testing window but are expected to attend their regular classes per the bell schedule. Students who take IWCC coursework on campus will need to coordinate with the main office regarding their schedule during ISASP week and their attendance.

See the bell schedule here.

Please have conversations with your student about the importance of the testing. For high school students specifically, this assessment drives much of their access to courses. It specifically has an impact on the concurrent enrollment courses students can take through Iowa Western Community College. Poor performance may keep students from taking elective courses they are interested in. Please set the expectation in your household that this assessment is important and to do their best. Thank you for your support! See items to note below:

Students must have their school issued Chromebooks and they must be charged.
State testing policy does not allow students to have access to electronics during the entire testing period.

This includes personal phones, tablets, smart watches, etc. Students have been made aware of this policy and are aware that they will be required to place all items in their book bag at the front of the classroom. Please make sure you are aware of this expectation.

Attendance for testing is very important. All students will have to test, so testing during the regular scheduled time is ideal.
Students should have an independent reading book in the event they finish testing early.

Honoring ISASP Growth and High Performance:

There seems to be a misconception among students that if they are “Advanced” that they cannot demonstrate growth on Iowa Assessments. Recently GHS recognized the growth and high performance of students on last year’s ISASP. This cut score table might help visualize growth from year to year. When the high school administration honored growth (in both ELA and MATH), we used this table to do so by multiplying the percentage needed to be in the same spot from one year to another in the content area. So you can see the increase from one year to the next is essentially the same percentage regardless of the starting point per content area, but an exception would have to be made for anyone with a "perfect" scale score as they couldn't show GROWTH because they would have to score PERFECT again. This is quite rare but has happened and will be included in the incentives too, especially as we look forward to getting this year’s scores back. We looked back at the math and English scores to see if that was the case for awardees a few weeks ago and did not see anyone that fit that bill. Certainly wouldn't want to discourage anyone from scoring that well! That's for sure.

This year’s rewards will also include additional recognitions to celebrate even more students!

Campus Life Clean up at GHS: Campus Life, a faith based community organization, worked with volunteers to help GHS with a campus cleanup. We appreciate the many ways our community supports our schools!

campus life

We hope after seeing this wonderful picture that you consider working on your Service Learning graduation requirement! There are many ways that students can volunteer in our community or for the school. Be sure to document your hours with this form. 20 hours are required for graduation and more than that helps with scholarships!

Conditions for Learning Survey: Glenwood Schools will implement the Conditions for Learning Survey in April. We will be taking this later this month on April 25th.

Iowa public schools use this survey to improve safety, student engagement, and the overall learning environment so that all students have optimum conditions for learning.
Student participation is highly encouraged but no student is required to complete it. Students may skip any question or stop taking the survey during administration.
Parent consent for students to participate is passive, meaning all students will be encouraged to participate unless parents or guardians sign and return to the main office a Written Refusal form indicating that their child(ren) should not participate in the survey.
To review the survey ahead of time, see these surveys: English | Spanish

Last Week’s Electives Fair: Student leaders helped 8th graders learn about elective offerings.