Why can't we come together and stand for our children???

To: ALL CONCERNED Citizens
WHAT’S GOING ON IN OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM??? Most of the parents and even the board members of Conecuh County don’t know what is going on within out school system. We are allowing the superintendent to pass and fail our children based on an 80% minimum grading criteria. In other words, students in grades K-5 have to be able to make at least 80% on their yearly averages in all subject areas in order to be promoted to the next grade. The grading policy that Conecuh County has adopted into its school system does not accept average performing students-at least not in the elementary grades. Therefore, if you have a child that is between the ages of 5 years-11 years old that is making 70s in his or her tests, then your child is a potential failure and will fail his /her grade in the Conecuh County Public School System. If your child scores lower than that, then you don’t even need to worry because your child does not even stand a chance at passing his or her grade.
Part of the grading criteria for this school system consists of 4 math tests for the whole year. This means that only 1 math test is given each 9 week period, which means that your child only gets 1 grade in math each nine weeks. There is really no averaging of grades in math because there is only 1 grade given, and if your child makes a 50 on that one test, then your child will make a 50 on his/her report card for that 9 weeks period. The only time that averaging occurs in math is at the end of the year, which is when the results from the four grades are averaged together to determine pass or failure-based on a minimum passing score of 80%.
Anther major component of the grading criteria for the Conecuh County School System deals with the reading. The grading policy for the elementary grades are as follows: The weekly reading selection, weekly stories, count 25% of the students’ grades The weekly fluency test, fresh reads or fast reads, count 25% of their grades The 1 unit reading test counts 25% The 1 unit fluency test counts 25%
In Laymen’s terms, each week the children have a different story that they have to read, and at the end of the week, the children have to take a test on the story for that week. That story is called a weekly selection test, and the grades of those tests are added together, averaged, and then the average is multiplied by the percentage it is weighted. For an example, if your child had 9 selection tests for one 9-week period and the grades were: 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, the grade would be gotten by doing the following procedure: 20+30+40+50+60+70+80+90 = 540 540/9 = 60 60 * 25%= 15 points towards your child’s grade
The weekly fluency tests are also known as fresh reads (stories that children have never seen or read before) and quick reads, and they assess the children the same way that the oral reading fluency of the DIBELS test does. The fluency tests are 1-minute timed tests, and they determine how many words a child can read in 1-minimum.

The minimum number of words that a child can read in one minute changes each month, and your child has to be able to read that minimum number every week in order to make a 100 on that assessment. If your child reads less than the minimum number of words for that week and /or month, he or she will score approximately 2 points less than 100 for every word less than the minimum requirements. For example, if your child is required to read 80 words in 1 minimum for the month of February, but he or she only reads 79 words, then he or she will score 98. If he/she reads 70 words, then he/she will make a grade of 80, and in order to find out what your child’s score is in that area, you will have to add all the fluency grades, divide them by the total number of test taken (average), and then you must multiply it by 25%. For an example: If you child scores 54, 68, 70, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 90, you would do the following in order to get his/her grade for fluency: 54+68+70+76+78+80+82+84+90 = 682 682/9 = 76 76 * 25%= 19 points.The difference in the points can be quite confusing, especially since the minimum requirement for the fluency test increases each month. On that note, the school officials have already had to change the numbers from the original requirements because the minimum number of words required to read in the fluency were more than the state’s benchmark requirement for DIBELS. In other words, when the school system was passing and failing students based the standardized DIBELS test, it was easier for the children to pass their grades than it is now. This county went from bad to worst, and it really makes you wonder who is in charge, what are their intentions, and what do they know about assessing children and the benefits there of.
Your child’s teacher only accounts for 50% of your child’s grade. The teacher gives the weekly selection tests and the weekly fluency tests each week, which are weighted 25% each. Therefore if your child has made these scores on his or her assessments, then they will only have 34 points (15 points from selection test + 19 points from fluency tests) going towards their 9-week grade from their all-day, classroom teacher.
The other portion of the children’s reading grades come from the school’s reading coach. The reading coach gives both the unit reading test (25%) and the unit fluency tests (25%). These are only 2 test that he/she gives, but they account for 50% of your child’s grade for reading. When the reading coaches give these tests.

you're right!!! all of the kids are different and are going to do different things. then a 80 in this county is a C not a B so why the can't make a 74 to pass. so we are going by number not letter. this is CRAZY. let's do something about it APRIL 30@ 5:00 at the next board meeting.

look at who we have for a superintendent... need i say more?