Interpreting NWEA & DIBELS for APS 4th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they are typically given at parent teacher conferences, but we have always gotten the complete report. However we never get any real feedback from teachers about the report. So we just gave up and did everything privately.

My kid also scores high on nonsense words and lower on reading comp but all other testing were have done shows he excels in reading comprehension so I am really just ignoring DIBELS from here on out.

What did you do privately? Testing? (if so, what?) Tutoring (if so, what?). Moved to private school? (if so, what did you look for?) Thank you for any lessons learned!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to PPs for posting the links. I'm a little infuriated by how complicated that was to track down and interpret. It would be nice if APS provided even minimal information or resources.

They don’t have enough people at Syphax to work on this.

I'm not sure if it's sarcasm, but hey're automatically generated. It's a really simple mail merge. Uploading may take some time (we always printed ours), but it's not hard

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they are typically given at parent teacher conferences, but we have always gotten the complete report. However we never get any real feedback from teachers about the report. So we just gave up and did everything privately.

My kid also scores high on nonsense words and lower on reading comp but all other testing were have done shows he excels in reading comprehension so I am really just ignoring DIBELS from here on out.

What did you do privately? Testing? (if so, what?) Tutoring (if so, what?). Moved to private school? (if so, what did you look for?) Thank you for any lessons learned!

Yes private neuropsych eval and tutoring two days a week (and in our case medication).

[Anonymous]

I’m inspired to go back to my school and ask for all the breakdowns of past DIBELS, as we work out some issues with our kids. Who should I ask?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m inspired to go back to my school and ask for all the breakdowns of past DIBELS, as we work out some issues with our kids. Who should I ask?

I think you could just go into the front office and ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A new poster here, also at Claremont, and it can’t even get my kids’ teachers to respond to basic questions about performance, let alone get a thorough break down of their testing.

I'm the first Claremont poster. I'm sorry to see two others wrestling with communication and similarly unhelpful feedback.

I'm most concerned presently by the response to an inquiry I made to my child's 4th grade teacher re: conjugation and grammar as I noted my child basically parrots what they hear said to them and always uses "tu" form instead of "yo". I raised this and the teacher responded that their Spanish instruction is more content based and that they do not focus on spelling and grammar. I'm really struggling to feel like it is appropriate or acceptable to allow 4th graders to breeze through without understanding the correct tenses and forms they should use in writing or speaking. I don't want to stir the pot and make the teacher retreat from communications, but, at the same time, I can't help but think this cannot be right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A new poster here, also at Claremont, and it can’t even get my kids’ teachers to respond to basic questions about performance, let alone get a thorough break down of their testing.

I'm the first Claremont poster. I'm sorry to see two others wrestling with communication and similarly unhelpful feedback.

I'm most concerned presently by the response to an inquiry I made to my child's 4th grade teacher re: conjugation and grammar as I noted my child basically parrots what they hear said to them and always uses "tu" form instead of "yo". I raised this and the teacher responded that their Spanish instruction is more content based and that they do not focus on spelling and grammar. I'm really struggling to feel like it is appropriate or acceptable to allow 4th graders to breeze through without understanding the correct tenses and forms they should use in writing or speaking. I don't want to stir the pot and make the teacher retreat from communications, but, at the same time, I can't help but think this cannot be right.

The Spanish language arts has long been a point of contention in the immersion program and there has been a big push from the immersion task forces to teach grammar. And while I agree that while their Spanish instruction is content based, I don't think it's as black and white as the teacher made it seem. I have seen the teachers correct my kid. And my kid had worksheets in 4th or 5th grade (maybe both) about verb tenses.

That being said, they really drive it all home in 6th grade. As in over and over and over. My kid has learned all the tenses now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A new poster here, also at Claremont, and it can’t even get my kids’ teachers to respond to basic questions about performance, let alone get a thorough break down of their testing.

I'm the first Claremont poster. I'm sorry to see two others wrestling with communication and similarly unhelpful feedback.

I'm most concerned presently by the response to an inquiry I made to my child's 4th grade teacher re: conjugation and grammar as I noted my child basically parrots what they hear said to them and always uses "tu" form instead of "yo". I raised this and the teacher responded that their Spanish instruction is more content based and that they do not focus on spelling and grammar. I'm really struggling to feel like it is appropriate or acceptable to allow 4th graders to breeze through without understanding the correct tenses and forms they should use in writing or speaking. I don't want to stir the pot and make the teacher retreat from communications, but, at the same time, I can't help but think this cannot be right.

The Spanish language arts has long been a point of contention in the immersion program and there has been a big push from the immersion task forces to teach grammar. And while I agree that while their Spanish instruction is content based, I don't think it's as black and white as the teacher made it seem. I have seen the teachers correct my kid. And my kid had worksheets in 4th or 5th grade (maybe both) about verb tenses.

That being said, they really drive it all home in 6th grade. As in over and over and over. My kid has learned all the tenses now.

Thank you for sharing that. I'm the PP, and my worry has been that my child would coast through until 6th grade and then get obliterated when there are heightened expectations around mastery of reading/writing/speaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A new poster here, also at Claremont, and it can’t even get my kids’ teachers to respond to basic questions about performance, let alone get a thorough break down of their testing.

I'm the first Claremont poster. I'm sorry to see two others wrestling with communication and similarly unhelpful feedback.

I'm most concerned presently by the response to an inquiry I made to my child's 4th grade teacher re: conjugation and grammar as I noted my child basically parrots what they hear said to them and always uses "tu" form instead of "yo". I raised this and the teacher responded that their Spanish instruction is more content based and that they do not focus on spelling and grammar. I'm really struggling to feel like it is appropriate or acceptable to allow 4th graders to breeze through without understanding the correct tenses and forms they should use in writing or speaking. I don't want to stir the pot and make the teacher retreat from communications, but, at the same time, I can't help but think this cannot be right.

The Spanish language arts has long been a point of contention in the immersion program and there has been a big push from the immersion task forces to teach grammar. And while I agree that while their Spanish instruction is content based, I don't think it's as black and white as the teacher made it seem. I have seen the teachers correct my kid. And my kid had worksheets in 4th or 5th grade (maybe both) about verb tenses.

That being said, they really drive it all home in 6th grade. As in over and over and over. My kid has learned all the tenses now.

Thank you for sharing that. I'm the PP, and my worry has been that my child would coast through until 6th grade and then get obliterated when there are heightened expectations around mastery of reading/writing/speaking.

Remember the 6th grade immersion teachers know what Claremont and Key are teaching. They know the elementary immersion curriculum and they know what kids are coming out of it knowing. The problem flows well into middle school IMO. To be honest, I am pretty sure my child has had more english language arts in the first half of middle school then he did in elementary too.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t worry too much about the NWEA MAP test. I am a math teacher, and no one in APS has ever been able to tell me (I have asked, several times) what this adds of value, or what it gives us that the Virginia Growth Assessment does not. Look for the detailed standard/question report on the VGA instead — it has another name that I forget right now.

I wonder how much we spend on the MAP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t worry too much about the NWEA MAP test. I am a math teacher, and no one in APS has ever been able to tell me (I have asked, several times) what this adds of value, or what it gives us that the Virginia Growth Assessment does not. Look for the detailed standard/question report on the VGA instead — it has another name that I forget right now.

I wonder how much we spend on the MAP.

For kids who do really well on the growth assessment it provides more info for what they know, as the growth assessment caps out at that grade's material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like my kid just isn't the best at DIBELS.

He has been struggling but this year he has made huge improves. Like he went from reading 30 WPM at the second grade level to reading 140 WPM at the 4th grade level (he is in 3rd). He used to refuse to read books and is now reading chapter books and stupid DIBELS is saying he is further behind than he was at the beginning of the year (needs strategic help vs core, but I guess was only off by one point). The kid got 100% on his writing assessment and is well into the range of well prepared for the VGA.

So I am a bit over DIBELS right now. It just made me feel like all the progress he made for the year meant nothing!

He could be further behind because while he was catching up on these skills, the bar was moving ahead. Same aged peers were progressing as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t worry too much about the NWEA MAP test. I am a math teacher, and no one in APS has ever been able to tell me (I have asked, several times) what this adds of value, or what it gives us that the Virginia Growth Assessment does not. Look for the detailed standard/question report on the VGA instead — it has another name that I forget right now.

I wonder how much we spend on the MAP.

Anyone else know what this is called? Our kid did fine on NWEA but bombed this(?) Kid has struggled with math in past. I’d like to ask for more info but it’d be helpful to know what I am asking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t worry too much about the NWEA MAP test. I am a math teacher, and no one in APS has ever been able to tell me (I have asked, several times) what this adds of value, or what it gives us that the Virginia Growth Assessment does not. Look for the detailed standard/question report on the VGA instead — it has another name that I forget right now.

I wonder how much we spend on the MAP.

For kids who do really well on the growth assessment it provides more info for what they know, as the growth assessment caps out at that grade's material.

No it doesn’t. The midyear growth assessment includes things they haven’t learned yet this year, and into the next school year, depending on the questions the kid has already answered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A new poster here, also at Claremont, and it can’t even get my kids’ teachers to respond to basic questions about performance, let alone get a thorough break down of their testing.

I'm the first Claremont poster. I'm sorry to see two others wrestling with communication and similarly unhelpful feedback.

I'm most concerned presently by the response to an inquiry I made to my child's 4th grade teacher re: conjugation and grammar as I noted my child basically parrots what they hear said to them and always uses "tu" form instead of "yo". I raised this and the teacher responded that their Spanish instruction is more content based and that they do not focus on spelling and grammar. I'm really struggling to feel like it is appropriate or acceptable to allow 4th graders to breeze through without understanding the correct tenses and forms they should use in writing or speaking. I don't want to stir the pot and make the teacher retreat from communications, but, at the same time, I can't help but think this cannot be right.

The Spanish language arts has long been a point of contention in the immersion program and there has been a big push from the immersion task forces to teach grammar. And while I agree that while their Spanish instruction is content based, I don't think it's as black and white as the teacher made it seem. I have seen the teachers correct my kid. And my kid had worksheets in 4th or 5th grade (maybe both) about verb tenses.

That being said, they really drive it all home in 6th grade. As in over and over and over. My kid has learned all the tenses now.

Thank you for sharing that. I'm the PP, and my worry has been that my child would coast through until 6th grade and then get obliterated when there are heightened expectations around mastery of reading/writing/speaking.

Remember the 6th grade immersion teachers know what Claremont and Key are teaching. They know the elementary immersion curriculum and they know what kids are coming out of it knowing. The problem flows well into middle school IMO. To be honest, I am pretty sure my child has had more english language arts in the first half of middle school then he did in elementary too.

Agree. 6th grade, and especially 7th grade Spanish at Gunston really teach the nitty gritty of the grammar quite well, in my kid’s experience. I felt that middle school English language arts was really lacking, though. So far 9th grade isn’t much better. My kid has had more grammar instruction, reading books, writing essays, and giving oral presentations in Spanish than in English thus far.