Crookston School District Superintendent Jeremy Olson writes a “letter to the editor” once a month to update the public on what is going on in the district. October’s article is below-
What happened to fall? As I write this we have for two days been dealing with snow which isn’t supposed to happen for another month or so. It is hard to believe that we are already midway through October, fall sports are starting to wind down as we prepare for the upcoming months. So far this has been a very good start to the school year, I have really enjoyed getting into our schools and watching the great things that our staff is doing on a daily basis. As we move into mid-October, here are a couple of things that I would like to communicate with you as community members.
Standards and MCA’s: As an educator, I am so intrigued to see solid instructional practices and the work that our teachers are putting into their standards and assessments. Often when we are doing this important work we get questions such as: “should you be teaching to the MCA (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment) test” or “these tests shouldn’t matter because they are one test given one day a year”. While both of these points have some truth to them, they are often just excuses or misrepresentations. We do not ever teach to the MCA test, we teach to the standards that the MCA’s assess. In every area of study, our profession sets standards for what kids should know and be able to do. These are the skills and benchmarks that we as professionals have set statewide because we believe that these skills are vital for the success of our kids. We align our curriculum to our standards because we need to ensure that our instruction leads to the attainment and mastery of these standards which the MCA’s assess. MCA’s give us the data for how well our students are mastering these standards.
To the second point about a test given one time a year, there is some truth that it would be better to give multiple assessment periods to combat against some of the soft challenges to education such as a student not being ready to take a test on a particular day, test anxiety, or something adverse that affected the student during the test window. The state did allow multiple attempts at the test a few years back, however, moved away from this model for reasons that I am unaware of. The simple fact is that this is the test protocol that we currently have as a state and we do not have the ability to change this practice at this time. For this reason, we stress the importance to our students and parents of getting a full night’s sleep, eating a good breakfast, and doing your very best.
Crookston Schools is focused on ensuring that we are teaching to mastery of our standards across the board and why we take the MCA seriously. Of course, there is more to education than a test, however, this test does measure how well our students are mastering the standards that we as educators believe students should know and be able to do. The majority of this vital work is done by our educators on 2W days, our educators are hard at work going through individual student data, working on standards alignment in their curriculum, and communicating about educational best practices. I am very proud of the important work that our excellent educators are doing to ensure that our students are mastering these standards.
Long Range Plans: We have been very focused on the long-range direction and planning for the district. We continue to work with our partners at the City to determine the next steps for the ownership of our community pool which is currently owned by Crookston Schools. We are trying to determine which entity would be best-positioned long-term to own the pool. We are very proud of the partnership that we have with the City of Crookston. We are also in the beginning stages of planning for a bus garage. We are in the process of forming a community committee as we start to ask the question of what type/configuration of a bus garage does our community need. The school board has continually stressed to me the need for community engagement in this process and that is what we hope to do.
Calendar:
October 18 and 19 – No School (MEA Education Minnesota)
October 24 – Parent Teacher Conferences from 4 pm to 7:30 pm
October 25 – Parent Teacher Conferences 8 am to 7:30pm-No School
October 26 – No School
World’s Best Workforce: I wanted to give our World’s Best Workforce Committee a big thank you for your dedication and efforts to improve our school. This committee works to set benchmarks and promote growth in the following strategic areas: All students are Kindergarten Ready, Students are reading well by third grade, Achievement Gap Reduction, Graduation, and ensuring students are College and Career Ready.
Ramp up to Readiness: I also wanted to thank Principal Bubna and the High School Staff for implementing Ramp up to Readiness this year. Ramp up to Readiness is an advisory program that is being delivered on Fridays during Primetime. The data tells us that over 70 percent of jobs in Minnesota will soon require at least some type of schooling beyond high school. While college in the traditional sense may not be the route that all kids need to take, our students will need additional schooling in order to be competitive in the workforce. Ramp Up to Readiness addresses issues of academics, career readiness, financial readiness and social-emotional readiness. Our aim is to graduate students with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful at the next level.
Hall of Fame: Lon Boike was inducted into the Clarke University Athletics Hall of Fame. Congratulation to Mr. Boike! This is our second staff member inducted into a Hall of Fame this year, with Mike Geffre being inducted into the Tennis Coach Hall of fame earlier this year.
Thank you to the community for your continued support of Crookston Public Schools. You along with our staff and students is what make our schools strong. Pirate Pride!
