If I am an educator and feel like that, then I’m betting others share the same frustration. At DMS we want to do better with our communication. This is one of the primary reasons we have launched our Parent U, which includes a quarterly meetings for parents and teachers to meet and openly share frustrations, suggestions, and encouragement with one another. Parent U serves to remind us that we are all on the same team and need to get behind the W in our common goal for Operation Graduation!
At our last Parent U we discussed assessments, supt up educational word for testing. In education we have terms like formative and summative assessments. We say things like bench marks student learning objectives. Though all of these are tests of some sort, there are important distinctions that parents should understand in order to better help their children. The season of testing we are about to enter include standardized tests called GA Milestones. These are summative tests which measure students’ understanding of what they have been taught and their overall growth (academic & behavior) as a student over the course of the year. In some cases these tests determine whether the student can progress to the next grade; the tests also reflect the progress made by the teacher, the principal and the school as a whole.
As the parent you are your child's first educator and your job never ends. Though these assessments are important since they determine your child’s progress, even more important are the assessments that preceded them. These assessments are called formative and they are the tests the teachers give in their classes. I recently read a great description of formative and summative assessment. "Formative assessments are like a chef tasting his soup over and over again throughout the cooking process. These tastings will determine what the chef adds or takes away to ensure the quality of the soup is superb. The summative assessment is like the person at the restaurant who eats the soup and officially determines it's worth.”(And then posts it on social media to make the chef rich or poor!) These formative assessments given by the teacher are the trial and error period which allows students to make mistakes that are not final but are a necessary ingredient of the learning process.
Our DMS teachers have worked extremely hard this year to ensure that our students have been given quality formative assessments which have allowed them struggle and get ready to be successful in the summative assessment process. We are rapidly approaching the end of the formative journey but we still have 3 weeks of remediation and preparation for the summative tests. What can you as a parent do to help this process?
Four simple ways.
-Ask your children what they are doing to prepare for the GA milestone.
-Log in and check your student's grade on powerschool.
-Schedule any necessary appointments (doctor, dentist, etc.) after school hours to ensure your child is in class.
-Make sure your child has enough quality sleep, eats healthy food, and encourage them dress for success during test week .
At DMS teachers and administration appreciate your partnership and support and with you we take pride in our middle school accomplishments. As a full partner in your child’s education, please look for announcements about our next Parent U during the 3rd week of May and make plans to attend as together we continue to help DMS grow forward.