You will be receiving a letter from me in your mailbox this week, and I want to provide some background information because it will likely sound very legal (the form and content of the letter, in fact, are regulated by the federal government). Simply, Briarwood Elementary has moved into the first step of improvement under the No Child Left Behind law, which means that the district must offer your student the chance to transfer to Maple Hills Elementary with the cost of transportation included. Under No Child Left Behind, all categories of students must meet standard on the state reading and math assessment by 2014—and if even one out of 37 categories of students does not make adequate progress toward that goal for two years in a row, the school faces sanctions. In Briarwood’s case, we missed the target last year in reading and math for low-income students and this year in reading for special-education students.
Because this is a complicated law with many nuances, I am inviting you to learn more at a meeting at 6 p.m. Monday, August 29, in the library. I want to ensure that you fully understand what this law means, what we are doing to support all students at Briarwood Elementary, and what options are available to you. Please plan on attending.
I include this not as an excuse, but as a way to highlight that Briarwood joins the vast majority of schools and districts across the nation that face sanctions under a law that does not reflect true student learning (most are actually far beyond the first level of sanctions). On the other hand, we believe that the intent of the law is spot on: Every single child should meet standard in reading and math. To that end, we scrutinize our assessment data annually and make concrete action plans to support all students and specific groups of students who may be struggling. Last year, for instance, we began targeted professional development and started an after-school program to help students with fundamental math and reading skills; the result for those students was a 16-percentage-point gain from a pre-assessment AND we improved our scores enough in low-income reading and math to meet the No Child Left Behind progress targets this year. We are not shying away from the hard work of identifying and supporting our struggling learners.
Briarwood is certainly not perfect, but we have way too much to celebrate to believe that a flawed federal law can label our great school. Top on the list, for me, is an incredible community of students, staff, and parents. If you have questions or concerns, please join me on August 29 to get a better sense of how we are excelling, where we have achievement gaps and what we are doing in response, and the school-choice option available to you.
Please do not hesitate to call or email if you have questions.
