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Category: Middle School Info

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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.

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"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."

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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.

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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.

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The USBE is collaborating with Kim St. Martin to offer this year's Literacy Leadership Institute for 6-12 principals and instructional coaches. Dr. Kimberly St. Martin currently serves as the Assistant Director of Michigan’s Integrated Behavior Learning Support Initiative (MIBLSI) and Co-Director of the MIBLSI Promoting Adolescent Reading Success (PARS) Project. Prior to her current appointment, Dr. St. Martin was a school administrator and teacher with experience in urban, urban-fringe, and rural school districts. She works regularly with State Education Agencies, Regional Education Agencies (REAs), and districts across the country to assist them in the successful use of an implementation infrastructure that can scale the components of an integrated behavior and reading Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model. Dr. St. Martin is the lead author of the Reading Tiered Fidelity Inventory (R-TFI) Elementary and Secondary Editions; measures designed to assist elementary and secondary school teams in the installation and on-going use of the reading components of an MTSS model. In addition, she has collaborated with the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN) in the development of implementation capacity assessments at the regional and local district levels that are available for national use.

This 4-day literacy institute is focused on creating the systems and structures that increase literacy outcomes and provide the school-wide organization that ensures an appropriate and improved MTSS educational framework for all students. By putting these systems in place, the job of the principal, coach, and teacher leader transforms from reactive to becoming a high-quality instructional leader.

The Secondary Schools Institute will consist of 2, 2-day sessions (total of four days) from 9-4 each day.

Each session of the institute will be held in the Salt Lake Area (specific locations TBD). Participants will be responsible for their own meals, mileage, and lodging. There is no cost for this institute.

Dates for Secondary Level Literacy Leadership Institute: October 2-3, 2019 and February 5-6, 2020. To register, please use the following form: https://forms.gle/jwZqCNi7kyM3Gmsu5

If you have any questions, please contact Garret Rose at garret.rose@schools.utah.gov

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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.

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Requests for Certificate of Insurance must be made through the District Insurance Office to Utah State Risk Management.

If you are participating in an event at a location that requires a Certificate of Insurance please provide the following information as soon as possible and no later than three days prior to the event:

  • Location of Event
  • Date of Event
  • Purpose
  • Number of participants
  • Contact Person
  • Certificate Holder
  • Insurance Requirements (limits, additional insured, etc.)

If you have any question please contact:
Cheryl Matson
cheryl.matson@jordandistrict.org
801-567-8285

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Prepare to Be A Teacher!

Develop teaching skills, confidence, and a passion for working as an educator. During camp, youth ages 14-17 will learn from professors in BYU's David O. McKay School of Education and experience real-life teaching opportunities in local schools.

Work with teachers in small groups and enjoy activities on BYU campus. Learn about various topics (reading, writing, mathematics, science, STEM activities) and discover exciting career opportunities in education.

The emphasis for this camp will be on elementary education.

Click here for more information: teacherscamp.byu.edu

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DATE:  
May 1, 2019

TO:  
Principals
All Special Educators, School Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, and Itinerant Service Providers

FROM:    
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Special Education Director

SUBJECT: 
Beginning Dates of All Special Education Services for 2019-20

The following are the dates that Special Education services will begin:

All Special Education Teachers – Elementary & Secondary Traditional – First day of school – August 20, 2019, High School – August 19, 2019.

All Special Education Teachers – Elementary Year Round – First day of school – July 25, 2019 (Tracks A, B, C), August 21, 2019 (Track D).

All Itinerant Services (School Psychologists, Speech & Language, Occupational and Physical Therapists, Vision and Hearing Teachers, APE) - All Itinerant Services Traditional and Year Round – 1 week after the first day of school.

All Special Education services from ALL special educators and itinerant educators will provide services until the last day of school. No service stops a week prior to school ending. Whenever possible and the schedule allows, Special Education services for students continue to the end of the year.

If there are any questions or concerns, please contact your teacher specialist.

Published on

DATE:    
April 11, 2019

TO: 
School Psychologists, School Psychology Interns, Elementary Counselors, and School Social Workers

FROM: 
Lisa Robinson, Administrator of Schools
Kim Lloyd, Director of Special Education
Fulvia Franco, Program Specialist – Guidance

SUBJECT: 
May Guidance Meeting

A meeting for school psychologists, school psychology interns, elementary counselors, and school social workers has been scheduled for Friday, May 3, 2019, from 12:00 to 3:30 p.m. at the Jordan School District Auxiliary Services Building Auditorium (7905 South Redwood Road). We will begin with an end-of-the-year potluck luncheon. Ryan Anderson, Ph.D. will provide us with a presentation on internet gaming disorder. His presentation will provide an overview of this issue, as well as interventions to use with students.

Part-time Staff: I would appreciate it if you could adjust your schedules in order to attend this meeting.

cc:
Principals