Verified EESAC Meeting Minutes

Approval of minutes: Mrs. Robledo called the meeting to order at 8:24 a.m. The minutes from November 3, 2009 were reviewed and approved.

Principal’s message: Mrs. Gonzalez began by saying that we are lucky to have two new beginnings each year. The New Year marks a time to reaffirm goals for both students and staff. Failure notices go home yesterday and today. The District interim assessments are yesterday and today for writing and science and January 6 and 7 for reading and math. The next PTSA general meeting is Friday, January 8. On January 8 and 14 we will give the final tours for prospective incoming sixth-grade parents. Applications for next school year are due on January 15. On January 11 and 12, German IS students take the AATG assessment given by the German Department of Education; our students always do well on this exam. For first time, the French consul will meet with the French IS students on January 11 during homeroom. The Geography Bee is January 13 and 14. On January 15, we will hold career day for eighth-graders and kick-it-up for seventh-graders. School is out for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on January 18. The Perfect 6 club continues and this year we are adding a writing rally on January 19, 20, 21, and 25 during homeroom. January 21 marks the end of second marking period and the beginning of crunch time to prepare for the FCAT. At Carver we do this all year. January 22 is a teacher planning day and also the breakfast for the Teachers of the Year from Region III. Our teacher of the year is Mrs. Carmen Gomez and the PTSA has sponsored a table at the breakfast. The regional science fair is on January 23 at Miami-Dade North Campus. We were limited to 12 entrants even though many more met high standards. PTSA spring casual pictures are January 26 and 27. Early release is January 28, and the Spelling Bee is January 29. Mid-term exams were very successful, as kids were quiet and concentration was high; a few students need to make up tests but the number is minimal.

Official Business: Mrs. Robledo introduced our newest EESAC member, Melissa Nobles. A former Carver student, Ms. Nobles works for a public relations agency that represents the Coconut Grove Business Improvement District. She explained that she was at Carver to promote a recent Snow Days event, when she spoke with Mrs. Robledo and was invited to join EESAC. Mrs. Robledo said she also made an excellent presentation for her students. Mrs. Stroleny explained that the committee needs to approve a waiver on our EESAC constitution to increase the number of business community representatives to three. The committee approved the waiver to add Ms. Nobles and Mr. Tom Kernan. Mrs. Annie Baker will continue as our other business community representative.

Mrs. Stroleny gave an update on the fall interim assessment data. In reading, 90 percent of Grade 6 students scored at or above mastery, an increase from 51 percent on the District Baseline Assessment. The average performance increased from 68 percent on the District Baseline Assessment to 79 percent on the Fall Interim examination. Overall, the Comparison and Cause / Effect cluster was an area of strength and the Main Idea, Plot and Purpose cluster was an area of weakness as documented by the Fall Interim examination. In Grade 7, 95 percent scored at or above mastery, compared to 77 percent on the District Baseline Assessment. The average performance increased from 77 percent on the District Baseline Assessment to 81 percent on the Fall Interim examination. The Words and Phrases in Context and Research and Reference clusters were areas of strength and the Main Idea, Plot and Purpose cluster was an area of weakness as documented by the Fall Interim examination. The Main Idea, Plot and Purpose cluster was a strength on the Baseline examination. In Grade 8, 93 percent of students scored at or above mastery compared to 48 percent on the District Baseline Assessment. The average performance increased from 69 percent on the District Baseline Assessment to 81 percent on the Fall Interim examination. Overall, the Comparison and Cause / Effect cluster was an area of strength and the Words and Phrases in Context cluster was an area of strength. The Words and Phrases in Context cluster was a strength on the Baseline examination. In mathematics, 82 percent of grade 6 students scored at or above mastery compared to 36 percent on the District Baseline Assessment. The Average Performance increased from 63 percent on District Baseline Assessment to 70 percent on the Fall Interim examination. Overall, the Data Analysis and Probability cluster was an area of strength and the Number Sense, Concepts and Operations was an area of weakness as documented by the Fall Interim examination. These results are similar to the Baseline data. In grade 7, 93 percent scored at or above mastery compared to 19 percent on the District Baseline Assessment. The average performance increased from 57 percent on the District Baseline Assessment to 71 percent on the Fall Interim examination. Overall, the Number Sense, Concepts and Operations and Data Analysis and Probability clusters were areas of strength and the Measurement cluster was an area of weakness as documented by the Fall Interim examination. These results are similar to the Baseline data. In grade 8, 98 percent scored at or above mastery compared to 39 percent on the District Baseline Assessment to 98% on Fall Interim examination. The average performance increased from 66 percent on District Baseline Assessment to 80 percent on the Fall Interim examination. Overall, the Number Sense, Concepts and Operations and Data Analysis and Probability clusters were areas of strength and the Geometry and Spatial Sense cluster was an area of weakness as documented by the Fall Interim examination. These results are similar to the Baseline data. In Science, 79 percent of grade 7 students scored at or above mastery on the District Baseline Assessment with an average performance of 74 percent. Overall, the Scientific Thinking cluster was an area of strength and Physical and chemical cluster was an area of weakness. In grade 8, 80 percent of students scored at or above mastery compared to 39 percent on the District Baseline Assessment. The average Performance increased from 64% on District Baseline Assessment to 69% on Fall Interim examination. Overall, the Life and environmental and Scientific Thinking clusters were areas of strength and the Physical and Chemical cluster was an area of weakness as documented by the Fall Interim examination. These results are similar to the Baseline data. In grade 8, 86.2 percent of students scored 4.0 or above on the Baseline Assessment with an average performance of 4.3. In 2009, 52 students of 289 wrote perfect 6 papers; in 2008, 58 students of 277 wrote perfect 6 papers; and in 2007, 20 out of 307 scored perfect 6. Last year 60 received 5.5. That means that one reader gave the paper a 5 and the other reader gave the paper a 6. In 2008, 47 earned a 5.5. Now we are doing the January assessments and will have results at the next meeting. Student council members start today going to eighth-grade homerooms to give informative talks about getting a perfect 6. We are very excited about the writing rally where we will bring three homerooms at a time into the gym, moving from one station to another. Mrs. Gonzalez added that mathmatics data showed sixth-graders scored very low at start of year. We do not have specific feeder schools, but draw students from the entire district, so the proficiency levels vary greatly. However, sixth-grade math teachers help to equalize. These assessments show this growth, especially in sixth-grade math. Mr. Sarkar said students do not take the District assessments as seriously as they should, because they have no bearing. Mr. Sarkar said he wished teachers would use assessments as grades. Mrs. Stroleny said teachers count the grade as appropriate. Mrs. Gonzalez agreed that the assessment and nervousness is not comparable to the real FCAT but the growth shows that students are taking these exams seriously. Mrs. Stroleny said students do not bubble as well as they should and this is shown on these assessments.

Open Forum: Mrs. Gramling gave an update on the Fairchild Challenge. After four options, we have achieved 594 points. We scored honorable mention on Option 1 and will be one of two middle schools performing this Friday night at the Everglades Coalition. We received two honorable mentions on both Options 2 and 3. We had three creative writing entrants on Option 4 and one received a perfect score. Mrs. Dawson asked if jeans would be permissible on Wednesday because of the cold weather and Mrs. Gonzalez said jeans are only permitted on the last Friday on each month. Mrs. Daniels informed that the girls’ volleyball team was south runners-up and received many compliments for their skill and sportsmanship. Boys and girls track meets are ongoing.

Adjournment: Mrs. Robledo adjourned the meeting at 8:57 a.m.