Springer’s Teacher of the Year (and a little bit about SBAC testing)

Starting last year, Springer’s teacher staff began selecting their own site’s Teacher of the Year.    This year, it gives me great pleasure to announce that the staff has made Mrs. Linda Mooers their 2015 Springer Teacher of the Year.  Anyone who has any contact with Mrs. Mooers understands why she was selected.  I have not met many people in life who genuinely exude so much love and enthusiasm for her students.   She has made an enormous impact on the children she has taught, and with over 30 years of teaching here at Springer, the impact goes far and wide!

Mrs. Mooers, along with each LASD site’s winner, was honored at a reception on Tuesday at Covington.  She was well supported at the event with a large contingent of Springer staff and her two grown children (Springer graduates themselves) Congratulations to Mrs. Mooers!  We are so proud of you.

SBAC testing...

I know it’s a bummer to talk about testing just before Spring Break but I wanted to make sure you have the correct information regarding SBAC testing.

This spring our students in grades 3-6 will participate in the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium California state testing (SBAC). The SBAC replaces the STAR test many of you may remember from past years. The test is completely online for English-Language Arts and Math, while the California Standards Test (CST) in Science will still be administered in paper/pencil format to 5th and 8th graders across the state, including here in LASD. Our students in grades 3-6 last year took the pilot version of this test. We did not receive any results from that test; rather, it was to help us understand how the online test environment would function and what infrastructure we would need to support online testing. This year both parents and the school/ district will receive test results. Since the testing format is very different from the previous STAR test, it will take time to analyze and understand the information we receive. For example, the STAR was all multiple choice. The new SBAC testing has extensive open response questions, writing, math problem-solving (not choosing answers from a list), and performance tasks that build off a classroom activity prior to the test. In short, it is a much better test — though not perfect by any means.

Teachers have begun providing practice for students in how to access the test online and operate within the online testing environment. However, our job as educators (and yours as parents) is NOT to prep students for this test. Our job is to provide practice within the testing environment, while also delivering 180 days of quality, robust instruction that will allow our students to demonstrate their knowledge, competence and passion in a variety of ways — including this assessment tool.

The SBAC testing window opens for us beginning on April 20th and ends on May 8th.  Testing dates vary according to grade level.  Teachers will be sharing their testing dates with families for each class.   

I wish you a restful and relaxing Spring Break

Wade Spenader- Principal