June 1, 2012

To Our Elizabeth Hall 2012-13 High Five and Kindergarten Families:

Two weeks ago, the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) designated schools in new categories.  Some of you may have seen the newspaper article in which Hall was one of 13 schools in our school district labeled as a “Priority” school.  The priority designation is based on data from the 2009-2010 school year, when our 3rd through 5th grade student results took a significant downturn in both reading and math.  However, in the school year 2010-2011 we experienced a seven percentage point increase on our Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) reading proficiency overall, and in fact, our African American students and students on free & reduced lunch achieved more than a year’s growth on that same test. With the commitment to continuously improve, we began efforts in the fall of 2011 to ensure we were focused on building the right skills for each student using tools to better track how each child measures on key skills.

In addition to continuing these efforts, for the 2012-13 school year, we will implement the following strategies to ensure even greater progress for students:

• Create a new math resource teaching position to provide additional support for our first through third grade students

• Create a new reading resource position for our second through fifth graders needing additional support

• Add a new full-time Minnesota Math Corps position providing three to-one tutoring to our fourth and fifth grade students needing additional support and intervention for math

• Will implement the same strategies for math as we have for reading

• Will regularly provide each parent a communication tool that tracks each child’s growth (a distribution schedule will be set up by the beginning of the 2012-13 school year).

• Will continue our fourth- fifth grade math specialist teaching position (this is an additional teacher provided by our school district who co-teaches mathematics with each fourth and fifth grade classroom teacher).
  

• Will continue with three full-time Minnesota Reading Corps members who provide one-to-one tutoring to our kindergarten through third grade students who need additional support

• Will continue to work to increase the number of students attending school 95 percent  of the time or more (missing no more than eight days of school—this includes both excused and unexcused absences)

• Build upon our relationship with the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ); The Promise Neighborhood Grant just awarded will strengthen opportunities for families living in the Zone and provide more access to resources allowing an even closer connection between home and school

• Continue to partner with Harvest Prep Academy and other Northside schools to learn and refine our tools and practices

Despite this recent “priority” designation, I want to point out the following accomplishments:

• The proficiency levels of our kindergarten students continue to be among the highest in the school district according to the Minneapolis Public School End of Year Kindergarten Assessment.  In addition, our kindergartners experienced the highest growth in the district in reading!
•  Preliminary results for the 2011-12 school year show that 84 percent of our first graders met or exceeded the benchmark on the school district’s spring oral assessment.
• Our MCA Reading Proficiency level increased by seven percentage points from the 2009-10 to the 2010-11 school year.
• Our African American students and students on free & reduced lunch achieved more than a year’s growth on the 2010-2011 MCA reading test.
• Preliminary results from our school district MAP reading data look positive and already show close to a 20 percentage point gain in overall growth.  (MAP testing for math is still occurring and will not be complete until the end of the school year).

I want to assure you that this is a designation that we take seriously.  Our staff is completely committed to ensuring that your child receives the best education possible and we expect to be held accountable to this.  We look forward to you joining our school community and will work closely with each one of you in the upcoming school year.  

I welcome your input.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free contact me either by phone at 612-668-2672 or via email at Bennice.young@mpls.k12.mn.us.

Sincerely,

C. Bennice Young

Principal