Good Afternoon South Side Families, 

We have been working hard to prepare and motivate our students to show their best efforts on our Smarter Balanced assessment like they have done each day this year.  Many classes invited both families and their buddy classroom peers to write letters of encouragement, our staff have been excitedly motivating our students each day to persevere and never give up - especially when things get tough, and our kids have been motivating each other by sharing kind words of encouragement!  It is not too late for you to send your child a note of encouragement tomorrow or next Tuesday when we kick off our math testing.  For our non-testing Grades (K-2) you too, can leave a special note in their folder to see in the morning.  The kids absolutely LOVED seeing the positive notes letting them know how proud others are and for encouraging them to do their best!

Did you know -- The Smarter Balanced Assessment is one component of a school's accountability index (or report card) to continually monitor the learning in a school and district.  To access any school's report card or the district report card you can click here. The factors that go into providing an accountability index include the following:

• % of students at or above proficiency in math, reading and Grade 5 science
• The amount of GROWTH each person makes from one year to the next.  The State of Connecticut counts growth as being twice as important because it is essential that every single student is learning and making gains each year.
• % of students who are chronically absent (meaning 18 or more days).  The better a school's attendance is - the higher an overall accountability index will be.
• % of 4th graders passing the physical fitness assessment (South Side's accountability index for PE DOUBLED last  year) due to the amazing efforts of our PE team and the hard work of our students.
• % of students identified as Multiple Language Learners who are making expected growth

It is important for all families and our community to understand what goes into an accountability index which is why we prioritize all students learning each day, why we focus on continually improving our WINN reaction to support student learning, why we expect all students to show their best learning in every single subject and why we closely monitor attendance.  

Here is some of the celebrating that took place today, on day 1 of our Smarter Balanced testing!