Englesby Intermediate
Superintendent's Letter to School Committee
Re: Implications of Override
Inaugural District Newsletter Now Available!
Please see the first edition of "The Lighthouse" newsletter, available in the Quick Link section to the left...
Dear Parent or Guardian:
We are pleased to enclose our school "report card". It contains information about student enrollment and teacher qualifications, student achievement, accountability, how our school is performing relative to other schools, and the progress our school is making toward narrowing proficiency gaps for different groups of students.
Part I: Student Enrollment and Teacher Qualifications
The first section of the report card provides information about the students and teachers in our school as compared to the district and the state. If your child attends a school that receives federal Title I funds, you also have the right to request the following information about the qualifications of your child’s classroom teachers:
- Whether your child’s teacher is licensed in the grade levels and subject areas they teach
- Whether your child’s teacher is teaching under an emergency license or waiver.
- The college degree and major of your child’s teacher
- Whether your child is provided services by paraprofessionals and, if so, their qualifications.
Part II: Student Achievement
The second section of the report card shows how Massachusetts students are performing on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test that allows you to compare the performance of Massachusetts students to students across the nation or in other states. You can also see how our school performed on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests as compared to the district and the state.
Part III: Accountability
The third section of the report card contains three important pieces of information:
Accountability and Assistance Levels: Schools and districts are placed into one of five accountability and assistance levels (1-5), with the highest performing in Level 1 and lowest performing in Level 5. Our school has been placed into Level 2 because we have yet to meet gap-narrowing goals for our school.
School Percentiles: A school percentile between 1 and 99 is reported for most schools. This number shows the overall performance of our school relative to other schools that serve the same or similar grades. Our school percentile is 34. This number is an indication of the school’s overall performance relative to other schools that serve the same or similar grades.
Progress and Performance Index (PPI): The PPI is a number that indicates our school’s progress toward narrowing proficiency gaps, or, in other words, helping all students reach proficiency and be prepared for success after high school. Massachusetts has set a goal of reducing proficiency gaps by half between the years 2011 and 2017. For a group of students to be considered to be making sufficient progress toward narrowing proficiency gaps, its cumulative PPI must be 75 or higher.
To improve student achievement in our school, we are working:
- To identify areas for improving instruction in both English Language Arts and Mathematics so that all students and all subgroups are able to meet established improvement targets.
- To ensure that all curricula are aligned with the common core and state standards, and,
- To integrate technology to support instruction in all disciplines.
We encourage you to become involved in helping us improve our school. Some of the ways you can become involved are:
- Encouraging your child’s learning at home
- Attending parent-teacher meetings and other special meetings
- Serving as a volunteer in our school or district
- Encouraging other parents to become involved
For more information about what we are doing to improve student achievement or to request information about the qualifications of your child’s classroom teachers, please feel free to contact...
Ms. Maria McGuinness
Principal
