Welcome to Paris ISD - Our students are much more than a once-a-year pencil and bubble sheet test

Paris ISD - Welcome to Paris ISD:

 Welcome to Paris ISD

Dear Parents and Friends of PISD,

Next week, you will be receiving your child's STAAR/TAKS results for the 2013-2014 school year. I'm writing this letter on behalf of PISD administrators, teachers, staff, and board members. These results should be considered as one of many instruments used to measure your child's growth, not the end-all of your child's learning for the year. These assessments do not reflect the quality of teaching or learning in our classrooms. Instead, they reflect a punitive; one size fits all test-driven system. Our students are much more than a once-a-year pencil and bubble sheet test. Your child means immeasurably more than just a number generated in Austin. There is no test that can assess all of what makes each child unique. The state mandated assessments are used by the state to score and rank our campuses and our district, however, this is not the only assessment we use for Paris ISD students. We have higher standards. Your child's achievements must be measured by a multitude of accomplishments throughout the year. Your individual child's academic growth is what is important, and we assess your child's growth from the start of the school year to the end of the school year. In contrast, your child is assessed by the state with a criterion-referenced test (STAAR), which assesses how your child performs on a single day and uses those results to compare your child to a predetermined standard set by bureaucrats in Austin and a testing company headquartered in London, England. We all know students do not master skills at the same rate; each individual child has their strengths and weaknesses. This single test cannot measure what we know about your child. Many of our students play sports, play musical instruments, dance, sing, speak multiple languages, write and perform poetry or songs, and create amazing works of art. We have students working multiple jobs at night to help support their family. Many of our students are the main caregivers for younger siblings late into the evening hours. Our classrooms are reflective of a multi-faceted student involved in a wide variety of activities, both academic and extra-curricular. It is not just drill and kill for one test.

Although the data from this assessment will help us know when to offer enrichment or intervention, we will use the state assessment for the purpose the original assessment system was created--a diagnostic tool for identifying areas of concern as well as strengths. Individual student data will be aligned with local assessment data to develop educational plans that ensure continued progress for our students. Your child's growth and love of learning are our main goals at PISD. Unfortunately, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and Austin have designed a one-size-fits-all assessment system that doesn't necessarily reflect your individual child's growth and achievements. Our students, not the state assessment, will be our main focus and top priority. Our instructional goals are to prepare each child to be college and/or career ready for the 21st Century.

So, yes, we live in a time when standardized test results are a reality. However, let's not let the STAAR test overshadow what is truly important--each individual child. Let us not forget to celebrate the vast and numerous accomplishments and successes the students of PISD have achieved this school year. It has been a great one!

Paul Jones,                                                                                                                                                    
Superintendent Paris Independent School District 

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Click below to view the updated 2013-2014 Paris ISD calendar

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Paris ISD names Teachers of the Year

Deb Fleming Elementary Teacher of the Year	Joe Watson Secondary Teacher of the Year

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Paris ISD seeks nominations for Distinguished Graduate Award Program

Paris Independent School District is seeking nominations for the 2014-2015 Distinguished Graduate Award.  The purpose of the award is to recognize graduates of Paris High School and the former Gibbons High School for outstanding personal and professional achievements and to identify role models for Paris High School students.  Distinguished Graduates are recognized with a place of prominence on a Wall of Honor in the Paris High School Commons Area.



The Award Selection committee is soliciting nominations from the community for the Distinguished Alumni Award. Criteria for the award include:

• The nominee may be living or deceased.
• The nominee must have graduated from Paris High School at least 10 years ago or Gibbons High School
• Must have received national or equivalent recognition for career accomplishments, distinguishing himself/herself as a leader and role model.

Click here to download nomination form.

To nominate a graduate for consideration, send the nomination form to jkraft@parisisd.net or to:



Selection Committee

Paris ISD

1920 Clarksville Street

Paris, Texas 75460



Nominations received by May 30, 2014, will be eligible for the award presented in conjunction with 2014 homecoming activities.



Nominees remain in contention from year to year unless the person making the nomination withdraws the name. Anyone making a nomination should continue to update a nominee’s file by sending additional information to wallofhonor@parisisd.net .

Here’s what the superintendent of Paris ISD is telling parents about this year’s STAAR results –Yikes! | Dallas Morning News

Here’s what the superintendent of Paris ISD is telling parents about this year’s STAAR results –Yikes! | Dallas Morning News:

Here’s what the superintendent of Paris ISD is telling parents about this year’s STAAR results –Yikes!

By Jeffrey Weiss
JWeiss@dallasnews.com
4:23 pm on May 17, 2014 | Permalink

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http://unitedoptout.com/

This is posted on the Paris ISD website:

Next week, you will be receiving your child’s STAAR/TAKS results for the 2013-2014 school year. I’m writing this letter on behalf of PISD administrators, teachers, staff, and board members. These results should be considered as one of many instruments used to measure your child’s growth, not the end-all of your child’s learning for the year.

These assessments do not reflect the quality of teaching or learning in our classrooms. Instead, they reflect a punitive; one size fits all test-driven system. Our students are much more than a once-a-year pencil and bubble sheet test. Your child means immeasurably more than just a number generated in Austin. There is no test that can assess all of what makes each child unique. The state mandated assessments are used by the state to score and rank our campuses and our district, however, this is not the only assessment we use for Paris ISD students. We have higher standards. Your child’s achievements must be measured by a multitude of accomplishments throughout the year. Your individual child’s academic growth is what is important, and we assess your child’s growth from the start of the school year to the end of the school year.

In contrast, your child is assessed by the state with a criterion-referenced test (STAAR), which assesses how your child performs on a single day and uses those results to compare your child to a predetermined standard set by bureaucrats in Austin and a testing company headquartered in London, England.

We all know students do not master skills at the same rate; each individual child has their strengths and weaknesses. This single test cannot measure what we know about your child. Many of our students play sports, play musical instruments, dance, sing, speak multiple languages, write and perform poetry or songs, and create amazing works of art. We have students working multiple jobs at night to help support their family. Many of our students are the main caregivers for younger siblings late into the evening hours. Our classrooms are reflective of a multi-faceted student involved in a wide variety of activities, both academic and extra-curricular. It is not just drill and kill for one test.

Although the data from this assessment will help us know when to offer enrichment or intervention, we will use the state assessment for the purpose the original assessment system was created–a diagnostic tool for identifying areas of concern as well as strengths. Individual student data will be aligned with local assessment data to develop educational plans that ensure continued progress for our students. Your child’s growth and love of learning are our main goals at PISD. Unfortunately, bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. and Austin have designed a one-size-fits-all assessment system that doesn’t necessarily reflect your individual child’s growth and achievements. Our students, not the state assessment, will be our main focus and top priority. Our instructional goals are to prepare each child to be college and/or career ready for the 21st Century.

So, yes, we live in a time when standardized test results are a reality. However, let’s not let the STAAR test overshadow what is truly important–each individual child. Let us not forget to celebrate the vast and numerous accomplishments and successes the students of PISD have achieved this school year. It has been a great one!

Paul Jones,
Superintendent Paris Independent School District

Yikes!

I might suggest, however, that in addition to all those lovely things that a student should do, reading, writing and ‘rithmatic are still skills that need mastering. To the extent that STAAR measures that, it Here’s what the superintendent of Paris ISD is telling parents about this year’s STAAR results –Yikes! | Dallas Morning News:

Overtesting Students: Some Truths about Standardized Testing | Connected Principals

Overtesting Students: Some Truths about Standardized Testing | Connected Principals:

Overtesting Students: Some Truths about Standardized Testing

by Tom Martellone • May 17, 2014 • 0 Comments

Many of us have heard the expression, “Too much of a good thing is bad for you”.  It is no wonder that when people, groups, or organizations take things to the extreme, that misconceptions come about.  Additionally, not every person is acquainted with every other person’s work.  For example, I don’t know everything that a doctor does, so therefore, if the doctor is prescribing a lot of medication to patients, it may or may not be warranted, despite what my perception is around prescribing the medication.

Assessment is no different, and honestly, to some degree, standardized testing has earned itself a bad name.  I’m not saying that I am a huge supporter of these types of tests, but with anything, they have their place and I suppose if utilized appropriately, could have some added value.  For the general public, there is clearly not enough understanding about the types of assessments that provide educators information about student performance.  Perhaps that is the first place to start.

Summative assessments have been likened by some educators, as an “autopsy” because of the finality of their administration and results.  These types of tests, like so many high stakes state tests, often times are administered near the end of the year and by the time the results come back, do not offer educators a lot of time to go back and reteach or change instruction.  Generally, these tests are for policy makers, who use the results to drive policy.  Now, for some districts and states, these tests take up a small amount of time and schools work hard to use the information garnered from them to change instruction for the group that had taken them and also determine what they may do differently regarding instruction for the students coming to them.  Other states use as many as 30 days to administer state driven tests, which seems to be the extreme and erodes from the amount of teaching time that classroom teachers have to engage with students.

Formative assessments, on the other hand, are likened to “check ups” because they are periodic, not final in nature, and provide teachers and instructors the opportunity to check in on student understanding and change the nature of their teaching before finally assessing students.  They provide more opportunity for teachers to determine where Overtesting Students: Some Truths about Standardized Testing | Connected Principals:

Are we abandoning public education 60 years after historic Brown ruling? | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!

Are we abandoning public education 60 years after historic Brown ruling? | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Are we abandoning public education 60 years after historic Brown ruling?

Filed under: Civil Rights Movement Today,New Jim Crow,Vouchers — millerlf @ 4:02 pm 

From Valerie Strauss’ Blog at Washington Post Updated: May 16

By Barbara Miner
In Milwaukee, one of the country’s most segregated metropolitan regions, the May 17 anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education will be particularly bitter. Like other urban areas, this city has long ignored Brown’s proclamation 60 years ago that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” We live comfortably with rampant school segregation. But Milwaukee, where more students receive vouchers than in any U.S. city, has taken the abandonment of Brown to a new level. We are abandoning the very institution of public education.
I am often involved in national discussions on education reform. When I tell people I’m from Milwaukee, I frequently notice a vague look in their eye as they try to remember something about Milwaukee beyond beer, bratwurst and reruns of “Happy Days.” If they follow policy debates they might say, “Don’t you have that school choice movement?” And I cringe, because I refuse to use the term “school choice.”
As a woman, I understand the power and importance of choice. In education, used appropriately, choice can help ensure that public schools are sensitive to the varying needs of students, families and communities. But that is not how the term “school choice” is used today.
In the 1960s, the term “state’s rights” became code for opposing Brown and federal civil rights legislation. Today, “school choice” has to many people become code for initiatives that funnel public dollars into private voucher schools or privately run charters. It is code for reforms based on individual decisions by consumers and entrepreneurs rather than the collective, democratic decisions of a community.
In Milwaukee, it is code that rationalizes three separate and unequal systems, all funded by taxpayers: private voucher schools, public schools and charter schools, which operate in a grey market between public and private.
Interestingly, the first use of vouchers post-Brown was by whites hoping to escape desegregation. For five years, until federal courts intervened, officials closed the public schools in Prince Edward County, Virginia, rather than comply with orders to desegregate. White parents took advantage of vouchers to attend a private, whites-only academy.
In 1990, with proponents arguing for more “choices” for African-American students, Milwaukee became home to a voucher program under which public tax dollars pay the tuition at private schools. Today, some 25,000 students in Milwaukee receive such vouchers, most of them to attend religious schools.
But here’s the catch. Even if every single student attending a given school is paying tuition with a publicly funded voucher, the school is still defined as private. Voucher schools are thus able to circumvent any number of democratic safeguards, from adhering to open meetings and records requirements, to providing needed levels of special education services, to respecting constitutional rights of due process and freedom of speech.
Today, Milwaukee arguably has more educational choices than any other major city. In addition to vouchers we have “open enrollment” across districts. We have district charters, schools chartered by the city, schools chartered by the local university. We have union and non-union charters, community-based charters, virtual charters, and national “McFranchise” charter Are we abandoning public education 60 years after historic Brown ruling? | Larry Miller's Blog: Educate All Students!:

Lisa Kaiser Blog on Sheldon Lubar’s Comments on Takeover of MPS

Sheldon Lubar’s Next Target: MPS By Lisa Kaiser Friday, May 16, 2014 Last night, in a discussion devoted to Milwaukee County government “reforms,” conservative gazillionaire Sheldon Lubar casually dropped a bomb: His next target is the Milwaukee Public Schools. Responding to a question about whether he or fellow panelists Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele or state Rep. Joe Sanfelippo would be

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An Open Letter to Michael Petrilli | Missouri Education Watchdog

An Open Letter to Michael Petrilli | Missouri Education Watchdog:

An Open Letter to Michael Petrilli

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HB1490 is the start to reclaim educational development/delivery by Missourians for Missourians.

Anne and I were at the Capitol yesterday for a press conference about the passage of HB1490.  We talked to various legislators about the bill and plans for next year.  It was a full day and we have ideas for more legislation next year to ensure even greater local control for schools.  Just like a small child learning to walk, legislation is “one step at a time”.  We’ve made the first step in regaining control of the educational direction/development of Missouri education by Missouri parents, teachers and educators, not private non-governmental organizations copyrighting standards and assessments the state has been mandated to use.

Michael Petrilli of Fordham issued a press release yesterday while we were in Jefferson City, claiming that this bill will result in nothing more than a “rebranding” of the standards.  From Truth in American Education:

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Fordham Institute released a statement from Mike Petrilli, who is their executive vice president and they call “one of the nation’s most trusted education analysts” (according to Fordham & Bill Gates), spinning yesterday’s Common Core vote from the Missouri Legislature:

The Missouri state legislature reached a compromise to move forward with the implementation of Common Core Standards while continuing to determine their own state-specific program. Their vote illustrates that states are, in fact, in charge of standards, and maintains Missouri’s commitment to raising the bar. As a graduate of Missouri’s public schools, I hope that the state’s lawmakers don’t let politics complicate learning in the classroom. In the end, I suspect that any ‘college and career ready’ standards adopted by Missouri will be quite similar to the Common Core, and at least as rigorous. Children in the Show-Me State deserve nothing less.”

First, Petrilli seems to insinuate that opponents said that states could not vote themselves out of the Common Core.  They can (and should and quickly too!).  Second the plan is to replace the standards, there was no plan to determine their own state-specific program until the Missouri Legislature weighed in.  This is a loss for Common Core advocates, plain and simple.  The compromise was in place in an attempt to secure Governor Nixon’s signature.  Should he veto this bill he could very well end up with an override of this bill or one that is even stronger.  The Missouri Legislature has already voted to override 13 vetoes by Nixon this term.

Third, as far as a rebrand goes, that is a potential concern and one we will be watching.  Anne Gassel of the Missouri Coalition Against Common Core said in a released statement, “We would have liked the language to be a lot stronger in terms of rejecting the Common Core State Standards. We will have to rely on the professional integrity of those selected to be on the various work groups to really focus on what is best for our students and teachers and not be swayed by outside political or financial interests.”

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Mr. Petrilli may have lived in Missouri at one point in his life but he currently lives on the East Coast.  I don’t know how he knows what Missouri citizens need or even think when he doesn’t live in the state.  I haven’t seen a survey done by Fordham to determine what the people of Missouri want in their educational development/delivery.  Apparently Mr. Petrilli’s version of government is that of a centralized authority determining what students should know and the use of national standards.  To my knowledge he has not asked Missourians what Missourians want in their public education development/direction.

I believe the parents, teachers, taxpayers and students who are Missouri residents have a better idea of what is happening in Missouri schools than Mr. Petrilli does in Washington, DC.  The An Open Letter to Michael Petrilli | Missouri Education Watchdog: