Going Green

by Lynn K. McMullin

This week, two separate events happened that together became the topic of this week’s blog. The first was working with Beth Kandrysawtz, the Board Chair, on a list of changes the district has made to save money. The second was a conversation with the HS Science Department Chair, John Duffy, who has found a solar-powered battery charger that the science and math departments could use to recharge the batteries for graphing calculators and science probes. Batteries cost each department hundreds of dollars a year, but just as important, is the fact that battery disposal is not eco-friendly. In combination, these two discussions led to blogging about the steps the district is taking to become “greener.”

Did you know the light switches in most classrooms and offices have motion sensors that turn the lights off if no one is moving in the room?  That’s why if you’re meeting at the circular table in Superintendent Case’s office, the lights will go out, and someone need to hop-up and wave at the light switch.  In a similar effort, the computers have software installed which “puts them to sleep” after 10 minutes of inactivity and “powers them down” at the end of the school day.

An audit of the district’s lighting energy use three years ago resulted in fixture reconfigurations and element replacement. The changes are projected to save $18,400 over three years, $60,346 over five years, and $309,000 over 15 years.  But there is a saving of energy, as well.  The hot water heaters have been replaced at the High School/Middle School, saving natural gas; but more can be done.  Our new Business Manager, Ed Hoyt, is planning to begin audits of other energy use, as well.  

Did you know the outdoor picnic furniture selected by the Board of Ed’s Student Reps is made of recycled plastics?  The same recycled consciousness will go into the purchase of the benches and storage shed in CBPS’s new “Science Inquiry Center” being planned in the school’s courtyard.  That whole project has a “green” theme from the solar lights and solar-powered vents on the greenhouse to the composting bin and the absence of trash cans, teaching students to take back out what they bring in.

Next year, the schools will begin school-based energy conservation plans, looking at the details of their building’s energy use, such as open windows and doors during the winter, or lights left burning in empty classrooms, or the use of refrigerators and appliances – in other words asking the same kinds of energy conservation questions at school that we’re all asking in our own homes.  The administrators at each building will begin a Green Committee with students as part of the membership.   A town-wide committee is also growing, and the schools will join in those community efforts as well.  

Currently, all of the schools have some level of recycling paper, cardboard, and plastics.  Those programs will become more formalized.  Also, on the radar screen for the future is the idea of adding solar heat panels to the High School/Middle School when that roof is replaced.

As Kermit said, “It’s not easy being green;” so if you have additional “greening” or energy-saving ideas, please share them with us.

What Our Kindergarten Data Tells Us

by Lynn K. McMullin

       Over the past few years, a planned focus on reading instruction at Cherry Brook Primary School has yielded exciting and rewarding confirmation that we are on the right path.   The 2009 CMT, our DRA2 data, and our in-house assessments have documented this success.  From the beginning, the instructional changes in reading included our youngest students, as Columbia Reader's Workshop, leveled-books, sight-word lists, DIBELS, and the DRA2 found their way into our Kindergarten classrooms.  The intention of this week's blog is to share with you an overview of that success story. There is additional information and resources for reading at the bottom of the CBPS website and in their monthly newsletters.

What is DIBELS?
       Several years ago, Canton began using DIBELS, a reading assessment focused on early intervention. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills, and it is a research-based assessment program with years of strong data support.  Basically, there is a series of one-minute assessments that follow the same continuum as a child's reading development.  The assessments progress from recognizing beginning letter sounds, naming the letters of the alphabet, segmenting the different sounds in a word, rhyming, through reading nonsense words such as MIP or CACK.   As the child learns to read, the DIBELS assessments also include fluently reading texts aloud and retelling what you’ve read.  There are five main categories of assessment: phonological awareness, the alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency in reading text, vocabulary, and comprehension.
       Using DIBELS, Cherry Brook’s well-trained tutors can now spot gaps in students’ emergent reading skills and immediately target specific interventions to address those gaps.  Rather than waiting for Grade 3 CMT results, which might show general difficulties with comprehension and fluency, DIBELS provides information right when it is needed, in grades K, 1, 2,  and 3.

Turning the Pyramid of Support on its Head!
       Thus, the focus on immediate remediation changed our model of support.  Four years ago, our largest group of tutored remedial students was in the 3rd grade, and there was no reading assessment done in the kindergarten program.  Letter recognition and sounds, for example, were introduced beginning in January of the Kindergarten year.   As a result, no kindergarteners received tutor support and only about 20 students received tutoring in Grade 1. 
       Over the past four years, we have changed the pattern of both instruction and support.  Letter recognition and sounds are taught beginning in September; kindergarteners have a sight word list; and they, too, are reading "just right" books in the Columbia workshop model. We have also successfully tipped the pyramid of support over with our largest group of tutored students now in kindergarten and the smallest group in Grade 3. That is success!

        To illustrate what it 'looks' like, the first triangle below represents what we had -- a little support in the early grades and a great deal of support in Grade 3 when it was clear to teachers that some students were struggling with their reading.  The second triangle represents what we have achieved -- a great deal of support for reading in Kindergarten and with our emerging readers.  There is less support in Grade 3 because more students are meeting the expected reading goals.

       A more specific look at the actual support data is pictured below.  As you can see, we started the DIBELS in 2005-2006.   In addition, the teachers at every grade level have spent the past four years collaborating with Columbia Reader's Workshop.  They attended full-day Columbia workshops for three days in August for several years and regularly worked with Columbia trainers in their classroom.  They have met collaboratively in their grade-level teams to write mini-lessons and discuss student data.  They have worked together on the additional components of literacy, such as word work, guided reading, interactive read-alouds, and vocabulary and have fully developed their classroom libraries of "just-right" leveled books.  These are just a few of the many program and instructional changes that have suported reading. 

But, Are Kindergarteners Ready to Read?

       Absolutely! And we have the data to prove it!

       Two years ago the Connecticut State Department of Education changed the expectations for kindergarten reading. The new standard became DRA2 Level 4. In addition, the new DRA2 included a retelling and comprehension question. Prior to that, the expectation had been Level 3 with no comprehension question. Some people asked if the kindergarteners, particularly those in a half-day program such as Cherry Brook's, were prepared to meet a Level 4 expectation by May.

       A readiness assessment which the kindergarten teachers complete in October for each of their students gives us the information we needed. The results, which I'll summarize here, show our students are more than ready. To determine a district's kindergarten readiness, the students are rated in six categories at three performance levels -- from Level 1 (lowest) to Level 3 (highest). As you can see from the Level 3 scores below, Canton's kindergarteners are well above average for the State in terms of their kindergarten readiness. I've put the state results in parentheses.

• 
  
  Language Skills   -- 56% at Level 3  (37%)
• Literacy Skills  -- 66% at Level 3  (35%)
• Numercy Skills  -- 70% at Level 3 (38%)
• Physical/Motor Skills  -- 83% at Level 3 (47%)
• Creative/Aesthetic Skills  -- 81% at Level 3 (47%)
• Personal/Social Skills  -- 65% at Level 3  (41%)

For more information about the DRA, click here.

For more information about Kindergarten readiness, click here.