What is iReady?

i-Ready is an online program for reading and/or mathematics that will help your student’s teacher(s) determine your student’s needs, personalize their learning, and monitor progress throughout the school year.

i-Ready allows your teacher(s) to meet your student exactly where they are and provides data to increase your student’s learning gains. i-Ready consists of two parts: Diagnostic and Personalized Instruction. The i-Ready Diagnostic adaptive assessment adjusts questions to suit your student’s needs. Each item a student sees is individualized based on their answer to the previous question. For example, a series of correct answers will result in slightly harder questions, while a series of incorrect answers will yield slightly easier questions. i-Ready Personalized Instruction provides students with lessons based on their individual skill level and need so your students can learn at a pace that is just right for them. These lessons are fun and interactive to keep your student engaged as they learn.

Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),

We are thrilled to let you know that we will continue to use the DESSA SEL Assessment Program with students this year. Over two decades of research has helped us understand the important roles social and emotional skills play in each child’s success in school, in the community, and, eventually, in higher education and the workplace. Skills such as demonstrating self-control, persisting at challenging tasks, making good decisions, and working well in groups are all necessary for being successful students and adults. The process by which students learn these and other similar skills is called social and emotional learning. To support our students in developing essential social and emotional skills that will help them become successful and responsible adults, we will be implementing a social and emotional learning program throughout our school.

As part of this program, our teachers will be using a tool called the Devereux Student Strength Assexrment, or DESSA, which was developed by the Devereux Center for Resilient Child This tool asks teachers to rate how often a student has demonstrated specific social and emotional skills in the past month.

Sample DESSA questions include:

• How often did the child keep trying when unsuccessful?

• How often did the child offer to help somebody?

• How often did the child get things done in a timely fashion?

• How often did the child work well in groups?

The purpose of the DESSA is to identify which social and emotional skills your child has already learned and what skills he or she might still need to develop. Our goal is to ensure that your child is continuously developing the social and emotional skills that they need for lifelong success. While the DESSA is just one component of our social and emotional learning program, we want to make sure that you are informed of our use of this instructional tool. We believe that the information gathered from the DESSA will be beneficial to your child’s overall success both inside and outside of the classroom.

Aperture Education publishes the DESSA. To view additional information about the DESSA, visit https://apertureed.com/dessa/

Sincerely,

Joe Fabiano, Counselor K-2

Julie Schaefer, Counselor 3-5

Linda Morgan, Counselor 6-8

Brianna Pumputis, Social Worker K-8