July 2023 - Carolyn Sharette, Executive Director
Dear APA Families,
Over the past five years, Utah's state testing (SAGE and RISE) has been in a state of flux, creating quite a challenge for us to gather comprehensive data about our students' growth. You might recall the troublesome transition from SAGE to RISE in 2019, where a technological failure left us without reliable results. Then, in 2020, the RISE test was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, only two-thirds of state testing was administered due to the number of students engaged in at-home learning.
Given this rocky landscape and our inherent skepticism about abrupt changes to state testing, our overarching goal has always been to ensure that the testing method truly reflects student growth and facilitates our teachers' ability to teach, coach, and support students. In short, the state testing conundrum left many unanswered questions about the validity of RISE between 2019 and 2021.
Despite these challenges, we continued our relentless pursuit of student success, initiating a pilot program that implemented an analytical reading focus in several of our classes in 2020-2021. Why analytical reading? Our aim was to determine whether this approach could enhance students' performance across our curriculum and, consequently, improve their state testing scores. The results were impressive.
In 2022, with schools reopening and the RISE testing successfully conducted for two consecutive years (2022 and 2023), we finally had a consistent data set to validate student performance and identify growth. Because our pilot program began in 2021, we have been able to compare teacher and student group proficiency across two consecutive years, measuring the impact of our pilot program mechanisms.
In 2022, our Salem English & Language Arts Scores soared, with 7th and 8th-grade students showing an impressive 18.5% and 36.8% improvement, far outpacing other junior high schools' gains. It was clear that this new pedagogical approach, deeply rooted in Classical Education principles, made a striking difference.
Several key elements of this classical approach boosted our students' learning: Close Reading, Independent Literary Analysis, and Cross-curricular Reinforcement of Content. These principles had a profound impact, extending beyond English and Language Arts to foster a 30% improvement in Science scores and over a 20% improvement in Math scores for 7th and 8th graders engaged in the pilot program.
Now, armed with this knowledge and two years of validated RISE data, we are thrilled to announce a bold new initiative for the 2023-2024 academic year: A district-wide commitment to implementing effective Classical Education teaching each day, with a target of 70% of our students achieving proficiency at their grade level on end-of-year RISE and Aspire+ testing for our students in grades 3-10.
To help make this vision a reality, we will also introduce a dedicated "Period 9" in our secondary school schedule, as well as an academic extended day for students in grades 3-6, where we will focus on enhancing students' proficiency, thereby preparing them for the demanding APA curricula and annual RISE test. This additional time will encourage habits of analytical reading focus, close reading, cross-curricular content reinforcement, and guided independent literary analysis. Please look for more information from your campus administrators about Period 9 and Academic Extended Day.
APA teachers will work to improve the student experience in the classroom and we think this may impact student scores by 20% of the increase we are seeking. The Period 9 and AED may impact student scores by 30% of the increase we are seeking. We believe student effort and their belief in the importance of performing well may provide a full 50% of the increase we are seeking. Therefore, we are appealing to all APA families to support this initiative at home in your conversations with your student. We hope you believe it is important for students to perform in the proficient category for their grade level end-of-year test, because we know that if you believe this, they can come to also believe it. We need to get everyone - staff, parents, and students on board with this effort, and we invite you to help make that a reality. Students need to know this is an important APA standard. By advancing our Classical teaching methodology and our students' classical education learning, we believe our students' educational journey will be much more successful.
Several key elements of this classical approach boosted our students' learning: Close Reading, Independent Literary Analysis, and Cross-curricular Reinforcement of Content. These principles had a profound impact, extending beyond English and Language Arts to foster a 30% improvement in Science scores and over a 20% improvement in Math scores for 7th and 8th graders engaged in the pilot program.
Now, armed with this knowledge and two years of validated RISE data, we are thrilled to announce a bold new initiative for the 2023-2024 academic year: A district-wide commitment to implementing effective Classical Education teaching each day, with a target of achieving 70% proficiency overall at each campus for end-of-year RISE testing.
To make this vision a reality, we will also introduce a dedicated "Period 9" in our schedule, focusing on enhancing students' proficiency, thereby preparing them for the demanding APA curricula and annual RISE test. This additional period will encourage habits of analytical reading focus, close reading, cross-curricular content reinforcement, and guided independent literary analysis. Please look for more information from your campus administrators about Period 9.
We are appealing to all APA families to support this initiative at home. By embracing this Classical teaching methodology, we can ensure the best possible outcomes for our students - not just in testing but in the broader scope of their educational journey.