Monthly Updates

May 2006 Uniontown Area School District With clipboards, stopwatches, and stickers in hand, our team administered and scored the DIBELS and MAZE assessments to all K-4 students in attendance during daily 3 hour periods throughout the first 3 ½ weeks of May. We would like to thank all principals and teachers for their flexibility and support during this process and thank all students for their heartwarming smiles and hard work. We enjoyed hearing lots of stories about their love of reading, favorite parts of school, summer vacation plans, and exciting fishing adventures—it was a pleasure! Despite some technology glitches with the data transfer, all data were entered into the AIMSWEB data management system. Many teachers enthusiastically asked to learn more about the assessments and anxiously asked for results. Dr. Zigmond and Project staff will analyze the results and compile performance reports to share with Dr. Machesky at a follow-up meeting in early July. Plans are in the works for subsequent July workshops to help teachers interpret, analyze, and use the results for instructional planning after the initial meeting with the superintendent. We were also excited to begin working with the Head Start/Early Head Start of Fayette County on implementing the pre-school components of Project MP3. Meetings with the Center’s directors and staff revealed their strong commitment to developing their students’ early language and literacy readiness skills in developmentally appropriate ways. All look forward to collaborating with Project staff and UASD teachers to improve the transition process to kindergarten. Kathy and I enjoyed spending time in 4 classrooms that typically “feed” in the participating UASD elementary schools. We look forward to visiting again in June to spend more time in classrooms and conduct the IGDI assessments on students going to kindergarten next year in the 3 Project schools. Discussions and brainstorming sessions for worthwhile summer professional development for Head Start staff are also on the agenda for upcoming weeks. The rest of the May was spent developing and planning summer professional development opportunities for UASD teachers and administrators with our PaTTAN consultants. Initial plans included five summer workshops focusing on themes of interest identified by teachers including but not limited to: literacy instruction with diverse learners, interpreting and analyzing assessment data, developing effective instructional interventions and grouping procedures, and effective behavior and classroom management. We also look forward to working closely with the faculty and staff of Lafayette and the Iowa Kindergarten Center to plan for effective implementation of Project MP3 in their classrooms. Finally, we would like to thank Debbie Rittenhouse (UASD Curriculum Coordinator and Iowa Kindergarten Center Principal) and her staff for inviting us to attend the kindergarten graduation. We really enjoyed ourselves—congratulations to you and your students! Amanda Kloo - Project Coordinator, University of Pittsburgh Back to Monthly Updates Main Page