ES Specific Info
Will we eventually be able to use Nicenet/Elluminate with AESS in lieu of a face to face visit (not replacing them all together but perhaps allowing us to meet them once a month face to face and do other weekly meetings via computer), or are the face to face visits mandated by the state? Good idea, this has been referred to administration for consideration in future years. One of our ESs is beginning training to see how this would work.
Is there any hope of a resource
center in the Bay Area? Due to state law, we cannot have any
learning centers outside of
Could we get clarification on the subjects in the box on
NCLB teacher requirements certificate of compliance form. Here is a website from CDE on Subject Matter
Authorizations. This information
will help you while filling out HOUSSE Part 1.
Educational Info
If the HQT is the parent, does the grading rule still apply
or does the ES have input on that grade? The
ES, since the ES’s
name is on the SA as the teacher of record . You may
need to consult your advisor if you have any questions about grading for
specific situations.
What about students whose first session of attendance was in
November or even December? It’s 25% of
the entire grade that the ES would provide. No different than how you would
figure out the grades/credits for a late enrollee.
What if the reason for nonattendance wasn't irresponsibility, but was technically related? Hopefully, this has been communicated to the ES just as an unavoidable absence would be explained for non attendance to a cp or college course.
ESs are concerned that students'
grades may be negatively affected by things they (the ES or the student) have
no control over as we all become familiar with this system. The key is to
communicate these concerns or circumstances to the Department ES. Very few of
them have heard of difficulties that have prohibited students from
attending.
Should ESs feel like they should disenroll their students before the end of the
semester? If the course is on
their transcript and they were enrolled in the class they will receive a grade
for the time of attendance. All ESs were asked to disenroll their students if they had found another way to
fulfill the HQT requirement.
How will the HQT Course teachers be informing the ESs of the students' grades?
The HQT Dept. ES should be emailing you your student’s progress report. However, ultimately you as the ES of record are responsible for getting the grade.
Will the CP course instructor contact us about grades or do we need to contact them? The ES should make contact with the cp instructor if they need student grades.
Can we get all of the e-mails of the CP instructors? You can either obtain the email address in webfiles or from the person who set up the CP class.
Can the HQ Instructors have boxes at each learning center? Not all of the HQT Dept. teachers go to the LCs.
Can we get a list of the CP Instructors from whom we need
signatures? At this point, you should
only use the HQT
list provided in the November agenda.
Many ESs also wanted clarification of items IV and V under HQT Updates. IV made it sound like HQT will be 25% of the grade, and V made it sound like the HQT was completely responsible. Can you clarify that? For this semester, The HQT Department Courses will each have a mid term and a final that will comprise 25% of the student’s grade. The HQTs feel that since they only had limited contact with the students and that they didn’t provide actual courses but only office hours/midterm/assignments that they don’t have enough information to provide 100% of the grade.
HQT Grades and credits- Some of us read the agenda to say that all High School core subjects must be graded by or in collaboration with an HQ teacher. Does this only apply to students in a CP class or HQT Course? Every class that the students takes whether a core course or not, the ES should be collaborating with the instructor as to the attendance and how your student is doing. However, this agenda item was specifically referring to the HQT Dept. classes that your student is enrolled in.
Need to add a 1st/2nd semester box to check or notation to circle to the new signature agreement for HQ teachers. Good suggestion, this has been added.
We read the directive to purchase test prep for all of our families but what if the parents do not want test prep materials and do not want it taken out of their budgets? Is this mandatory? Test Prep is mandatory, but if the budget does not allow this, then Edusoft would be a good option.
Test prep—we understand that we need to purchase the test
materials with student funds or retrieve materials from Edusoft—but
maybe if there are extra curriculum funds at the end of the school year,
the school can purchase them for next year so the ESs
can just pass them out to the families.
There are several choices and this can be something decided on with the family
at the beginning of the school year. We can provide samples at each center so
that the parents can make an informed decision.
ESs are thankful for the Measuring Up books that are readily available at the ModLC, but we need the answer keys. Can the school provide lots of answer keys at the ModLC as well? These have been successfully ordered by other ES even though it appears that they can only be ordered in bulk. Network with the other ESs in your group to see if orders can be made and shared amongst ESs.
We feel we need to know the reasoning behind “post-testing” in January and February so we can sell this idea to our parents. Many of them were reluctant about this additional testing but liked the idea of a true “post test” happening at the end of the year rather than in April like the STAR test. Now it is going to be a bit harder to sell. Please help us out here. The purpose of the Post test is two-fold, to have an alternative test to show cde our academic improvement, but also to help parents/ESs/students determine which areas may need more concentrated effort when preparing for the STAR. If a parent would like for the student to be able to show more growth by taking the exam later in the year, they may take it a third time after STAR if they would like.
Another note on the Scantron testing:
with only one exception we all had some major trauma administering the test to
our second graders. Is there any way we
can make the WRAT test the standard test for 2nd graders unless we
think they can handle the Scantron? We don’t want these young students being
traumatized about testing so early in their lives. If a 2nd grader does not have the reading skills necessary
to handle Scantron, then the ES may inform assessment
and their advisor, and perhaps only do the math portion of the test (or none at
all if that is also too difficult). The ES should monitor the student’s stress
level and make that professional determination. WRAT would need to be used in
this case. We don’t want to make its use standard, as we have many 2nd
graders that perform well using Scantron.
Does the CAHSEE letter for February go out to 11^th and 12^th graders who haven’t passed as well? 11th
graders can attend that session and the one in May if they didn’t do the exam
in the fall, correct? The letters will
automatically go out to 10th graders and 12th graders that have not yet passed.
The original idea was for the ES to email me if they needed their 11th grader
to test in Feb. versus May so we wouldn't have so many students to deal with,
But since not many 11th graders showed up in Oct. that does change things.
So... yes we will send letters to 11th graders regarding the Feb testing but
state it as optional versus mandatory for the other grades and encourage them
to come to the May testing for sure.
Can the students that do not do the anthology go back to
hear the others? Yes, this should be fine. Please let Sherri Nelson know who
these students are.
Parent Info
A couple of ESs have
emailed parent phone number and address changes two or more times with the same
info. and the updates have not yet appeared in WEBfiles. They
should ask their advisor to help intercede as directed in the ES Communication
Protocol.
Phone and Address Update- ESs noted that phone numbers in database are not changeable by the ES. If this phone number is the one to be used for STAR testing truant calls, ESs often have a better number than the official phone number. Could we get a modifiable field where we can put the “best number”, perhaps something called “ES Notes”? Please email stuaddresschange@ieminc.org with the additional numbers as they can be added. Be sure to tell them the best “main number”
Can WASC ESLRS be signed by the parent at intake? No
WASC/ESLR Survey- Intake parents already have the ESLRs. The current survey link is to a three-page document. If the parent signs and returns it to us, we are wasting 2 pages as we don’t need a copy of the ESLRs and we can’t leave it with the parent if we need to collect it. ESs need a separate parent signature page. A separate page will be added, good suggestion.