Parents and Community Members,
As you know, students at Pate take the NWEA® Growth test three times a year to check academic progress. NWEA® gathers data from over 10 million other students to determine the expected level of performance in each grade level.
I'm proud to announce that the average score of our first and second-grade students is above the NWEA® National Norm!
Growth tests from NWEA® are unique in that they are adaptive tests taken on a computer or tablet. This means the test became more difficult when your child answered a question correctly. And when your child answered a question incorrectly, the test became easier. Ultimately, your child took a test specifically targeting their learning level.
Your child’s growth results are represented as RIT scores. Like inches on a ruler, the RIT scale measures in equal intervals, regardless of a student’s grade—and it remains stable over time. As a result, we can accurately measure students’ growth in between tests and understand if they are performing on, above, or below grade level. RIT scores enable teachers to recognize where to focus attention to optimize your child’s learning and to monitor their progress.
Kindergarten average is not there yet, but those students haven't had the experience of a kindergarten year. I'm hopeful they can achieve even more after a year of intentional, effective and efficient instruction by our kindergarten team.
As you can see from the graphic below, our scores in first and second grade were higher this fall as compared to last fall.
Given that the test was taken after two weeks of school, these scores are indicative of last year's instruction. Please help me congratulate our teaching staff for a job well done.
We can't get these results without the help of parents and our community. For that, I thank you.
You'll have an opportunity to see your child's scores during parent-teacher conferences next week. If you would like to learn more about NWEA®, you may visit NWEA.org/Parent-Toolkit.
Please don't hesitate to contact me should you have questions about your child's scores or the NWEA® test.
Educationally Yours,
Mykie Nash
