MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL
Dear Atkinson Parents,
We are in the final 6 weeks of school! Every day is a learning day, so please keep sending your healthy child to school.
This Wednesday we issued our first round of Cheetah Awards. The Cheetah Award goes to the class with the highest percentage of students with acceptable attendance. “Acceptable” is defined by the Oregon Department of Education as an attendance rate at or above 90%. Below you will see photos of the winners:
Grades K–2
- Gold: Mrs. S
- Silver: Maestro Omar
- Bronze: Ms. Bitzer
- Gold: Maestra McArthur
- Silver: Ms. Mady
- Bronze: Maestra Schwing
We will be hitting the reset button and reissuing the awards in 3 weeks.
Our attendance interventions for students who are performing below grade level AND have chronic or severe absences has been yielding results! 70% of students participating in this program have improved their attendance and 10 of the 23 students have increased their attendance to an “acceptable” or “good” rating.
Another encouraging data point can be found in our math assessment data. According to the iReady Diagnostic assessment of math, we started the year with 31% of students on grade level. We are now at 70% of students on grade level and 76% of our students either hit grade level or met their personalized growth target. I am so proud of our students and teachers, and I’m confident that by the end of the school year, more of our students will be reaching one of these target benchmarks.
Lastly, I’m also very happy to report that despite all the interruptions to our schedules this year, teachers are on route to teach all the units for the year in both language arts and math. Teaching all the units in a scope and sequence has been demonstrated to really make a difference for student learning.
“One of the most powerful things a school can do to help enhance student achievement is to guarantee that specific content is taught in specific courses and grade levels.” — DuFour and Marzano, 2011, p. 89
Our teachers have been working diligently to plan for student learning, thoughtfully adjusting their learning schedules to ensure that students receive the entire curriculum. We are seeing measurable results.
Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week. There are so many reasons to say thank you to school staff. I encourage you to make time in your schedule to send a positive email of appreciation. I can’t tell you how much that means to our staff. Just a few minutes of your time can make a huge difference. Gratitude is free and priceless!
Have a great weekend,
Debbie Armendariz
Principal
Atkinson Elementary School
Reference:
DuFour, R., & Marzano, R. J. (2011). Leaders of learning: How district, school, and classroom leaders improve student learning. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
DÍA DE LOS NIÑOS: THANK YOU!
Our Día de los Niños event was a huge success! Thank you to our 50 Atkinson volunteers that helped make it such an amazing event for our kids. And a very special thank you to these organizations that also contributed to making it such a special night!
- Baxter Sports
- ¿Por Qué No? Taqueria
- Multnomah County Library
Echo Theater Company
Tight Tacos
OMSI
Vitalidad Movement Center (VMAC)