D102 Families,
As we wrap up the first trimester of the 23-24 school year there is a lot to celebrate, and there's also a long way to go. We hope that Parent Teacher Conferences were an opportunity for you to better understand the progress and growth that your child is making. Conferences are a nice benchmark in the school year designed as a way to receive personalized and timely information about your child’s achievement as well as identify areas of focus for the remainder of the year.
We are sending this message today with two purposes:
To provide families an opportunity to give D102 a little feedback about conferences. We are always looking to improve our systems and our communication.
To provide families information about ways they can stay connected to their child’s academic growth and progress throughout the year. Our D102 teaching staff does a terrific job providing information about what is going on in class as well as how students are performing. Below you will find information about ways families can access what our teachers, schools, and the district are already communicating. Additionally, we are happy to share two new resources designed to help families find D102 information quickly and conveniently.
Parent Teacher Conference Survey
We would appreciate it if you would take two minutes to complete this short survey about Parent Teacher Conferences. The survey provides an opportunity for D102 to learn more about your conference preferences as well as how fall conferences went.
New Communication Resources
In response to the ‘effective communication’ survey we sent to families in September, and in response to conversations with parents and parent groups, we have added a few new features to our D102 and school webpages. Families asked for quick access to staff directory information, calendar information as well as additional resources to help answer academic questions (e.g. how to understand standards-based grading or what does a MAP score really mean?)
Starting this week, families will see a new pop-out feature on the right side of each web page. The new staff directory and calendar tabs are self-explanatory, but when you click on the Family Resource tab you will see a growing collection of D102-produced videos and instructional documents that will provide the kind of academic information that families have been asking for. We plan to add approximately two new videos a month to this page and store all useful family information here as well, such as login tutorials for systems like PowerSchool, Seesaw, and Canvas.
Ongoing Communication Opportunities
In general, there are two ways that families can expect to receive or find information about what and how well their child is doing in class through digital and print communications. For students who participate in special programs such as Connections or Pre-School within our District, these may not all apply and your student’s teacher can share with you how you can expect to receive or find information relevant to that program. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Teachers are providing weekly communications in at least one of the following ways:
Digital - SeeSaw: If you have a student in Kindergarten through 2nd grade, you can expect to receive SeeSaw communications with pictures, video, and audio recordings about (or sometimes from) your child. These are intended to give parents an inside look at what is going on during the school day.
Digital - Canvas: If you have a child in 3rd through 8th grade you can expect to see content in Canvas featuring assignments from class, feedback from teachers, and links to other academic resources like Google Classroom.
See the attached FAQ (below) for more information about how to create an account in SeeSaw or become a Parent Observer in Canvas.
Print: In addition to these digital communications, teachers continue to create newsletters, send home completed student work, or will often include standard-based feedback information attached to assignments.
All teachers use the PowerSchool Gradebook as a Communication Tool:
If you are not sure how to access the PowerSchool Gradebook through the PowerSchool Parent Portal please see the video titled: Accessing Your Student’s Grades in PowerSchool
The grade book is a ‘running record’ of student work and a great way to see what is going on in class as well as to understand how a child is doing with their academic assignments. As students matriculate through the grades, the gradebook starts to look more and more like a calendar of assignments. Here are a few things to keep in mind about understanding the grade book as a communication tool:
In D102 teachers enter assignments as well as the academic standards associated with successful completion of that assignment. All standards are based on end-of-year expectations. This means that a student is NOT expected to master or exceed all standards early in the year. This is why a standard score of ‘2’ may mean that a student is right where he or she is supposed to be at this point in the year.
Because the measurement and communication of student progress toward end-of-year standards may be a change in practice, we have added three new gradebook comments to help parents better understand when their child is on track to meet or exceed individual standards by the end of the year. To see how to read and interpret your student’s grades in the gradebook including the new comment feature added, please see this video located on the D102 Parent Resource page: Understanding Your Student’s Grades in PowerSchool
There will be updates to the gradebook as units of study conclude. At primary grade levels, parents can expect to see new gradebook information approximately every 3 to 4 weeks, and at older grade levels this can occur more frequently.
D102 has created this FAQ to help parents and guardians easily find answers to frequently asked questions. We will continue to update this document and will store it on the new Family Resource Tab on our websites.
