Sunday, March 5, 2017

Jewell Elementary Offers PARCC (CMAS) Incentives | BustED Pencils

Jewell Elementary Offers PARCC (CMAS) Incentives | BustED Pencils:

Jewell Elementary Offers PARCC (CMAS) Incentives



On Friday, March 3rd, Jewell Elementary parents received a letter regarding PARCC incentives. Yes – it’s THAT time of year. Many Colorado schools refer to PARCC as CMAS.
To catch new readers up to speed before I launch into the information about PARCC incentives, let me give you a quick recap. I taught at Jewell Elementary for four years. The first three years were absolutely amazing. We were working hard to become an inquiry-based democratic school. All of our hard work came crashing down in the 2015-2016 school year when we became a Relay Leadership School. All of our work, our beliefs, our identity, were erased, and we were mandated to follow the new mantra via Relay.  My position at Jewell was eliminated last year.
Needless to say, this year, 2016-2017, things have grown worse. Relay policies play a large role in the instruction at Jewell Elementary.  Teachers have minimal time to plan – most planning time is dictated. Children must now come in earlier to eat breakfast, and therefore teachers lose planning time in the morning. And of course, testing is everything. And now it is PARCC season.
The letter Jewell Elementary parents received Friday discusses two “recognition systems” that will be used during PARCC testing. One recognition system is a raffle. Students will receive tickets for attendance during testing days and tickets for putting forth their best effort on the PARCC test. At the end of  PARCC, the children’s tickets will be used to raffle off baskets of goodies. Parents have been asked to donate items for the baskets, although the letter states that donations are not required. The letter specifically states that only “new” Jewell Elementary Offers PARCC (CMAS) Incentives | BustED Pencils: