Welcome and Introduction

Welcome to session two of parent university.

Brenda Maro will be starting this session off tonight, so welcome everyone.

Lots of familiar faces.

Thank you for coming back.

For those of you that may be new online or here in person, if you would just make sure like Mrs. Mozena said that if you're online in the chat box, just put down your name and your student's name.

For those of you that are present here, just make sure you sign in in the back format again will be that if you have questions, comments, concerns, just make sure that your first and last name are on the note card.

We will collect those.

If we see a general theme of questions, we'll try to answer those.

Obviously, we don't always have time to answer every question.

We will get back to you though, regardless, you know, via email, phone call, that kind of thing to make sure that your questions are getting answered.

I think last time that we touched on everything, I feel like throughout the session, or maybe even at the end, after we chatted a little bit tonight, we have a few different topics that we're going to be talking about.

Attendance Awareness and Importance

September is attendance awareness month and that's going to be the first topic for us here.

All right. So daily on time attendance really matters.

To research shows that missing just two days a month means that a child really is on the track to miss 10% of a school year. Okay.

Middle school is a time that is so critical for kids.

You know, we really believe that's a pivotal time for them socially, emotionally, academically.

It sets the stage for future, especially as they are getting prepared to go to high school.

I know many of you have 6th graders.

These middle school years fly by and getting them prepared for what's next starts from day one.

So attending regularly will result in uninterrupted learning.

It helps to build a lot of those essential skills for kids.

Responsibility, self discipline, time management, social skills.

Regular attendance often gives the opportunities for kids to be able to do that cooperative learning group work in class that they would not be able to do at home.

That participation really boosts their ability to learn from each other.

And so being present each and every day in the classroom is super important.

So students who are chronically absent or receiving EFF's in middle school are very high risk to get behind starting freshman year.

And so therefore, it leads to those students sometimes dropping out of school.

It leads to kids falling behind on earning credits, and so it makes high school that much more challenging this year.

Effective July 1, Senate file 24 35 was put into place, signed by our governor.

New Attendance Laws

That really is addressing attendance across the state.

So students that are chronically absent are missing more than 10% of the school year.

Students that are considered truant are missing 20% or more.

Essentially, what the new attendance law is stating is that absences are absences.

It doesn't matter whether these absences are excused or unexcused.

And so therefore, again, it's really about missing days. Okay.

You know, what's important for us is to make sure that we are in good communication and collaboration.

We understand that some things are going to come up, kids are going to get sick, you know, there may be some medical appointments that are going to be out of town, those kinds of things.

And what's really, really important is that there's like really good, strong communication between home and school.

Okay, what's gonna, what's gonna happen?

What does that mean for us in our district?

You know, we want to make sure that there's some early awareness.

And so, you know, if a student is missing 5% of the school year, which would, you know, equivalent, be equivalent to three days for the trimester, we're probably going to reach out to you via phone, call a letter, just say, hey, let's connect.

Let's talk about what's going on and what we can do.

If a student is 10% absent for the trimester, which would be equivalent to six days, the district office will be sending a certified letter and notifying the county attorney, which will be also documented in infinite campus at 15%, which would be equivalent to nine days for the trimester.

There will be a meeting and we will sit down, collaborate, and develop an absenteeism prevention plan.

If students would happen to get to 20% absenteeism for the trimester, which would be the same as twelve days, there is a referral to the county attorney's office.

So again, this attendance law, it's kind of tightening up a little bit.

Attendance Procedures

Like I said before, the biggest thing is that there's great communication between home and us.

Keeping those lines of communication open, sending emails, letting us know what's going on.

What can we do to support you, your kiddo?

Are there any kind of barriers, whether it be transportation, working with our health office, making sure that we have signed releases with healthcare providers to know if there's a health plan that needs to be put in place.

There's just a lot of things that can bubble up that you are unforeseen circumstances throughout the trimester, throughout the year.

And again, just making sure that we have those lines of communication open to help support you and support your child, okay, that's the law.

Our own attendance procedures.

So one of the things that's really helpful if kids are going to be leaving for an appointment throughout the day would be that you write a note for your child and have your child bring it to the office early in the morning as soon as they get to school.

That is super helpful for our secretary.

That way it allows us time to be able to get a pass for them, for them to be able to report to the office before they leave.

It's also great because then we know for sure that you're going to be coming at a certain time.

We're going to make sure the kids pulled, they're waiting in the office.

Cause I know sometimes you guys are running behind and it's hard to get from point a to point b into the appointment.

So those notes are super helpful.

We'll make sure we have the kids pulled and ready to go for you when you arrive to pick up your kid.

You do not need to come into the office if you have sent a note with the child.

What we would ask, though, is that you just call in to say, hey, for safety purposes, I'm sitting out front and I'm here to pick up Johnny.

We're heading to our appointment.

Johnny will be back after the appointment. Okay.

When kids come back from an appointment, they should always buzz in through the main doors, the 6th grade entrance off grandview.

They will need to report back to the attendance office, sign back in with the secretary, and then get a pass to class. Okay.

So if they need to leave for any reason throughout the day, that's the best procedure.

What makes it challenging is if parents call, we do understand there's some unforeseen circumstances sometimes.

But if parents call and say, hey, I'm going to be there in, you know, ten minutes to pick up my kid.

Sometimes that makes it challenging to get to the kid, get them the information that they need to leave, get their things packed up, get to their locker, and then get to the office.

So we always say as much notice as possible is greatly appreciated.

Email works as well, if that's something that you would like to do.

What I would ask or suggest is that maybe you put Mr. Oberhoffer myself, and then Jennifer Kincaid is our primary secretary on that email.

Just in case, for some reason, one of our secretaries is out, myself or Mr. Oberhoffer is out.

There's usually at least a few other people on that email that we can get that email forwarded on to the appropriate secretarial staff.

That would be marking your child out, getting that note ready to go for their pass to the class.

If your student happens to be tardy to school, they must check into the attendance office first period.

So students need to be in their seats at 740.

The doors open for kids to come in for breakfast at 720.

All the kids are allowed into the building at 730, but students need to be in their seats at 740 to be counted, present and on time.

If they're even a minute or two late for first period, they do need to report to the attendance office.

They are marked as tardy and then they will be given a pass and returning to their first hour.

We appreciate too, if kids are going to be arriving late, that you give us a call.

Just let us know what the circumstances are so that we have that good communication as to what's going on as we start to take attendance and trying to track down if kids are absent for the day, that kind of thing.

Let's see here. We talked about early departures.

If any of you would like to take the direct line down for Miss Kincaid, it's 563-552-4811 if your child is going to be out sick for the day, we will ask a couple of questions.

And we do that, obviously for keeping track of data in regards to illnesses that we may be seeing throughout the building and throughout the community.

So if you call, it's likely that Miss Kincaid is going to say to you, why is your child out today?

What symptoms are they experiencing?

May ask if you're going to be taking them to the doctor or not, that kind of thing.

So bear with us as we ask some of those questions.

There is a reason that we're doing that, and that is really, again, just to kind of keep track of what are we seeing across the building and across the community for illnesses as well.

Sometimes if we know that there is a, a medical condition that's going on, we also may remind you that it's important to get a note from the doctor for them to be released from gym class or what should those accommodations look like?

I will go around actually, and collect here in a second.

Some of the questions just real quick to see if we have anything that I want to answer either online or from no cars.

Before we move on to I ready testing online, there was a question about what door students enter if they're coming in for breakfast.

So at 720, there's announcements that go out outside of the building saying it's breakfast time.

Students will come in through their grade level entry door.

So 6th graders are at the front of the building, Grand View, 8th graders are on the frontage road side of the building, Dodge street.

And the 7th graders enter through the back of the building.

They come in and they proceed directly to the cafeteria.

So they will keep their coats and their backpacks with them.

So we want to get them in, get them, maximize their time to be able to eat their breakfast before they have to get off and get the class.

Just a couple questions from the group here.

I Ready Diagnostic Testing

Can we pick our kid up at, pick up our kid early at any entrance? The answer is no.

We want all, whether it's parents or students, visitors to the building, everybody will be traveling in and out of that main entrance, Grandview Avenue, what we call our 6th grade doors. Okay.

The 6th grade entrance, the main entrance there on Grandview Avenue.

So anytime you're coming to the building, if your student is leaving, we want everybody coming in and out of that 6th grade door. Another question.

Are there penalties or impact on schools as a part of the new attendance law?

You want to talk about that, Mr. Oberhoffer? Yeah.

So that is part of our school rating through the Iowa index.

So that is a factor that goes into how they rate schools across Iowa.

So attendance is a big part of that for middle school.

So it is really important for us to, for us to be putting in maximum effort into those initiatives.

And like Ms. Maro said, having that communication with families to support that however we can together. We also.

Just one thing to mention, too, if you're having some barriers, like we talked, like I talked about briefly, you know, anybody on our admin team, our counselors, we also have a life coach here at Washington Middle School, and her role and responsibility is really to help eliminate any and all barriers that students and families are experiencing.

And so that's another person that we can always connect families to as well, to be able to help address any barriers when it comes to getting your kids to school.

I am Amanda Schuster Davis.

I'm an instructional coach here at Washington, and I'm going to share with you just a little bit of information about the I ready diagnostic.

So your kiddos probably have told you or you've seen through Parent square that we've recently taken an I ready diagnostic and just wanted to share some information.

And you will be getting data so that you can see, and we'll just briefly share what that report looks like and just kind of navigate how to read that.

So in case you're not fully aware, our students do complete a diagnostic for both math and reading three times a school year.

This is separate from the ISAs, the Iowa State assessment that we take each spring.

So this is a little bit of a different tool that we use.

And the diagnostic is adaptive, which means as students are taking their diagnostic, if they're getting the questions correct, the questions become more difficult for students.

If it reaches a point where the questions are being answered incorrectly, hopefully the test will make the questions a little bit easier.

And what the system is doing is trying to see, like, what strengths and what weaknesses or areas of need exist for the student.

And based on that information, we actually get lots of data.

One thing that is immediate for that is students will be getting an individualized learning path that I ready will generate for them.

So if a student had an area of strength or weakness in a particular area, it will specifically tailor and administer lessons for them that will address those areas of need.

So we ask students at the school year, you may be familiar, maybe you're not, depending on the grade level of your student.

We ask students to complete two lessons for reading and two lessons for math each week.

And it's really just research is going to say best practice for students to continue to make growth throughout the year, they would complete those lessons.

There is time during the school day where students can complete those.

This is also something accessible to students after hours.

So if ever, you know, students, I don't know if they ever like, yeah, we need to get these done.

They can get them done after hours.

At home, you'll get a report that looks similar to this, and I'm not 100% sure when these specific reports are going to go out yet.

The diagnostic window closes at the end of September, so it might be early October before you see these.

I'm not sure that we can push them out earlier than that.

Just a couple of things to highlight on this document.

You will see. You can see where the number one is, and that will just give information about how the student has performed with the first, the middle diagnostic, and at the end of the year.

Again, we just took ours here in September.

The mid level diagnostic is given in January, and then we take our final diagnostic in May.

So as the year progresses, you'll be able to compare how your student has shown growth, hopefully throughout that diagnostic testing period.

Number two is just going to show you the date you can see.

Number three, there's a green shaded area.

That grain shaded area is going to indicate where a student is expected to be if they're at grade level and at the beginning of the year.

That's a pretty rigorous place to get to, I guess is what I will say.

It's about the 60th percentile.

And we'll talk a little bit more about some of those percentiles and how they all fit in.

But this is at the end of the year.

So by the end of the year, we're hoping that majority of our students will have that fall in that green band.

Number four is going to show that you will see a national percentile norm.

So this already will make a comparison as a national percentile.

And just to remind you, a percentile isn't saying if the score was, I think this example is the 50th percentile.

That doesn't mean the student had 50% of the problems. Correct.

It just meant out of one out of 100 students, the student scored better than 50 students.

If that was a representative of the number of students who took this number five, you will be able to see specific skills that the I ready will break down the data into.

So if you're kind of wondering, oh, my students maybe struggling in math, for example, you could see what specifically the student maybe is struggling.

Maybe it's the algebraic thinking, maybe it's geometry.

And you can see areas, hopefully, as well as strength.

All right, so this graphic is really just another way to kind of talk about that data and what we do with the data.

I did include a picture of the bell curve, as I talked about with that green band.

That green band is a pretty rigorous expectation for students, especially at the beginning of the school year.

So we do want to acknowledge that we definitely want our students to be high achieving, but we know that not all of our students are going to necessarily be in that green band, but they still might have a score that we can respond to in different ways.

So we would look, if you're thinking about a bell curve, the lowest 15th percentiles are going to be students where we're really going to be putting some intensive interventions around the student, help support them in that area.

On the opposite end, if we have students at that upper 15th percentile, 85% and above, we're going to really be looking at how can we support with enrichment?

Might be looking at honors classes in that, in that arena for the student, if that'd be most appropriate.

The table just shows.

Data and Interventions

And again, this is a very general at a glance.

Each student is definitely individualized, and we take more than just one I ready score to consideration whenever we're making decisions.

We're also going to be looking at how students are performing on their state assessment, their ICASP assessment.

We're going to look at how students have historically performed on their I ready diagnostic.

We'll also take input from teachers, especially once we get to know students.

We know that sometimes students might not have a great testing day, so a score might be an outlier and we don't want to put interventions into place if that's really not necessary, if it was just an outlier.

However, we do want to look historically how students are performing, so we make sure we give them interventions and supports if they need it.

So again, generally speaking, we will look at students that they're above the 85th percentile.

We're going to be looking if we don't have students scheduled in honors, that that would be a great next step for us to look at.

For students, they'll be ready to probably advance to that.

Students who fall between the 16th and 84th percentile, that really is an average band.

So although it might not be that green band again on that previous, it still falls within an average range.

Students at the lower end of that 16th to 40th percentile, they may need some extra support, some reteaching pre teaching to be able to be successful in the general ed classroom.

And we provide that during our support time.

So teachers are able to schedule students in.

Maybe they're digging deeper into some vocabulary concepts, being more visual with the content that is being provided.

And again, students 15 percentile or lower, we're really looking at some specific interventions.

Students at this level are typically a couple of years below with some of those foundational skills.

So we definitely have time built into our schedule each day so that we can work with students to continue to build up and hopefully get beyond that lower level more into that average range.

As Miss Schuster Davis was explaining there about those interventions, we're going to talk next about the schedule.

But as a parent, if your student was receiving a tier two or a tier three intervention, you would expect to receive some communication about that.

So we'll reach out, let you know kind of what we're looking at, what that teacher is going to be doing.

Generally, students start with that tier two intervention, like she said, that will be pre teaching, maybe lessons that are coming up or reteaching to fill in any gaps that students have.

In our new schedule, students are going to be getting pulled more regularly just for in time interventions.

Maybe they struggled on one lesson and it doesn't mean that they are low and needing some of those supports all of the time, maybe just for that one concept and that's a little bit different.

But if they're getting pulled in regularly into those tier two interventions, you would expect a phone call.

So you would know about that if your student was engaging in that.

And when they reach out, that's a great opportunity for you as parents as well, to ask questions.

You know, what can I do to support at home?

And, you know, what can I expect to see kind of from my student as the intervention sort of moves forward?

But our goal is to get the students what they need, when they need it, so that they can perform how they want to perform successfully in the classroom and as parents and their teachers, how we want them to perform as well, which would be to the best of their ability.

This year, we did design a new schedule.

So our schedule, we went through a process last year.

We had a team of teachers that was looking at this schedule throughout the course of the year, identifying things that we felt like were strong in our current schedule, and we wanted to keep and ways that we felt like we could restructure some of our school time to maximize our productivity and efficiency in getting students what they need.

In the end, our schedule ended up mirroring the high school schedule pretty closely.

So we restructured the time around lunchtime, which previously, students would have lunch, and they would have what was called win what I need interventions that were designed to take place during that time.

But over time, what we were kind of seeing was a high rate of referrals during those times of the day.

So our office was a high traffic area for students that were needing support because there were so many things happening around that lunch hour, and students were getting pulled in too many directions.

So teachers were wanting to work with students.

But because band, choir, and orchestra were going on, some students were eating different lunch times than other students.

It was a challenge to manage that schedule.

So we redesigned that lunch time and that what I need time and kind of broke that out away from lunch.

So now we have lunch periods that are completely based by grade level.

So regardless if a student is in band, choir, orchestra, they still eat with their grade level peers in the cafeteria.

They come from a class period to lunch, and after lunch is over, they return to a structured class period.

So that really keeps the students in a routine where they're getting themselves back into the classroom series of expectations that teachers have set up and helps them kind of settle back in after lunch so they can continue their afternoon in a successful manner.

And I feel like we have already seen some benefits from that in terms of the traffic that we've seen in the office, the hallway behavior coming to and going from the lunchroom has been.

We've seen some improvements there, and we're looking to continue to build on that success.

With that part of our day, we continue to maintain a dedicated time for Selena, which is our seven mindsets, social, emotional, learning.

We have time built into our day now specifically for iready lessons.

New School Schedule

And so last year was the year where we really rolled out that expectation that students are completing two math lessons and two reading lessons each week and iready.

And so the feedback that we got from our parents and our students was, this is the right work to be doing.

So reaffirmed the beliefs that we had as the educators, and also we could use a little bit of extra time in the building when they have supports right there with them for the students to complete that.

So we were intentional about that with our structure this year, we have added specific club time each week.

So this Friday, we're really excited to roll out our first club time of the year.

And so that will happen on Friday afternoons.

Every student in the building will be able to participate in clubs so they won't have to make a choice of, well, I'm in student council, so I can't do this, or I'm in band, so I'm not able to participate in these activities.

Every student gets to pick an activity and we'll go a little further in detail on that in a little bit.

Our pre teaching and reteaching that we've been talking about is happening.

So those tiered interventions and then just getting some generalized help.

So it might not be something that the teacher is pulling the student in, but they might say, hey, I'm really struggling with my integers here and I want to get with my math teacher and just ask them a couple of questions, or I want to complete a few of my homework assignments, maybe in that room.

So I'm going to schedule myself in there during that time to get some help from that teacher.

RTI scheduler is another tool that we instituted this year that is helping us get students to where they need to be to get support and also be able to at any moment tell you where your student is at.

And so what RTI scheduler does, it allows the students to get support from their teachers at the end of the day.

So Monday through Thursday we have support time.

That's the last 46 minutes of our school day.

And each day has a different designation for the subject area.

That is the priority day for that day.

So that teacher has priority over all of the other teachers on that day if they need them, if they need your student.

And your student is scheduled into band, choir, orchestra, that happens during that time as well.

They pull them from band, choir, orchestra, and the band, choir, and orchestra knows that's science day, so that teacher can pull them for that.

And I'm going to get them on the other days.

So it allows us that access to all of our students so that they can equally be supported on their educational needs there.

The attendance piece was critical, so Ms. Maro and Ms. Kincaid work extremely hard to support attendance in the building.

And we did not.

We were not willing to go to a system that didn't allow us to track where students are.

We want to know where your student is at all times during the day.

If you call and you say, you know, we had an emergency come up, not an ideal situation, we need to come and pick Tommy up.

That's our duty, to be able to make sure they're accounted for.

And this system allows us to do that internally, but it also communicates with infinite campus.

So your notifications would be the same.

If your student misses RTI scheduler scheduled support time, you're going to see that show up in infinite campus just like any other absence, tardier absence that you would see.

So that is very handy for us.

RTI scheduler students are scheduling.

Our 7th and 8th grade students are using this system.

It is the same system that's used at senior and Hempstead.

So it also is helping those students be prepared for high school as they're going up to that level, not only being comfortable with the RTI scheduler process, but knowing what it looks like to engage in that support and being used to getting that support in the middle school level.

So when they go to high school and there's more independence, they already have those structures and those routines built in, and they know what they need to do for themselves to reach the success that they're looking for.

So students pick their class.

The RTI scheduler support time that they want to go to, that opens up on Fridays for the students.

So they can go in for the next week, and they can schedule themselves into sessions if a teacher has not already selected them.

So if your student wants some extra help in math, and it's the science priority day, and that science teacher hasn't grabbed them, they can go ahead and schedule themselves into the math room and get some math support during that time.

And these locations can change on a daily or weekly basis for that student.

So they may schedule into a regular class that they're kind of comfortable going to when they don't need anything extra.

And then when they need something extra, they can shift and go to another space where that teacher can give them some differentiated support that they need.

Teachers also, like I said earlier, have access to all of our students.

So that's a great asset to us in that regard.

The problem that we're really seeing right now in our first week in conversations that I've had with teachers is that teachers are wanting, they're kind of fighting over the kids.

They're saying, you know, I want Tommy.

But Tommy's already going to math for that math priority day.

So they are looking at if your student is missing assignments, if they're noticing that your student is maybe struggling to grasp something or needs to go over something a little extra, they're already starting to identify that and they're actively pulling those students in to keep them up to speed and keep them supported in the classes, which is huge at the beginning of the year, so that they are feeling confident and comfortable and they're not shutting down and feeling like they can't handle the content that's in front of them.

We've been very excited.

We're just two days into that, but we've seen some great benefits for that already.

And so that support time again is at the end of the day, we have Walhawk time, and Wallhawk time has kind of replaced our home base time that we had previously.

So this is a schedule that we run for Walhawk time.

Walhawk Time happens daily from approximately 920 to 955.

On Mondays, we're doing our seven mindsets social emotional lesson.

So that's by grade level, a different lesson.

For each grade level, the teachers can access a lesson that's already prepared.

It will contain quotes, it will contain the theme for the day.

There's usually a short video and an activity, and then our teachers can also, they also have the freedom to take that topic and personalize it for the students in their classroom.

And so a lot of our teachers are diving into that and kind of making that lesson their own, but also catered to the students that are in front of them to make sure that they're engaged in that on Tuesday.

So today in Iready time, we did our first iready focused math session.

I was able to go around, I was in five different classrooms today.

During that time, I did not see one student that was not on their iready lesson.

It was amazing for me.

The students were in there. They were doing their work. The rooms were quiet.

They were focused and making progress.

So we are off to a great start with that. I ready work.

And like Miss Schuster Davis said, those lessons are catered to your students needs, so they're getting specifically what they need to work on.

It might not have been in math class what they're doing in their math class because they might need some practice on decimals.

You know, they might need to brush up on that.

And we're not working on decimals in the 7th grade year, so they still get what they need to be able to perform well on ISASP and to stay sharp on those skill sets.

And their classroom is going to move them forward on those more broad standards that they're working towards.

Tomorrow will be focused for reading time, so they'll have 35 minutes to work on I ready reading lessons.

Thursday will be an open day where we'll rotate through some topics, topics that are timely and of need to us.

One of the additional pieces that we're looking to incorporate this year into I ready time on Thursdays are executive functioning lessons.

And this basically just helps you be an organized and successful person.

So how do I have my materials ready to go for class?

What routines do I need to be in to be successful in completing the work that I need to do for school?

Organizing my life.

Emotional control, personal Yep.

Interpersonal relationships, understanding themselves as the qualities that they possess and how they interact successfully with others.

So just helping our students be successful more in their day to day lives would be that executive functioning.

We'll continue to do our PBIS lessons during this time as we see necessary.

So if we're seeing hey, the cafeteria has been getting a little loud or students are getting off of that routine, we can incorporate a PBIs lesson to refresh what we need and then we're going to be using that time for reward days as well.

So we have iready rewards built in several times throughout the year.

And then each of our grade level teams will be identifying different rewards that they want to focus on.

So positive behaviors that they're seeing in the classroom, good participation in classes, getting all their homework done, things of that nature, not failing any classes, and they will have rewards set up and we'll use some of that time to build in some celebrations as well.

And then on Fridays to wrap the week up, we go back and revisit the lesson topic for the week that we started.

On Monday, we check in with students, how did you do as you were focusing on whatever that lesson topic was for the week?

Club Time Initiatives

And then students will have time to go into that RTI scheduler on Friday and schedule out their for the next week.