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Category: Elementary Info

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In order to better manage and maintain iPads in the district, schools will be required to purchase a JAMF School iPad management software license for each new iPad. This is similar to what is required for all Chromebook purchases. The license is a onetime purchase from Apple and would be included on your Apple iPad order (part number HL2M2LL/A). The current price of the license is $17.50 per iPad. Information Systems has purchased 2,500 licenses that school techs will be installing on iPads that were purchased in the last three years.

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The district-wide Licensed Educator Professional Development Day is scheduled for Tuesday, August 13, 2019 from 8:00 - 3:30 pm at the Mountain America Expo Center, located at 9575 State Street, Sandy UT. We will have two national speakers on the program and lunch will be provided.

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, June 20, 2019

TO:  
All Principals

FROM:  
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
WIDA Data Dashboards Now Available on Principal Tableau Viewer Accounts

The Evaluation, Research & Accountability Department is pleased to announce that a series of data dashboards containing WIDA Access 2.0 achievement data from the last three school years have been pushed out to principal Tableau Viewer Accounts.

There are four subtests that students take as part of the WIDA: Listening, reading, speaking and writing. Students earn a Language Proficiency Level (LPL) of 1-6, with LPLs of 5 or 6 being the ultimate goal:

  • 1 = Entering
  • 2 = Emerging
  • 3 = Developing
  • 4 = Expanding
  • 5 = Bridging
  • 6 = Reaching

Below is a summary of what the dashboards contain at both the district level and individual school level:

  • WIDA Summary Indicators, 2017-2019: WIDA LPLs are reported by summary indicator: Comprehension (made up scores from the reading and listening subtests), Literacy (made up of scores from the reading and writing subtests), Oral (made up of the listening and speaking subtests), and Overall Composite (made up of the listening, reading, speaking and writing subtests).
  • WIDA Subtests, 2017-2019: LPLs are reported in each of the four subtests.
  • Number of Students Who WIDA Tested, 2017-2019: This dashboard is a breakdown of the number of students who took the WIDA test for each school year.
  • 2019 WIDA Proficiency by Student and Grade: This is a crosstabulation of each student enrolled in your school during the 2018-19 school year who took the 2019 WIDA test. The table contains each student’s overall composite score, summary indicator score, and subtest score. This list will be helpful in targeting students for extra time and support.

In the near future, we will push out an additional dashboard that will contain the years of service each EL student has received and whether or not they met their growth target for the School Accountability Report Card.

Please contact Ben Jameson if you have any questions about these data or about how to use Tableau. If you have not set up your Tableau Viewer account, please contact Ben Jameson for instructions on how to do so (or see the step-by-step instructions attached with this memo). Please see the attached document for instructions on how to download and print any of the dashboards in your viewer account.

Principals may share their Tableau login credentials with their assistant principals.

To log into your Tableau account, please click here: https://sso.online.tableau.com/public/idp/SSO

Published on

This course is for anyone who wants to learn how to do more with spreadsheets. Participants are encouraged to bring their own projects, but sample files and projects will be available during the workshop. All tasks can be completed in either Excel or Google Sheets, and it will be up to the participants to choose an application. Each day of the workshop will focus on 3-4 of the topics listed below. Sign up in JPLS: course number 101427.

For course descriptions and dates please see document below.

Published on

"Attention Administrators:  As you are all aware, West Jordan Middle is being rebuilt, so they will have a lot of their furniture, appliances, projectors, and other surplus items that they will not be taking to their new building. Before we make it available to the public at an on-site sale, we would like to make it available to the rest of the schools in Jordan District.

Principals will be able to view and select items that can be transferred to their respective schools on Thursday, June 6th, two days before the public sale from 8 AM to 4 PM. The central warehouse will take care of the physical transfer either the same day or by Monday of the next week. Paperwork will need to be filled out and signed, so principals will be the only ones authorized to select items for transfer. If interested, please contact Steve Oldham in the surplus warehouse, as he will be on site at WJMS to coordinate the effort."

Published on

K-12 Accident plans are available for injury, at-school accidents, 24-hour accidents, extended dental and football. See attached flyers (English and Spanish) for additional information.  Please consider including the information in your school packets.

Published on

DATE:  
May 16, 2019

TO:
All Principals and Directors

FROM: 
June LeMaster, Ph.D., Administrator, Human Resources
Administrator of Schools

SUBJECT:
Employee Attendance at Relative's Graduation Exercises

This year, all high school graduation exercises are on Thursday, May 30th, with the exception of Valley High on Wednesday, May 29th.

Principals and Directors are encouraged to direct parents or grandparents who may wish to attend these graduations, but who are scheduled to work in their own locations to District Policy DP335 NEG and DP335B NEG.  This policy specifically states: "Personal leave shall not be taken during the first five days and last five days that students are in school except...to attend to personal or business matters which require the employee's attendance and scheduling is beyond the employee's control."

Since graduation scheduling is beyond the employees’ control, it is desirable that immediate supervisors will cooperate and provide employees who may fall into this category, an opportunity to attend graduation ceremonies of family members.

Licensed employees are responsible for requesting a substitute through the Absence Management system, if applicable.  In the blue “Notes to Administrator” box, the employee should add “graduation” along with his/her relationship to the graduate.

For additional assistance, please contact Juli Martin in the sub office at 801-567-8219.

Cc:
Administrators of Schools

JL/am

Published on

DATE:  
Thursday, May 16, 2019

TO:  
Elementary Principals
Middle School Principals

FROM:  
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:   
2019 RISE Validity and Reliability

RISE Reports on Nextera:
Classroom reports for RISE continue to see delays of up to a week to access accurate information.  When students submit the test, the scale score they see is accurate, but that score will take up to a week to show up accurately on classroom, school and district-level reports.  This means that schools will need to wait for a week after they are completely finished with RISE testing to access accurate raw scores for their school.

RISE Validity and Reliability:
There have been a number of questions and concerns raised about the validity and reliability of the RISE test and the effect that the five outages have had on student scores.  To clarify, validity as used in the assessment world, means that the question items on the test are measuring what they intend to measure.  In the case of RISE where we are using the same question items that were in SAGE, we can be confident in the validity of the test because the items have been proven to be aligned with the Utah State Core.  There are five years of SAGE data to confirm this.

Educators often ask, “Were my students able to demonstrate their proficiency as intended?”  This is actually a question of reliability.  In other words, how consistent are students’ scores at representing their achievement when compared with their previous results?  In an email to superintendents across the state earlier this week, State Superintendent Sydnee Dickson said, “Unfortunately, the mounting issues with the operating platform created by Questar bring up many questions that will need to be answered.  The frequency of the problems that have occurred may impact the Utah State Board of Education’s ability to use the results for purposes of statewide accountability…. We believe the results can still be used to inform classroom instruction and individual student learning.  However, we are less confident about overall accountability.”

We recommend that principals be cautious in telling their teachers that their students’ RISE scores are not valid and reliable.  At this point, we do not know this for sure.  Here’s what we do know:

  • We know that the test itself is a valid test as it measures what it was intended to measure.
  • We know that students who were not affected by system outages will have had a similar opportunity to demonstrate their proficiency to that of the previous five SAGE-tested years.
  • We also know that if we filter out students whose scores were affected by outages (we are talking a smaller percentage of students in our district since most of our schools started testing later in the RISE window), we will have more accurate scores – accurate enough that principals and teacher teams may make instructional decisions based on RISE data – along with their own formal and informal assessment data – as has been done in years past.
  • We know that we don’t know how students’ scores were affected; therefore, it would not be appropriate to conclude that the data are invalid. In fact, four of the RISE system outages were issues with the submission of a session of the test after the student had already finished that segment.  Last Friday’s outage was an issue of students and educators not being able to log into the system to take the test.  The outages had less of an impact on students when they were actually testing.

School Accountability:
While we will likely be able to use RISE data for instructional decisions, its use for school accountability has not yet been determined.  The issue lies in the fact that the state accountability system requires that we count all students who participated – even if they were negatively impacted by the system outages.  Questar will be analyzing the RISE results of all students to see if and what the impact may be from the system outages.  The USBE will engage an objective third party to analyze and verify those results.  We will be monitoring this analysis closely.  Depending upon what they find, there are three options:

  1. If the analysis determines there is little impact, the state will move forward with the accountability system as planned.
  2. If the analysis determines there was an impact, there is an option to place an asterisk indicating where there have been testing irregularities that may have skewed the data.
  3. If the analysis determines there was a more significant impact, the USBE may decide to discontinue the accountability system for the 2018-19 school year. Superintendent Dickson indicated that this was a last resort.

Please contact Ben Jameson with any questions you may have.  Please look forward to more communication throughout the summer and fall of 2019 regarding the state’s findings.

Published on

DATE:   
May 9, 2019

TO: 
Elementary Principals
Elementary Head Administrative Assistants

FROM: 
John Larsen, Business Administrator

SUBJECT: 
Summer Pool Hours for Elementary Head Administrative Assistants

As a reminder, elementary head administrative assistants are given forty (40) hours for  use during the summer months. These hours remain optional and flexible and are to be used as needed in coordination with the school principal.

These hours should be used to address matters that typically build up over the summer months such as mail, voice mail, purchase verifications, timesheets, etc. The hope is that these summer hours will aid the school in a successful opening for the students.

The hours should be reported through True Time under the heading of “Contract Pool Hours” and will be charged to account number: 10 E xxx 0050 2483 152.

JL/jc

cc:
Cabinet
Sarah Palmer, Director of Payroll

Published on

DATE: 
Thursday, May 16, 2019

TO:  
Elementary School Principals

FROM:
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:
Research Project

The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.

Project Title:  BTSALP Elementary Art Specialists in Utah: Curriculum and Teaching

Applicant:     Tara Carpenter Estrada

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee.  The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school.  Participation in the study is at your discretion.  If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

The project will involve an online survey link that will be sent to eligible teachers that participate in the Beverly Taylor Sorensen Arts Learning Program.  In addition, a smaller subset of BTSALP teachers will be selected to participate in interviews.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

DATE:  
Wednesday, May 8, 2019

TO:
Administrators of Schools
All Schools

FROM:  
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:   
Research Project

The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.

Project Title:     Exploring the Perceptions of Educators Who Are Implementing Multi-Tiered Systems of Support

Applicant:     Elizabeth Cutrer and Ellie Young, Brigham Young University

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

The project will involve an interview of principal supervisors, building administrators, and building leadership teams on their perspective of implementing a multi-tiered system of supports program in schools.

Thank you for your assistance.

Published on

DATE:
Thursday, May 9, 2019

TO: 
All Principals

FROM: 
Dr. Anthony Godfrey, Associate Superintendent
Ben Jameson, Director of Evaluation, Research and Accountability

SUBJECT:  
Research Project

The Research Review Committee has reviewed a research project in which your school has been asked to participate.

Project Title:     General Education Teachers’ Self-Reported Response to Overt Student Problem Behavior in the Classroom

Applicant:     Ingrid Shurtleff

The project has been approved by the District Research Review Committee. The applicant has been directed to contact you to discuss the extent of the project and to obtain your permission to conduct the study at your school. Participation in the study is at your discretion. If you have questions or concerns relating to participation, please contact Ben Jameson at 801-567-8243.

The project will involve you sending a link to a 7-10 minute online survey to your general education teachers. The survey attempts to explore how general education teachers experience and address student problem behaviors and to what extent they feel equipped to manage those behaviors.

Thank you for your assistance.