Dear Parents and Guardians,
Official notification will come out from the district about MCAS testing dates soon, however, I wanted to share with you this outline of MCAS dates to aid you in your planning. We ask that you make every effort to have your child in school during their MCAS testing dates as making up the tests pull students out of valuable instructional time.
We know that MCAS is one snapshot of a students’ experiences. It provides information to us as a district and a school about how we are doing in teaching curriculum aligned to state standards. We believe that by providing strong, differentiated instruction aligned to the standards that our students will do well.
This year Grades 4 and 5 will be taking the assessment computer based. Your child will be involved in increased work with technology this year to help facilitate this transition. Students will be engaged with programs such as “Type to Learn” to help them with keyboarding skills. We know that students who are comfortable keyboarding have an easier time with computer-based testing. We encourage you to allow your child time on computer with programs or apps such as these as a way to grow comfort. Grade 3 students will take the assessment with pencil and paper and move to computer as fourth graders – so now is a good time to become really comfortable with the keyboard as well!
As we get closer to the testing window, we will be working with students to minimize any stress that they may experience around the idea of testing. We know our students want to do well – and know that the most important thing they can do is come to school well-rested, calm and with a growth mindset.
As always, thank you for your support and trust. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Mary
Mary Anton, Ed.D. Bowman School
