From The Principal

From the Principal

February’s school vacation always is a time for me to stop, catch my breath and smell the proverbial roses. Skillin School is a wonderful place to work with excellent teachers, engaging students, and supportive families and community members.

Seeing you all at the parent conference was heart warming. It is a great time to hear all of the progress that your child has made and know there is time to continue to work on their goals. Skillin School appreciates all that parents do to prepare and support their children. Your presence at these conferences sends a strong message to your child that school is important and that you care. Some of you are lucky to be able to volunteer in the school, and we appreciate that. We also understand that other parents have a schedule which does not allow them to be present in the school during the day. Your support is also appreciated.

Our New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) initial results are in. We have not analyzed the data yet, but our scores look promising. Our data team will take a closer look at the results. For now, here is what we know:

• 62% of our 3 rd graders met criteria for Proficient and Proficient with Distinction (this use to be Meets and Exceeds on the MEAs) in math. We were right in line with the state average for sub tests Number & Operations; Geometry & Measurement; and Data, Statistics, & Probability.
  
• 63% of our 3 rd graders met criteria for Proficient and Proficient with Distinction in reading with a clear strength in the Literary subcategory.
  
• 59% of our 4 th graders met criteria for Proficient and Proficient with Distinction in math. They demonstrated strength in the sub test Numbers & Operations.

• 54% of our 4 th graders met criteria for Proficient and Proficient with Distinction in reading. Word ID/Vocabulary and Analysis & Interpretation were relative strengths.
  
• 50% of our 5 th graders met criteria for Proficient and Proficient with Distinction in math.

• 62% of our 5 th graders met criteria for Profi cient and Proficient with Distinction in reading with a clear strength in Word ID/Vocabulary.

We know that this is just one measure of academic progress and that looking at individual students’ scores gives us a better sense of programming for students. The creation of a data team will also help us focus our school improvement efforts. Our Continuous Improvement Priority Status (CIPS) for this year has yet to be calculated. We will keep you posted on that front. In the mean time, our CIPS plan will hopefully be accepted by the State Department of Education this month, and we will continue to implement the plan. A separate notice and information night will be forth coming.

Our PTA will be offering yet another opportunity to get together as a community at the March Crazy Sock Dance. The date will be March 19th. It is always enjoyable to see people come together to socialize. Thank you PTA for all you do for Skillin School and the community at large.

Speaking of community, our school held a Math-A-Thon where the students raised over $3,000 for Haiti. Students enthusiastically embraced the challenge and improved their math skills at the same time.