High School Family Newsletter

VISION STATEMENT:

Be a district respected by others as a model of excellence in student achievement.

MISSION STATEMENT:

To prepare our students with exceptional character, knowledge, and skills to thrive in their changing world

We are just past the halfway point of the 2020-2021 school year which means several important things...

1. Semester 1 report cards are available on Skyward Family Access
2. Course selection for the 2021-2022 school year will begin within the next couple of weeks. The link to the course description handbook is provided below
3. Planning has started for exciting events like Prom, Senior Scholarship Night, and the 2021 Graduation Ceremony

The challenges of the 2020-2021 school year have not dampened the spirit within our building and I am very proud of our students, staff, and families for their level of commitment and willingness to adapt to our current situation.

As always, thank you for your continued support of our schools.

Go Panthers,

Mr. Soderberg

Standards-based grading (SBG) is more than grading. It's a fair and accurate method to evaluate students’ performances, provide helpful feedback, and allow for growth over time based on the use of clearly defined criteria for specific learning standards.

We believe that students should be evaluated based on their most recent performances and not penalized for a lack of understanding as they begin learning the content and concepts presented. This allows for an accurate assessment of their understanding and development of skills over time.

Therefore, our gradebook represents grades that are developed throughout the semester. Unlike a traditional gradebook that uses quarter grades as a percentage weight of the overall grade, the SBG gradebook determines the final semester grade based on the students’ performance on the standards regardless of which quarter the final evaluation of that standard took place. To maximize student growth and opportunity to demonstrate their full understanding of the standard, we use their most recent performance as the most accurate measure.

The quarter grade is simply a temperature indicator for student performance at that point in time. It is not the final grade. A student’s final semester grade is determined by a combination of most recent proficiency scores per standard throughout the year, regardless of the quarter within which the work was completed. The semester grade is not an average of quarter marks.

Common Grading Language

• Formative Assessment: The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning, to provide ongoing feedback that can be used by instructors, to improve their teaching, and by students to improve their learning. Formative assessments are risk-free practice and do not impact the final grade directly. However, participation in formative assessments and the meaningful feedback that follows is a critical factor in the students’ academic success

• Formative assessments help…

• students identify their strengths and challenges

• teachers recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately

• Summative Assessment: The goal of a summative assessment is to evaluate how well the student understands and demonstrates the skills and concepts of the specific standards being assessed at the conclusion of that section. Summative assessments are used to determine final proficiency levels and will be reflected in the final grade.

• Reassessment: To encourage learning, students are allowed to reassess on standards to demonstrate their growth. If the goal is to have students learn at their highest level then it is incumbent upon us to encourage continued academic growth and reassessments are vital to achieving that goal.

Students and Guardians,

Next week the Counseling Department will be meeting with students to provide information about and request classes for the 21-22 school year. Below are some dates to remember:

Current Juniors

• Monday, February 8th: students will meet in the auditorium during WIN to review the registration process, new course offerings, and course description booklet.
• Tuesday, February 9th: students will request courses via Skyward during American Lit/Honors American Lit

Current Sophomores

• Tuesday, February 9th: students will meet in the auditorium during WIN to review the registration process, new course offerings, and course description booklet.
• Wednesday, February 10th: students will request courses via Skyward during Language 10/English 101

Current Freshmen

• Wednesday, February 10th: students will meet in the auditorium during WIN to review the registration process, new course offerings, and course description booklet.
• Thursday, February 11th: students will request courses via Skyward during Language 9/Honors Language 9

All presentations and registration materials will be shared on the HS School Counseling web page as soon as we can make them available. For students who are required to be home due to COVID related reasons, we will work with your classroom teacher to provide the registration meeting via google meet. Tentatively, we will have the information meeting recorded.

Thank you,

Mr. Madigan (A-J)

tmadigan@scc.k12.wi.us

Mrs. Klein (K-Z)

tklein@scc.k12.wi.us

Email: ksoderberg@scc.k12.wi.us
Website: www.scc.k12.wi.us
Location: 1751 Broadway Street, Hammond, WI, USA
Phone: (715)7965383
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stcroixcentralwi