Dear Parents and ESes,

We only have approximately six weeks until the last day of school, May 14!  We have had a difficult year due to budget cuts and the looming cuts for the 2011 school year.  We don’t know if the state of California will make anymore changes to the budget in May or later but based on our current information we will only cut the k-8 and 9-12 budget by $200 next year.  The instructional budget for k-8 will be $1,600 per year and $2,000 per year for 9-12.  Cuts have also been made throughout our staff including administration.  Regardless of the budget cuts, we are committed to providing quality education and support to our students and families!  This includes getting our charter renewed and extending our WASC accreditation.

Next year will be an extremely busy year. We not only have WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation renewal but also our charter is up for renewal.  Charter schools are only approved or renewed for a maximum of five years and the longest term for WASC accreditation is six years.  We were fortunate enough to have had our charter renewed for five years and  received a six year accreditation with a three year check up on April 22, 2008, which we passed with flying colors!  We hope to have our school charter renewed by early fall.  The district is happy with our steady academic improvements and we don’t perceive any difficulties with our renewal.  Our accreditation will take place in April 2011.  It seems like a long time away but there is still much to do.

We have been working towards accomplishing our WASC action plan goals over the past six years.  As we look at our state and local data we are pleased we are making a difference in education and our scores are improving each year!  Our goal is to exceed the state’s STAR scores and prove to law makers and educators that parent choice in education does work!  Thank you for your part in making parent choice in education a reality at CWCS!

As the process continues we will need your help to prepare our WASC report and for the visit from the WASC team in April 2011.  Those of you who were with us during our last accreditation in March 2005 may remember that one of the WASC tasks was to not only look at state and local test data but to collect student work samples.  This is where we are in the WASC process right now.  We have reviewed state and local data with focus groups: parents, students, teachers, administrators, and staff.  You may also review the data at our website. Go to Accreditation and then 2011 WASC Accreditation Data Charts CST Comparisions.  As a school, we have determined our critical areas of need and the ESLR (Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs/Growth Areas) it is aligned to:

1.  Improve Student Achievement in Mathematics grades 2-7, and any student taking Algebra I

ESLR:  Mathematical Thinkers (Math).“Student applies mathematical principles and operations to solve problems.” Student demonstrates knowledge of basic skills, conceptual understanding, and problem solving--  

• with numbers and operations.
• in geometry and measurement.
• in functions and algebra.
• in statistics and probability.
• student solves problems with problem formulation, problem implementation, and/or problem conclusion.
• student communicates own knowledge of basic skills, understanding of concepts, and ability to solve problems and understand the mathematical communication of others

2.  Improve Student Achievement in English Language Arts grades 9-11

ESLR : Effective Communicators (Reading/Writing). “Student will read and write effectively.” Student:  

• reads actively and derives meaning from written media.
• reads extensively for a variety of purposes.
• writes using grammatically acceptable English.
• adjusts tone and style of writing for purpose and audience.
• supports statements using well-rounded facts, theory, and opinion.
• separates fact from opinion. logically reaches conclusions based on sufficient evidence.
• clearly and succinctly states key points.
• organizes ideas in a variety of ways.
• demonstrates creativity through style, organization, and development of content.  

3.  Improve Student Achievement in Science grades 5, 8-11

ESLR: Scientific Thinkers (Science). “Student applies scientific concepts and skills to explain his/her world and find solutions to its problems.” Student:  

• observes, compares, orders, and categorizes characteristics and behaviors.
• communicates ideas.
• relates factors of differing objects and events, and infers about unknown or unseen processes.
• applies knowledge and thought processes to explain his/her world and solve problems.
• demonstrates recognition of the interrelationships among the scientific themes (energy, interactions, patterns, change).

Now we need to gather student work samples in the above content areas for each focus group to analyze. We do not need names on the samples.  We just need the samples labeled with the grade level and subject.  The samples are to be analyzed as our state and local data was analyzed - no names, just data.  The purpose of looking at the student samples is to provide more data to review other than just state and local data.  The group is to analyze the work and determine student progress towards learning the academic standard and specific ESLR.

This month, your ES will request from you the student samples shown on the next two pages representing a given standard for each subject.  Example assignments have been linked below if for some reason you discarded your student’s work representing the below standard.

English – Language Arts

Grade or Subject	Strand	Substrand Standard	Meaning
9	Writing Strategies	WS 1.9 (directions)	Evaluation and Revision:  revise writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling perspective, the precision of word choice, and the tone by taking into consideration the audience, purpose, and formality of the context.
10	Writing Strategies	WS 1.9 (directions)	Evaluation and Revision:  revise writing to improve the logic and coherence of the organization and controlling perspective, the precision of word choice, and the tone by taking into consideration the audience, purpose, and formality of the context.
11	Writing Strategies	WS 1.9 (directions)	Evaluation and Revision:  revise text to highlight individual voice, improve sentence variety and style, and enhance subtlety of meaning and tone in ways that are consistent with the purpose, audience, and genre.
12	Writing Strategies	WS 1.9 (directions)	Evaluation and Revision:  revise text to highlight individual voice, improve sentence variety and style, and enhance subtlety of meaning and tone in ways that are consistent with the purpose, audience, and genre.

Math

Grade or Subject	Strand	Substrand Standard	Meaning
2	Algebra and Functions	AF 1.1 (key)	Use the commutative and associative rules to simplify mental calculations and to check results.
3	Algebra and Functions	AF 1.1 (key)	Represent relationships of quantities in the form of mathematical expressions, equations, or inequalities.
4	Algebra and Functions	AF 1.2 (key)	Interpret and evaluate mathematical expressions that now use parentheses.
5	Algebra and Functions	AF 1.2 (key)	Use a letter to represent an unknown number; write and evaluate simple algebraic expressions in one variable by substitution.
6	Algebra and Functions	AF 1.1 (key)	Write and solve one-step linear equations in one variable.
7	Algebra and Functions	AF 4.1 (key)	Solve two-step linear equations and inequalities in one variable over the rational numbers, and interpret the solution or solutions in the context from which they arose, and verify the reasonableness of the results.
Algebra	Algebra 1	5.0 (key)	Students solve multistep problems, including word problems, involving linear equations and linear inequalities in one variable and provide justification for each step.

Science

Grade or Subject	Strand	Substrand Standard	Meaning
5	Life Sciences	LS 2 a-g	Plants and animals have structures for respiration, digestion, waste disposal, and transport of materials.
8	Structure of Matter	3 a-f	Each of the more than 100 elements of matter has distinct properties and a distinct atomic structure.  All forms of matter are composed of one or more of the elements.
Earth Science	Energy in the Earth System	5 a-g	Heating of Earth’s surface and atmosphere by the sun drives convection within the atmosphere and oceans, producing winds and ocean currents.
Biology / Life Science	Genetics	2 a-g	Mutation and sexual reproduction lead to genetic variation in a population.
Chemistry	Conservation of Matter and Stoichiometry	AF 1.1	The conservation of atoms in chemical reactions leads to the principle of conservation of matter and the ability to calculate the mass of products and reactants.