Washington Wildcat Chat

Dear Washington Families:

The Illinois Assessment of Readiness Test, an assessment for all students in Illinois in grades 3-8, will be administered in District 64 from March 11-March 22.

The best preparation for the IAR has been the quality instruction our teachers have provided this school year. However, there are things you can also do to promote your child’s success:

• Make sure your child gets a good night’s sleep and eats a healthy breakfast before each day of testing.

• Provide your child with words of encouragement. While we don’t want our students to feel anxious about any assessment, we do want them to do their best.

• The IAR is an online assessment and students will be using their Chromebooks to complete these tests. Please make sure your child brings his or her Chromebook to school each day, fully charged.

Below is our school’s schedule for test administration:

Monday, March 11: Math Test 1

Tuesday, March 12: ELA Test 1

Thursday, March 14: ELA Test 2

Friday, March 15: Math Test 2

Monday, March 18: Math Test 3

If you would like to learn more about the IAR tests, sample tests are available for your review. Thank you for your support in helping your child be prepared for upcoming testing.

Sincerely,

Angie

Tuesday is Uncle Pete’s Lunch Project - there’s still time to shop!

Last week, we sent home empty lunch sacks with a note about Uncle Pete’s Lunch Project. Tuesday, March 5th, we’ll be collecting the filled sacks as children arrive at school beginning at 8:35 until 8:50. Note that we will have a collection box in the gym for students attending Before the Bell. If you plan to make more than 10 lunches, please contact the Washington PTO (board@washingtonpto.org) so we can help coordinate drop off.

If you haven’t yet filled your sack, here’s a quick list of what to pack:

· 2 meat sandwiches on white or wheat bread

(Please, no condiments or cheese)

· 2 hard-boiled eggs in the shell

· 1 small bag of chips

· 1 piece of fruit - apple or orange

(No bananas)

· 2 or 3 cookies or a small candy bar

· 1 small water or juice box

· 1 paper napkin

*Please have your student(s) decorate and provide words of encouragement on the lunch bags.

If you have not already done so, please take just a few minutes to participate in the 5Essentials Survey (5E). The survey takes about 20 minutes or less, and will help us understand the conditions at our school and guide improvements. Schools need a minimum parent participation rate of 20% for scores to count toward the overall rating. Currently, Washington parent participation is at 15%. We need your help to make this count!

The survey focuses on the five “essential” areas that research has shown are key components for school success: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environment, and Ambitious Instruction. Your identity and individual survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child. The 5E survey is sponsored by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and was developed in collaboration with the University of Chicago.

Please keep in mind these three helpful tips when completing the survey:

• Please focus on your experiences during the current school year.

• Take care to select the correct school and community (you’d be surprised how many schools in Illinois have the same name)!

• If you have a student at more than one school, we invite you to complete a survey for each location.

Please visit this link to begin: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and helping to improve the environment for student success at Washington.

In the coming weeks, our staff will collaborate on the important process of creating class lists for the upcoming school year. This process is quite structured, takes various factors into account and involves many stages.

Because the placing of students in classrooms is so important, we use a very specific and detailed process for all children. We consider several criteria in making our decisions, with no one being more important than another. The following criteria are considered before placements are made:

• The total number of children in all grade level classes needs to be equal.

• Ability levels of students need to be balanced in each grade level class.

• Leadership skills and other affective characteristics need to be balanced.

• Students’ learning styles should be matched appropriately with teachers’ instructional styles.

• Some student combinations should be split for social or academic reasons.

We will also be coordinating co-teaching opportunities that may dictate how we group and cluster students in all grade levels.

If you would like to provide specific information about your child to assist in the homeroom placement selection, please submit a letter by Friday, March 22nd. Pertinent information may include the parents’ view of how the child learns best, the environment that best suits learning, peer social matches to possibly avoid, and any other pertinent details. Such information will be considered as part of our process, but final decisions about class assignments are determined by administration and teachers.

Due to the nature and complexity of this task, we are unable to accept requests for specific teachers. We ask that you please do not put our teachers in an awkward position by requesting a specific placement to them. At times, they are unable to honor a request and we do not want them to feel responsible for not being able to follow through with considerations.

Please note, any letters received after Friday, March 22nd may not be considered in the process. Our staff will spend a significant amount of time on placements, and we take the process very seriously.

Lastly, please note that once homeroom assignments are made and notifications are shared in August, we are unable to honor requests for changes. We encourage you to take the opportunity now to share your thoughts. If you have questions or feel you need to have a conversation with me that our letter method doesn't provide, please contact me as I'd rather have this conversation now than a complicated conversation in August.

• Uncle Pete's Lunches - March 5
  

• No School, Records Planning Day - March 8

• IAR Testing - March 11-22

• No School, Election Day - March 19

• Spring Break - March 23 - April 1

• School Resumes - April 2

Inspire all students to discover their strengths, embrace learning, achieve personal excellence, and demonstrate care. Students thrive in a rich, rigorous, and innovative curriculum delivered by highly qualified teachers. Each student learns and grows in a safe, nurturing environment. In collaboration with student, parents, teachers and the community, District 64 provides opportunities for each learner to investigate, be successful, be resilient, and become inspired and empowered as they contribute to our global society.