Steven P. Lavoie - Principal
Tim Soule - Athletic Director
Nona Thompson - Guidance Counselor
September 28, 2007
I am glad to report to you that the great start we experienced during the first several weeks of
school continues! Students are hard at work and their behavior has been nothing short of
outstanding. A major goal of the staff here at HDMS is to continue to find ways through which
we can recognize positive student behavior. We conducted the First Annual Simon Says
Challenge last week as a reward for the positive behavior exhibited by all.
Read Less...
Our thanks go out to the many parents who were able to join us during our annual Open House on
September 18. It was certainly a busy night with much of the time spent discussing exciting
events such as Chewonki, Kieve, our 8th Grade Boston Trip and the deployment of the laptops.
Over the course of the school year, you have heard and will continue to hear us speak of a
‘standards based educational environment’. Last spring, the school board gave its support for
continued development of a standards based approach to teaching, learning and reporting. As we
progress towards a standards based system, I will use this forum as well as our website, Edline
and opportunities such as open house and parent conferences to discuss various aspects of this
transition.
For a number of years, standards have been in place that articulate what students should be able to
do at each grade level. Student performance is reported by the State of Maine in terms of how
individual students fare on the Maine Educational Assessment in reference to those standards.
Schools are then judged to have made Adequate Yearly Progress based on student performance
on those assessments. In fact, schools have been dealing with a standards based environment
ever since the legislature adopted the Maine Learning Results. I suspect that in the not too distant
future, the state will require that schools report annual student progress in a similar way.
Teaching and learning in a standards based environment varies from classroom to classroom but a
number of things remain common. The use of rubrics to assess student progress is a common
thread. Rubrics, designed to match the standards being assessed, are a critical piece that have
been in use here at HDMS for a period of time. They typically use terminology such as exceeds,
meets, partially meets or does not meet the standard. In working with students, rubrics give an
accurate description of where a student is in regards to progress being made and what is left to
accomplish in order to ‘meet the standard’. Typically, students have multiple opportunities to
submit work and revise it in order to meet a minimal standard.
Certainly the reporting of student progress to parents is a complicated issue. We currently have a
draft of an instrument that will be used in the near future. In doing so, we hope to get feedback
from you on how to improve that report card so that it meets the needs of all. In our next
newsletter, I will address some of the issues that surround the reporting of student progress in a
standards based fashion.
Certainly if you have comments and/or questions regarding this issue, feel free to call, stop in or
email me at .
Telephone (207) 622-4162 ~ Fax (207) 622-7515
Posted by admin-dpotter at Thursday, October 04, 2007, 12:51 PM.
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