Growth and Change is the Only Evidence of Life
Many
parents feel that making a request for a specific teacher will help a
child have a good school year. However, not all parents know there's
more to making that request
than just telling the school in which classroom you want your child to
be placed.
Sometimes,
despite your best efforts, your child may not be placed with the
teacher you would like. It's important to remember that all children
deserve to have the best educational
experience possible and every teacher at McKinley Elementary is the
best. To this end, the teachers and I work hard to make sure each
classroom has a balance of different
types of learners,
personalities and educational needs. Many times a teacher has a stellar
reputation as to how he/she works with children with learning
disabilities or other types of students and a number of parents request
his/her classroom. If all of those children are placed
in the same classroom, the teacher will be overloaded, so an
administrator may choose to redistribute the student population more
evenly. With the many changes that are happening at our school, there is
a strong possibility there will be eight new teachers
on the staff. With this in mind, we will not be taking parent requests
for teachers.
Information on the Placement Process at McKinley Elementary School:
Now that more than
two-thirds of the school year has passed, along with Parent Teacher
Conferences, we begin to turn some of our attention to transitions for
the next school year. If you have been involved
with this in past years, you are aware of the extensive process we use
to place children into classes each school year. This is one of the
most thorough and significant processes in which we are involved.
Professional staff must consider all relevant information
so that the greatest possible learning for each child will result from the placement.
It is our goal to place all students into a classroom that will
provide each with a successful learning experience. We believe this can
be achieved by developing well-balanced,
heterogeneous classroom groups across all grade levels using the data available about each child.
We
are working especially hard this year to make decisions using student
work samples and classroom assessment data for every individual.
Phase 1 of the placement process begins now:
Our April, TEAM meeting reviews the philosophy, goals, and timeline for placement.
• Grade-level common planning time/PLC
meetings are used to review the criteria to be used for placement decisions.
• Individual teachers use their assessments of his/her
current students academically to prepare for the discussion of each
student’s strengths, challenges, and needs.
• Teachers meet with specialists such as special needs teachers as well as administrators to develop
heterogeneous lists based on learning needs, academic
achievement, and ability. No receiving teacher names are included on the
preliminary lists of students. It is an exercise in assessing the
educational needs only,
as the top priority, and in developing balanced classes.
• We will be “cluster grouping” students during this phase. This means that each individual student will be placed in
a cluster with learners of similar ability, interests, and skills that will be divided across the classrooms, making initial heterogeneous classes
based only on academics. We are trying to group students
who may work well together and have similar abilities, but still allow
for flexible groupings for differentiating instruction. Classes, as
always, are
heterogeneously mixed as well as being inclusive of learners with special needs
(there is a mix of all ability levels in all classes).
• These become the “preliminary class lists” and insure initial groupings by academic needs and abilities.
There
will be several changes this coming school year with teachers and grade
levels. We know what we are doing and we will do the right thing to
ensure that all children have a great
education. The teachers at McKinley Elementary School are among the
best and we will continue doing our best. We are making great progress
in our core subjects and we will continue to provide an excellent
education to your children. There are no other schools
in the district taking parent requests. When requests are made it
makes it extremely difficult to balance classes.
Phase 2 of the Placement Process:
Once initial groupings, based on academic ability and achievement, are formed, phase two of the entire process begins in
early May and is completed in time for move-up day on the last day of school. At this point, many other factors are
considered in addition to academic ability or achievement, keeping in mind that we still need to achieve well-balanced,
heterogeneous classes across the grade level. The additional factors considered during this phase include:
• Having a similar number of children in each class;
• Maintaining a proportionate number of boys and girls;
• Having a mix of learning styles in each classroom;
• Consideration of peer relationships (friendships, the need for separation)
• Delivery of special education, support services, and/or remedial services;
• Balance of students with needs other than special education;
• A student’s ability to handle transitions during the day.
• Teachers assigned to instruct that grade level.
Clearly, placement is a formidable task and is not taken lightly. We invest a great deal of time in this process.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frank
Thanks you for your support in this matter and please trust us.
