Hawthorne Press Tribune The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - October 22, 2015 United Way Hosts Literacy Event A young participant at the “Fall Into Literacy” Book Festival, held on October 10, 2015, at the Banning Museum, receives a copy of Abuela by Arthur Dorros. The event was hosted by United Way of Greater Los Angeles (UWGLA), and more than 4,000 books were donated to low-income families in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of reading. For more information about UWGLA’s “Fall Into Literacy” book festival initiative contact Evelyn G. Aleman at (818) 881-7976 or via e-mail at evelyn@mipr.net. Photo by Pablo Aguilar. Common Core Results Explained During Recent School Board Meeting By Cristian Vasquez still being constructed, I would imagine that it On August 2010, the California State Board will hold the same expectation.” of Education adopted the new K-12 California One of the many differences in state testing Common Core Standards. Finally, the new is that achievement on the tests within the new testing standards designed to provide a more California Assessment of Student Performance detailed and accurate description of achievement, and Progress (CAASPP) system is reported have been implemented and the results made along two lines: broad achievement on the available to districts across the state, including subject area test is reported as either Standard the Hawthorne School District. Exceeded, Standard Met, Standard Nearly Met, “This is something we have waited a long or Standard Not Met. Second, achievement on time for, which is to identify our starting point more specifics topics [referred to as claims] or baseline on the assessments aligned to the within the subject area test is reported as being Common Core State Standards,” Hawthorne either Above Standard, At or Near Standard, or School Assistant Superintendent of Educational Below Standard. Services Dr. Brian Markarian said. “We are In the Hawthorne School District, a majority almost five years into an initiative of preparing of students scored within the standard exceeded for the standards, learning about the instructional to standard nearly met range, with some students shifts, designing and implementing professional falling in the standard not met category. development and classroom activities, and “With the increase in rigor found within the developing teacher and parent guides addressing Common Core Standards and the demands of the Common Core. We are still in, however, the new assessments that make up the CAASPP the beginning phase of what is going to be a system, intervention and support efforts are decade, decade and a half, or more of this new extremely critical,” Dr. Markarian said. “While form of teaching and assessing in the State of the state does not provide specific guidance to California.” districts as to how they can support struggling During a recent school board meeting, Dr. students, but a variety of resources designed for Markarian presented members of the board this purpose can be found within our adopted with the Common Core results as well as an programs and in the California Department of explanation of the new testing mechanisms, tests Education’s Digital Library, an online tool that scores and what it translates to for the district has been made available to all teachers.” and its students. While the state imposes these new testing “What we saw on this initial round of results standards, they offer few guidelines as to how from the new assessments is that a large to assist students who fall below the established population of our students “nearly met” the standards. The responsibility to elevate students standards,” Dr. Markarian said. “We know that who do not meet or exceed testing expectations we can move all students forward, but this group falls on the district, which gives them autonomy of students in particular can meet the standards to determine the best approach. with just a little extra support. We expect our “We, for instance, employ intervention schools to demonstrate growth every year and teachers to provide differentiated instruction although the new state accountability system is in areas of demonstrated need, offer academic support periods within the regular school day, and provide a broad array of extended day supports to ensure that students have access to the help that they need,” Dr. Markarian said. “The examples shared are in addition to the differentiated support that our classroom teachers already provide to all students to ensure that they are receiving instruction targeted to their current ability level with the goal of steadily increasing that level over time.” New to the state testing approach is that with CAASSP, which tests for English language arts/literacy and math among third through 11th grade students, is test-taking on a computer that gives the student a follow-up question based on their answer. This is a significant departure from the multiple-choice, paper-based test used for the STAR testing, which had been the norm since 1998. Despite having to prepare students for the new technological aspects of Common Core testing, district officials are resolute in having each student meet the state’s academic requirements by aligning their instructional practices to the new testing standards. “Increasing the rigor of the content standards, moving the assessments online, and placing a heavy demand on keyboarding proficiency are all good things, but I don’t think that anybody expected that they would result in a narrowing of historical achievement gaps,” Dr. Markarian said. “We work each and every day to close those gaps by providing our students and their families with every support that we possibly can.” Through the previous assessments it was common for students in more affluent districts to score proficient percentages “at a rate of about 1.5 times those of districts serving large numbers of students deemed by the state as being economically disadvantaged,” said Dr. Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................6 Community Briefs...............7 Classifieds............................3 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals............................2, 6-7 Police Reports.....................3 Sports....................................4 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 79˚/64˚ Saturday Partly Cloudy 81˚/66˚ Sunday Partly Cloudy 82˚/64˚ Common Core Testing, page 8
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