AJH Social Media Threat
The safety and security of our students will always be a top priority at Alvarado ISD. We have been made aware of a threatening message on social media that was directed toward Alvarado Junior High. In light of this, we are taking precautions to ensure the safety of our students and staff.
Johnson County Sheriff's Office has been made aware of the threat and has contacted the families who are directly involved. They are currently investigating and addressing the situation.
Additional deputies will be assigned to the campus tomorrow to ensure our students have a safe learning environment. Please remind your student to report anytime they experience or hear of similar situations so they can be addressed.
CTBA Update
We hope your family had a fantastic Thanksgiving! Our staff has come back from the break rested and ready to finish this first semester strong. We are excited about what we can accomplish in a short period of time before Christmas!
As promised, we would like to take this opportunity to update you on changes we have made in regards to the implementation of our Common TEKS-Based Assessments.
We still feel very strongly that these assessments are a great barometer of our students’ mastery of the content being taught. They also provide great data for our teachers to use as they plan lessons and differentiate their instruction for their students.
However, we also realize that we need to take our time in fully implementing this new plan for assessing our students’ mastery of our state’s standards. Beginning with the next set of CTBAs we will phase in how much weight the CTBA grades have toward the final six weeks grade.
For our students who are in the fourth grade and above the second CTBA, which is scheduled to be administered next week, will count 3.92% toward the overall final six weeks grade. The third assessment will be worth 7.06% of the final grade and the fourth CTBA will be worth 10% of the final grade. These percentages are based on the expectation of three other major test grades throughout the six weeks.
Students who make below a 70 will be given the opportunity retest one time after a reteach of the content or a tutoring opportunity has been offered by the teacher. Teachers will also be given the opportunity to revise their CTBA based on the content taught.
Our expectation of excellence from everyone in our district – beginning with our School Board and going all the way down to our youngest students – has not wavered.
If you have any concerns regarding CTBAs please contact your student’s teacher. The journey we are on is not an easy one, but we expect the work being done now to pay off once we are truly the most sought after school district in the state of Texas.
We look forward to you being a part of the journey!
CTBA Letter
We have had a great start to the school year! We have made a commitment to changing mindsets and expectations across the district to ensure our students are receiving the very best education in the state of Texas.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been made aware of major inconsistencies in the administering, grading and retesting of our Common TEKS-Based Assessments from our students, parents and educators.
Alvarado ISD has and will always be student focused and we are concerned about the impact of these issues on our students. Unfortunately, report cards are scheduled to go out Thursday and the issue needs to be addressed before grades are finalized.
In light of the inconsistencies, the decision has been made to drop each student’s lowest test grade for the second six weeks at AIS, AJHS, and AHS – whether that was a CTBA or another assessment. (This does not apply to elementary campuses due to their skills based report cards).
This decision was made based on an effort to do what is best for all students. Simply removing the CTBA as a test grade or eliminating it all together would affect some students negatively.
We are not moving away from CTBAs or lowering our expectations for Alvarado ISD students. We consider our role with your student’s education a partnership, and will keep you updated as we continue to review and improve our implementation plan for CTBAs.
If you have concerns regarding CTBAs please contact your student’s teacher. We are excited about where we are headed and are looking forward to you being a part of that journey!