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Granite School District > Superintendent's Office > Sup’s Vlog > Students

Students

Question – SAGE and computer skills

Question – With the switch of end of year assessment coming, I would like to know what Granite School District and other Utah School Districts are doing regarding keyboarding and basic computer skills. It seems like SAGE is going to not only test students’ academic achievement, but will also assess their ability to use technology (in this case, a computer) efficiently and effectively. I know that part of our core standards includes keyboarding and computer skills, but it seems to me we need access to more resources in order to produce technological competent students. Is Granite School District looking to acquire a keyboarding/basic computer skills specialist who can teach these skills? Will it be the responsibility of the school’s STS? Teachers? It seems somewhat unfair to me that our students should be tested via technological devices without appropriate training, and that teachers’ pay should be partially determined by these results. What are we really assessing?

Response – It is true that the new SAGE assessment requires technology skills beyond those previously required by CRT administration – drag and drop, select text, work with graphs, for example. We have encouraged our teachers to introduce their students to the SAGE practice tests and familiarize them with the skills required of the new assessment; students can practice at home, and parents can become familiar with the new assessments as well. In fact, most students are far more technology savvy than are the adults in our system, and it is incumbent on all of us to provide repeated opportunities to learn and demonstrate learning through the use of appropriate technology, even when we lack expertise. STSs do have responsibility for some instruction, but that is instruction and support for teachers in better integrating technology into routine classroom instruction. Lastly, teacher pay is NOT currently impacted by SAGE results, although we expect it will be in the future. The legislature has pushed back this requirement for merit pay again this last legislative session.

Question – Class and Ability Grouping

Question – Why do we allows kids to keep moving up a grade if they are failing in reading or math just because they are of that age? If it is okay for them to move up for that reason then all adults should be enrolled in calculus and nuclear engineering for the same reason, they are old enough. To me that is rather ridiculous. This reason has nothing to do with their level of success or understanding. Why as a district won’t we allow to group kids according to their ability and understanding? In other words why are we keeping kids in a class or level just because of age and not considering ability to do that level? Music groups do this all the time in Jr. High and on. That is what they do in college. They do this in sports as well. You can’t just take classes because you are old enough – you have to pass the prerequisite’s first. Why can’t we group kids so that they have a chance to succeed by being in a class based on their ability only? India has done this, and some charter schools in Utah are doing this. These groups are not static either in that once the students have mastered that level they are moved out and upward to the next level immediately. I hear a lot about the U.S. failing, and I believe this is a common sense way to help the kids especially younger to get a better grasp on subjects and not feel like school is worthless and that they are failures and should drop out etc.

Additionally, we received another question dealing with the similar topic of “ability grouping.” Since my first year as an elementary teacher, I have wondered why classes in the district are directed to have approximately even numbers of high, medium, and low children. Differentiating instruction in all areas every day, so that each individual child learns at his or her own pace is an extremely daunting and difficult task, and you can only do so much with small groups. I understand that there are pros and cons to each side of the argument, and having a more homogenous class certainly doesn’t mean we would only have to teach each concept one way, but it seems that if students were grouped according to their abilities, the teaching would be much more effective, since most kids would grasp a concept in a more unified manner (instead of some “getting it” in five seconds and others in five days). Even now that the district is pushing that each grade level have at least one gifted-endorsed teacher, and with so-called “gifted” classes, those classes still have the same wide range of abilities as any other. That just doesn’t make sense to me. Some may argue that student self-esteem is a factor—which it certainly is—but I would think that even if a student is in the “low” class, once he sees that he is not the only one struggling, and that they can all overcome that challenge together, that issue would be diminished. The definition of “fair” isn’t that everyone gets the same thing—it’s that everyone gets what they need. Students need to learn with a group closer to their own level, be it high or low. Some teachers may not want to be stuck with the “low” class, but if it meant I could teach a whole class at the same level (or at least closer to the same level), I would happily take them. Could you please explain the rationale of having even ability distribution in all classes, instead of grouping by ability?

Response – Grade retention is a serious process requiring, first, parental request and, second, a school level committee decision based on a wide variety of criteria beyond math and reading scores. We believe that all students can learn and be academically successful and that it is our job to provide the differentiated instruction and academic supports to help them realize that potential, regardless of their background, socio-economic status, etc. It has been asked why we don’t do what is done in India, where “once the students have mastered that level they area moved out and upward”. We do – we expect teachers to differentiate for students who, when they master an academic concept, are moved on to other concepts, exposed to more depth and complexity, provided enrichment. This (linked) district memo addresses these questions in detail.

Differentiated Instruction

Research has repeatedly shown that as a whole, heterogeneously grouped students perform better than a collective group dispersed into homogeneous groups. Our focus will be to continue to provide differentiated instruction specific to each individual child’s needs.

Thank you to the Instruction and Learning Department for their assistance in responding to these questions.

Superintendent Snapshot – PERFECT ACT

Welcome to the latest superintendent snapshot where the superintendent recognizes two special students who received perfect scores on the ACT. If you have a question for the superintendent, please submit it here. Have a great weekend.

P.S. Abraham wasn’t really in an “animal training” course. His outfit was for spirit week at his school.

Student Planning Guides

Question – I just listened to your blog, and was shocked by the CCR booklets you had. You said you give them out in 6th grade, but I have never seen this book. How does our school get a hold of copies for our students? It would be nice to show parents that learning study skills and being a good student now does make a difference later in their school career.

Response – Thank you for your question about the Student Planning Guides. The College and Career Readiness Department printed Student Planning Guides for all 6th grade students last spring. Junior high counselors were asked to distribute the planning guides to 6th graders (and their parents) at that time in conjunction with 6th grade-to-junior high registration meetings. Some of those meeting were held at the elementary schools but most were likely to have been held at the junior high. It’s unfortunate that you, a 6th grade teacher, were not part of the distribution. We are sending you a classroom set in district mail. Below, is the link for the current edition. Please use as you like. Also, your school social worker delivered a bag of resources to your principal in October including the planning guide and others materials to be used with 6th grade students.

The Student Planning Guide is currently under revision for next spring. Please feel free to give us input/feedback/suggestions for the 2013 edition. We will make sure your school’s counselors and social worker get you a newly updated classroom set when they are printed.

https://www.graniteschools.org/depart/teachinglearning/collegecareer/Documents%20for%20Students/2011-12%20Student%20Planning%20Guide%201-26-2012.pdf

Thanks to the College and Career Readiness Department for their assistance in responding to this question.

Counters for Canvas

Question – Is there a way to have a counter on our Canvas sites so that we can tell how much students or parents are using them?

Response – There is currently no dashboard for viewing granular data on Canvas. We have voiced our desire to have an easy way to see what is being used and not being used on a macro and micro level. Canvas is working on developing Course Analytics which will show things like page views, participations, etc. by student. We have been told this will be released in January.

Thanks to our Educational Technology Department for their help in responding to this question.

Credits for Graduation

Question – I’m a student at Cyprus High School in the 11th grade. I have been in German class for three years. I’m being told that I can’t use my German credit as an English credit because of my grade level. The other people (12th graders) are allowed to do it. Why should they be allowed to but not me? I worked just as hard as they did to get into 3rd year German.

Response – There is an ongoing tension that only the state board of education can resolve between two strategies for awarding credit: competency or seat time.  Please know that we are pointing these same kinds of conflicts out to the state.  At this time however, state graduation requirements include 4 years of English credits: English 9, 10, 11 specifically, and then an additional course in the 12th grade year. The approved courses (that is approved at both the state board and our LEA board levels) that can be taken in the senior year to earn this credit include English 12, Debate, Journalism, and a World Language 3 or 4 course, among others. Your German 3 course taken now in grade 11 cannot count in advance for a course that is prescribed to be taken in the senior year. However, you can take German 4 next year which would count for that 4th English credit.

Thanks to Student Learning & Support for their assistance in responding to this question.

Gradebook Q & A

We have received many questions regarding the new Gradebook system. Some common questions have been posted here along with responses.

I have been trying to pull up a simple missing work report for my class…
There is currently no single report for elementary schools that will print a single page of missing assignments for an entire class of students. There is a report that can be run for each student individually, but as was pointed out, this is a lot of work. This type of report is the single most requested item we have received for the new Gradebook. Our plan is to modify the report for single students and make it so that teachers can run it for an entire class list.

We know that in the old Gradebook, teachers would frequently print off a report and send it home with their students each week. While we think this should still be an option for teachers, we would encourage them to move towards using some of the other tools built into the Gradebook system. For example, a parent can opt in to receive email notification whenever their student misses an assignment. In the new system, teachers also have the ability to send attendance and assignment information to parents directly by email.

There is NOTHING simple about it…
The program does require some initial setup up front. Teachers need to create their own grade scales (or choose a district grade scale). They need to setup their own categories (or choose a district category). They need to select their preferences (or use the defaults). These items are one-time things that you can continue to use year-after-year. Once the one-time setup is done, a teacher needs to assign a category/grade scale to a course (this is no different from the old Gradebook) and elementary teachers need to setup their concepts (this is no different from the old Gradebook). The vendor has been very receptive to ideas on how to make the system easier to use, but in order to make improvements we need specific examples of how things could be done better from the people who use it.

I have yet to find even one thing that is positive about it…
· The old Gradebook did not provide teachers with a way to communicate directly with parents; everything had to be printed off and sent home with the student. Parent email accounts will become available as parents sign up for parent accounts in the new system.
· The old Gradebook had a one day time delay between when a student entered a class and when a student would show up in the teacher’s Gradebook.
· All reports in the old Gradebook were PDF’s. The new Gradebook allows a teacher to export any report to Excel, Word, PDF, etc.
· The old Gradebook did not integrate well with other systems in the district and was difficult to improve.
· The old Gradebook was unable to maintain information from one school year to the next. The new Gradebook does.
· The old Gradebook was limited to less-than-adequate hardware resulting in frequent system outages. The new Gradebook is compatible with newer server technology and can more easily be expanded to accommodate more users on the system.

Can we have the old program back? I don’t feel the move to a new Gradebook program was optional.

Here are some of the reasons why the old Gradebook was not an option for this school year:
· Elementary schools have moved to four quarters from three trimesters. The old Gradebook was designed specifically for three trimesters on the elementary level. Making this change would have required many changes to the old Gradebook, many of which would not fully be tested by the start of school.
· We would not be able to make the transition to a new Discovery system this year.
· Over the past couple of years, there has been a significant increase in the number of teachers, parents and students accessing information from the Gradebook. The old system was already having issues accommodating the increased load from last year.

While we understand that there is a lot of frustration involved with moving to a new Gradebook system, please remember that we are several weeks into a very significant change affecting thousands of teachers and tens of thousands of students and parents. We are still working on making the system really great for all users and we appreciate your patience.

Thanks to Information Systems for their assistance in responding to these questions.

Superintendent Snapshot – Where do P.E., music and art education fit into your vision for the district?

Great question from a teacher regarding the expanding of P.E., music and art education in the vision for quality education in Granite School District. Have a question? Submit it here! Have a great day.