Dear Star Lake Families,

As I am writing this message, the calendar shows twenty-two school days remaining!  How does the school year go by so quickly?  Our students are engaged in rigorous learning, finishing up 3-5 SBA state testing, and finalizing end of year modules in ELA and math so the next five weeks will be busy ones.

During the next two early dismissals, our staff will be analyzing end of year assessment data, celebrating growth and the strategies we put in place to achieve that growth, and looking at areas for continued improvement.  Specifically,  our School Improvement Plan  focus on goal 2 (whole child: thriving, confident, responsible citizens) and goal 4 (content area competence: mastery of all subjects) from our district Strategic Plan.

Our goal 2 focus this year led our staff to look at discipline data and see if we have disproportionate data when we look at gender or race.   First of all, we celebrate that 90% of our students have had NO office referrals this year!  In reviewing our data from last year to this year, the gap for most subgroups have remained within the range we are wanting (0%-6%): the percentage of discipline referrals for a specific racial group is similar to that racial group’s percentage of our whole school population.  We are excited to say that the disproportionate gap for black students has decreased from 28% points last year to 11% points this year.  We are continuing to analyze our data regarding the higher number of boys with office referrals vs girls. Our staff has been building strategies related to cultural competency and engaging in data analysis focused on race and equity through professional development; and we will continue our work in this important area.

Our goal 4 focus this year has been centered on professional development aligned with IRLA and strong backwards planning and lesson design.  Currently, 50% of our students are reading ON TARGET in IRLA, and 62% are reading in their grade level and are approaching target!  Last year, at this time, 47% of our students were reading on target, and we are excited by this growth!  In June, we will be analyzing iReady and end of year standards data as well.

In addition to all our learning, we have many year-end fun events right around the bend.  We look forward to seeing you at multicultural night, on field trips, at kindergarten and 5^th grade graduations, field day, and our end of the year assembly.

Here’s to a great end of the year!  We have loved learning with your children!

Best Regards,

Kris Rennie

Principal