April will mark the end of our traditional STAR tests for students and the first practice tests of the new Smarter Balanced testing. The STAR test will only be given to 5th and 8th grade students for science and any student taking a modified special education test. The STAR science tests will be given on April 23rd/24th. The new Smarter Balance practice test will be given to all 3rd – 8th grade students between April 23rd and May 13th. Please see following column with specific dates for each grade.

The Smarter Balanced test is tied in with the new Common Core standards curriculum that is being phased in this school year and next school year. The results for this first year of testing will not be made available to the school, students, or parents; it is just to test the new test. Students will take the new test on laptops in their classrooms. Testing will be comprised of a section of math, a section of language arts, and one performance task on either math or language arts. Total testing time should be about 4 hours spread over two days per grade.

The new testing is much different than the old “pencil and paper” testing we have become used to over the years. Students will now be required to explain how they reached their answer as well as solve it on the computer. This should be a much more authentic analysis of what the students know as it will rely more on problem solving skills and less on guessing. The students have been working on a practice test version of this in class. The best way to understand how the test will look and to learn more information is to go to the website http://www.smarterbalanced.org/ and click on the “Smarter Balanced Assessments” tab in the upper left hand side of the header. That will take you to the practice tests. As always, if you have any questions please see your child’s teacher or stop by the office and I’ll be happy to go over it with you.

On Thursday, April 10th we will be registering incoming Kindergarten students from 10am-4pm by appointment. Students who are or will be five years of age by September 1, 2014 are eligible for Kindergarten. Student’s who’s fifth birthday fall between September 2, and December 2, 2014 are eligible for Transitional Kindergarten. If you know of any families with a new Kindergartener or Transitional Kindergartener in our neighborhood that resides in the Clear Creek School District please have them call the school office.