Community Newsletter

Saturday, February 20, 1999

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Announcements…

State Testing

Week of 3/2

Each year the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) conducts a statewide assessment known as "The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)" in all public schools. We are eager to participate in this testing program, as it will give us an indication of the progress CLC students are making in comparison to students in other public schools in the state. The PSSA is an example of a "standardized" assessment that is used to assess learning for all students. That means that the conditions under which the tests are given are controlled in each school, so that comparisons can be made.

The PSSA is scheduled by each school district to take place sometime between mid-February and mid-March. The CLC will be conducting its testing on the week of March 2. Fifth grade students will be tested in reading and math, and 6^th grade students will be tested in writing. (That’s the State’s decision, not ours at CLC.) The 5^th grade testing will take approximately 3 hours, and the 6^th grade testing will take two 40-minute periods. The tests are submitted to the state and scored by panels of trained professionals.

While it is possible for a parent to have a child excluded from the testing program by sending a letter stating a justification to the building Principal (Kyle at CLC), we hope that few or no parents at CLC will make such a request, as we believe that the tests will produce useful data for all of our CLC students.

Sometimes students forget their lunch. It happens. But that doesn’t mean that they should SKIP lunch, or that they should call parents to bring them lunch. Patricia and Charles Ryan have developed an "inventory" of lunch food here at the CLC. If your child forgets lunch, he or she can eat from the groceries on hand, and then replace them. Charles Ryan will be in charge of monitoring the inventory, and will notify parents if a child forgets to restock the inventory. Thanks, Ryans, for providing this service.

Congratulations to Brittany Beard, Steven Cieply, Donnee Gordon, and Adam Lehman, the co-authors of a successful grant proposal that will bring $15,000 of new equipment, software, and opportunities for CLC students.

Their proposal, "Sharing Central Pennsylvania," described how CLC students would prepare websites and lesson plans for teachers and students in other schools to use. The websites and lesson plans will be about:

• The Grange Fair
• The Origin of Memorial Day and the Boalsburg Cemetery
• The Penn State Mineral Museum and Caves of Central PA
• The Boal Mansion and Columbus Chapel
• The Boalsburg Military Museum
• Edgar Allen Poe and his connection to Pennsylvania, and
• Selected documents from the Penn State Rare Documents Room.

The process began with a trip to Harrisburg to attend a grant writer’s workshop, which was followed by a few weeks of writing and a few months of waiting to hear the results. Now the fun begins! CLC teachers will form groups of students who will begin the research, conduct site visits, develop artwork, take photographs, write, and conduct other valuable activities as part of the CLC school experience.

Tom Houston, the new CLC Spanish teacher, will begin his weekly visits the first week of March.

Next time you’re passing through the CLC, stop by and see the budding work of the CLC Plant Club. Under the direction of Angie Volz, CLC students have been caring for the mature CLC plants, and have begun to plant seeds and care for their fragile new plants as well. It’s fun to see them develop &emdash;- the plants and the students!