COUNSELOR'S CORNER

Dear Parent:

The school years will be some of the best years of your child’s life.  Your son or daughter will also be faced with many important decisions and possibly some difficult problems.

I want to share the good times with my students.  I have also been trained to help them through the rough times.

Please come in and let's get acquainted.  Together, we can help make your child’s school years “ the best of times.”

TESTING INFORMATION

GKIDS - Kindergarten

The Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS) will be a performance-based assessment.  The goal of this assessment program is to provide teachers with information about the level of instructional support needed by individual students entering kindergarten and first grade.  GKIDS will allow teachers to assess student performance during instruction, record student performance in an on-line database, and generate customized reports for instructional planning, report cards and/or parents.  Throughout the year, teachers may assess students and record GKIDS data based on their system's curriculum map or report schedule.  At the end of the year, the GKIDS data collection system will automatically generate summary reports and individual students reports based on the data the teacher has entered throughout the year.

AIMSWEB -(K-2) - Reading and Math Screenings

AIMSWEB is a tool that helps monitor student educational progress in reading and math through screening tests administered 3 times per year (fall, winter, and spring).  These screenings, called benchmark assessments, assess foundational components of reading and math.  We can test students more frequently than the 3 times per year, if needed for those experiencing reading and/or math difficulties.  These additional assessments are referred to as progress monitoring.  AIMSWEB is based on more than a quarter century of scientific research and provides valid, reliable assessment of students' basic skills.

Components of AIMSWEB Benchmark Assessments include the following:

Individual Administration

TEN (Test of Early Numeracy) - 4 subtests that measure the ability to count orally, identify/name numbers, identify the bigger number from a pair, and identify the missing number from a number sequence.  Each subtest lasts 1 minute. (K & 1st)

TEL (Test of Early Literacy) - 4 subtests that measure the ability to name letters identify letter sounds, break words down into their individual sounds/phonemes, and blend letters to read nonsense/make believe words.  Each subtest lasts 1 minute.  (K & 1st)

R-CBM (Reading-Curriculum Based Measurements) - 3 different story passages that measure the ability to read quickly and accurately.  Each of the 3 story passages for reading lasts 1 minute.  (1st and 2nd)

Group Administration

MAZE - a story passage that measures reading comprehension by asking the student to determine the missing word(s) in sentences.  Each missing word has a word bank to choose from.  3 minutes (1st and 2nd)

M-CBM (Math-Curriculum Based Measurement) - mixed addition and subtraction problems that measure ability to rapidly recall basic math facts.  2 minutes (1st and 2nd)

Progress Monitoring:

Students who do not achieve scores appropriate for their grade level (referred to as benchmarks) will be assessed on a more frequent basis.  You will be informed of their ongoing progress through charts (or graphs) generated by the AIMSWEB system.  The charts show how your child scored in comparison to other children at the same grade level while mapping progress over time.  Progress monitoring charts are read as follows:

Blue Dot - your child's score

Black Horizontal Line - the very middle score for that grade level

Green Box - score range for average readers in that grade level

Blue Vertical Line - score range for above average readers

Red Vertical Lines - score range for below average readers

CRCT  - Grades 1 and 2

 The CRCT are state-mandated achievement tests for students in grades 1 through 8.  The CRCT covers the subject areas of reading, English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. Students in grades 1 and 2 do not take the CRCT in science and social studies.

What is the purpose of the CRCT?

The CRCT measures how well a student has acquired the knowledge and skills taught in the state curriculum.

The purposes of the tests are:
    (1)  to ensure students are learning at their grade level, and
    (2)  to provide data to teachers, schools, and school
districts in order to make better instructional decisions. The tests also serve as accountability measure and are part of the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). For more information on NCLB, visit www.ed.gov/nclb.

When do students take the CRCT?

Students will take the CRCT on the days specified by their local school system usually in April. Generally, the tests are administered over three consecutive days for first grade and second grade. Students are tested on one subject per day. Each subject has two test sections that last about 60 minutes each.
 
Other assessments given throughout the year:

STAR Early Literacy
STAR Reading
STAR Math


No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

Aesop (C.6th Century B.C.)