Shelby City Schools is nearing the end of their Race to the Top as students prepare for testing and teachers prepare for evaluations in the second half of the school year.
Assistant Superintendent Paul Walker reported positive things to the Shelby Board of Education on Wednesday night. Walker had already met with Shelby teachers to prepare field assessments for students.
“We’re going to have performance-based field-testing in April after spring break, and then end of the year field assessments in May,” Walker explained. “We have about 50 teachers involved between the two, and we’re going to reach around 1,000 students.”
After receiving the Race to the Top grant in 2011, Shelby City Schools implemented Chromebooks in many classrooms and have been able to utilize the laptops for demonstrations of the field tests. Walker said Shelby sixth graders have even taken a practice social studies assessment before the real field test to acclimate them to the system.
“The biggest thing is going to be how to get kids to concentrate on taking an assessment online versus paper and pencil,” said Walker. “You’re scrolling down one side of the monitor and the questions are on the other side, it’s not as easy just to circle something on a piece of paper. It’s going to be a big change for kids. You’ve got the logistics problem and then the rigor and content of the assessments are way harder, so it’s like a double-whammy in some respects and it’s going to take some time to get used to that.”
Teachers are preparing for their own testing at the end of the school year in the form of teacher evaluations. As part of the Race to the Top goal of using data to improve instruction, teachers will present their student growth measures as well as their student learning objectives when class resumes after spring break.
“Teachers gave the pre-assessments in September to see where students were starting; now they’re going to give a post-assessment in April and they’ll be able to see how much growth the kids made over the course of the school year,” Walker explained. “They’ll report that data to the principal, and that will be going into their teacher evaluation.”
Walker noted the evaluations are given prior to the end of the year in order to complete them by the end of the school year. He commended Shelby students and teachers for their performances in following the Race to the Top goals.
“We have done everything with this Race to the Top with fidelity, and it really makes me proud to know we’re not cutting corners,” said Walker.
In other news, the board accepted almost $11,000 in donations from the Shelby Ohio Community Foundation as well as Shelby graduates Michael and Kathryn Medley. The funds will go to school functions such as Dowds Elementary’s Tumble Book Library, the Academic Achievement Banquet, the After-Prom committee and Accelerated Reading materials.
A large amount of the funds donated, $5,000, will go towards helping students go on the Shelby Middle School trip to Washington, D.C.
“That $5,000 is outstanding, it really helps offset the cost of those students who can’t pay that entire amount,” said Shelby Middle School Principal Jeff Eichorn. “It really helps everybody to partake in this educational trip.”
The $2,000 donation from Michael and Kathryn Medley was given to use at the schools’ discretion. Superintendent Tim Tarvin said Walker and the elementary schools are looking into how best to use that money.
“We are blessed with folks in this community who give us a lot of monetary donations,” said Tarvin.
“It’s going to be a big change for kids. You’ve got the logistics problem and then the rigor and content of the assessments are way harder, so it’s like a double-whammy in some respects and it’s going to take some time to get used to that.”
