9-18-16
Good evening!
I hope everyone had a great weekend with your family and friends! Although I am a little sad about my Bengals losing, I am still really excited about how great The Buckeyes did last night against Oklahoma State. It is wonderful to see such a great team continuing to have a strong focus on excellence.
Specific to excellence, I want to share with you your weekly updates as it relates to "The Best and The Brightest" at Columbia Elementary:
Favorite Picture of The Week:
A special thank you to Mrs. Souhrada's Class for The "Stone Soup!"
MVCSD 2015-16 State Report Card:
This week, The Ohio Department of Education released the 2015-16 State Report Card results for all school districts in Ohio. As you might already know, the way Ohio is now testing our students has change a lot over the last couple of years: During the 14-15 School Year our students took the PARCC Assessments and the 15-16 school year they took a completely different test called the AIR Test in English Language Arts and Mathematics. In addition to these changes, the State of Ohio increased their expectations requiring students to score 20-30% higher than in previous years to be classified as "proficient" in specific subject areas. This increase in proficiency requirements has impacted the overall success rates of both school districts and schools across the entire state.
Specific to Columbia Elementary, we met all of our indicators except for our Third Grade Reading Proficiency rate. These indicators recognized by the State of Ohio, do not include all of our Fifth Grade Students (8 students) that took Sixth Grade Math and The State's Sixth Grade Math Tests. These eight students did not only meet the proficient rating but they met the highest category of academic performance. Our students did fantastic! We are really proud of them!
My biggest concern "on paper" is highlighted in our K-3 Literacy Grade as identified by The Ohio Department of Education. While ODE has given us the grade of a "F" in this area, I quickly made three different phone calls to the department to try to understand their calculation. From my understanding, I have gathered the following information: the students in grades KDG-3rd Grade are taking beginning of the year tests before September 30th of each year (except KDG-their tests are completed by November 1st). These tests are on content that they should know in that grade level. Based on a score, these students are identified as being either "off track" or "on track." If the student continues to take a grade level test at the very beginning of the year (important to know the timing is not at the end of the year after they have learned the material) and are "off track" on that test, it is counted against us. If the student is "on track" then they turn "off track" the following beginning of the school year, it is also counts against us. In Third Grade, it is a little different. If a student in Third Grade is either marked "on track" or "off track" on their beginning of the year test and falls below proficient on their Third Grade State Reading Test, it is marked against us.
From all of these above marks, ODE calculates our K-3 Literacy Grade...As you can see it is very complicated and took me three phone calls to understand...
Overall and comparatively with other schools and districts, I am pleased with our performance. I feel that we definitely have areas that we need to continually improve in for our students. The teachers and I have already had and will continue to have conversations about how we can improve our instruction. As you know, we have a great instructional team at Columbia Elementary and we are committed to excellence for your children.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT COMPARATIVE LOCAL REPORT CARD DATA
Districtwide School Modified Lockdown Update on 9/16
We would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding in working with us during our modified lockdown on Friday. As it is our top priority to keep your children safe, we appreciated your cooperation and understanding in allowing us to do so.
PLEASE READ LETTER FROM MR. SEDER (CLICK HERE)
Rescheduled -10/7-Columbia Elementary Annual Team Picture.
As a result of the modified lockdown, we decided to reschedule the outdoor pictures that we had planned to take of our school and classrooms. This means that we will be taking these pictures on Friday 10/7. This means that we will need you to remind your children wear their Tiger Up Shirts on Friday, 10/7. We will continue our Tiger Up Shirt Sales through this coming Friday for those of you that have not yet ordered your shirt. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE TIGER UP SHIRT ORDER FORM. Please return this order form with your child to their classroom teacher by this coming Friday. If your child has outgrown their shirt and you would like to donate it for another child to use, please give it to Mrs. Miller or myself.
Tiger Up-Good Character
On Wednesday, we had our first Tiger Up Time at Columbia Elementary for the 2016-17 School Year. During our mentor groups, we discussed the importance of good character and how it applies to the lives of our students. These discussions allow us to make great connections throughout each school day and the role that good character plays in and outside of school life. Our goal is to impact the lives of our students in a positive direction.
Following our mentor groups, Ronald McDonald joined us to discuss the importance of friendships, being nice, and not being a Bully. Ronald McDonald did an awesome job with our students!
CLICK HERE TO SEE A VIDEO FROM THIS ASSEMBLY
Thank you to McDonalds!
During our Tiger Up Assembly, we were also blessed by the McDonald's Restaurant closest to our school. They presented a $500 check to our school for the McTeacher Night we participated in last spring. We had such a great time at McDonald's last year and we are very grateful for their donation to our school. Thank you to all that were involved (including our PTO)!!
Important Upcoming Dates:
9-23-10am-MTV Arts-Alice in Wonderland (KDG-2nd Grade)
9/30-Game Truck Reward for Students that Passed all parts of their 15-16 State Tests
(FYI-Bus transportation from MS Dismissal to Columbia is being provided for 6th Graders getting reward)
10/7-Columbia Elementary All School Picture-3pm (class pictures will begin at 2pm)
2016-2017 District Calendar(CLICK ON LINK)
State Testing Dates 2016-17 (CLICK ON LINK)
Follow Us On Twitter:
@Columbia_Tiger
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@drmjdill
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@Columbiakinders
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@3_Columbia
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@Souhrada_Brown
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@mv_columbia_4th
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@Humphrey2nd
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@mv_columbia_5th
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@MissSuarez5
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WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/MVCOLUMBIA
Thank you for allowing us to serve your children!
Tiger Up!
Matt
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