Fabulous Start to the School Year!
450 students (from 357 families) started the school year this week at Randolph! We’re off on our learning journey!
Enrollment by grade is:
Kindergarten = 68
First = 60
Second= 95
Third = 75
Fourth = 78
Fifth = 75
Traffic Reminders:
There is NO PARKING along D Street at arrival time.
D Street, one way to the west (uphill), is a “Drop and Drive” or “Kiss & Drive” area only.
New Staff at Randolph:
2nd grade: Nicole Biles
3rd grade: McKenzie Flanagan
4th grade: Bethany Wood
Social Worker: Carol Crum
Psychologist: Jesse Lichtenberg
Secured Entry Monitor: Jennifer Wick
Para educator: Victoria Hessheimer (starts next week)
Back Pack Food Program at Randolph
Every Friday, students of families who qualify for free/reduced lunch can take home a bag of food for the weekend. This is a project of LPS and the Food Bank of Lincoln. Randolph is allotted 50 food backpacks each week of the school year. So far, only 15 families have signed up. If your family qualifies for free/reduced lunch, please call the office (Tami, 436-1163) and ask to be added to the list!
Love and Logic Moment:
Transition to School
As school starts, children will be expected to follow the time-honored procedures and routines of school. As parents, what can we do to up the odds that our children will easily transition from the relatively unstructured days of summer to the more demanding experience of school life?
- Avoid over-entertaining your kids during the late summer months. It’s good to have plenty of fun, but your children shouldn’t be so addicted to excitement that they go into shock when they have to sit quietly in a classroom.
- Maintain routines such as set family meal times and chores.
- Limit television, video games, and other highly stimulating electronic entertainment.
- Expect them to spend at least thirty minutes learning each day, by reading, writing stories, creating science projects, etc.
- Expect your older children and teens to do odd jobs around the neighborhood, get appropriate employment, or volunteer to help others in need.
- Establish the same expectations for behavior at home as they will face at school.
These guidelines should help with easing back into the school year. For tips on helping with homework, listen to the audio, Winning the Homework Battle,
Thanks for reading! Our goal is to help as many families as possible. If this is a benefit, forward it to a friend. Dr. Charles Fay
LPS Test Scores
A few quick highlights:
- Science: This is the second year LPS students took the science exams and LPS saw significant gains and improvement at all levels compared to last year: elementary, middle and high schools.
- Math: In all grades the percent of LPS students proficient in math exceeded the state average. In grades 3, 7, 8 and 11 – the percent of LPS students proficient in math was at an all-time high, while the percent of students proficient in math in grades 4, 5 and 6 remained relatively stable.
- Reading: The percent of students meeting reading standards was consistently higher than the state average at all levels but grade 11 (with improvement at four of the six high schools). The average performance across grade levels improved from the previous year in all levels but grade 4 (which held steady).
Overall this past year, LPS teachers used what are called “district common assessments” – assessments used throughout the school year to identify student strengths and problem areas. High school principals emphasized the importance of the NeSA tests, as high school students don’t always see a link between NeSA and relevance to school success.
In science, teachers made sure students saw the connections between concepts learned, worked on realigning the curriculum, used targeted re-teaching of content and emphasized science vocabulary at each grade level.
In math, two groups were targeted:
- In third grade, teachers added daily homework and remembering activities – and teachers were provided with extensive lesson plan support. In grade 3, the percent of LPS students proficient in math increased from 76 to 83 percent.
- In high school, district common assessments identified areas of student challenges – then followed up with targeted re-teaching. In grade 11, the percent of LPS students proficient in math went from 55 to 59 percent. High school proficiency for high school juniors enrolled in advanced algebra or beyond – increased from 71 to 84 percent.
In reading, LPS continued to look at how curricular areas aligned in elementary and middle school grades, as well as increasing emphasis on non-fiction and depth of knowledge. High school teachers worked with students to make the NeSA assessment more meaningful – and coaches worked with teachers to improve instruction.
For the full story go to: http://www.lps.org/post/detail.cfm?id=7537
Save the date for International Walk to School Day
No matter where you live, there are many reasons why it’s a good idea for kids to walk and bike to school. As little as 10 to 15 minutes of activity each day can improve a child’s health, circulation, and concentration.
On October 9, join us for International Walk to School Day, a global celebration of the many benefits of walking and biking. As part of your registration, Safe Routes Nebraska will send you a free toolkit with planning and incentive items for your event*. And, if you register before September 23, you’ll also be entered to win ten free bike helmets to give away at your event.
Randolph has been chosen as a feature school for Walk to School Day! Watch for more information about fun to come!
Lincoln High Cheerleading Announces
a “Mini Cheer Clinic and Performance”
August 30 at 4:00 p.m. at Lincoln High for boys and girls ages 5-12. The performance will be at 6:45 that same day before the high school football game.
Registration forms are in the Randolph office, or you can contact Mary Stahly at lincolnhighcheer@hotmail.com The cost is $20 per student.
LPS Emergency Pantry
Location: 300 South 48th Street
(Bryan Community School at Hawthorne)
Door #12- South Side
Pantry hours: M-W-F 3:00pm-5:30pm
-Pantry is open to LPS families ONLY.
-Families will sign in and list child’s school and number in their family.
–Bring a picture ID.
-No additional paperwork needed.
-Families are asked to visit the pantry no more than twice a month.
-The pantry will be closed when LPS is closed.
(Updated 8/13)
Know someone not getting Randolph School emails?
Go to the LPS website, select elementary schools, select Randolph, select Principal’s Page under “Pages of Interest” in the lower right corner. Phew! All that clicking will take you (or a friend) to a list of all the school news emailed to families.
Randolph’s web page is:
Make This Your Staff’s Best Parent Involvement Year Ever
By John Wherry
Communicator
August 2013, Volume 36, Issue 12
There are three truths about parent involvement that principals and teachers should keep in mind when working with parents. The purpose of parent involvement is to improve student achievement. That may sound obvious and simplistic, but success in any endeavor requires a clear focus on what you’re trying to achieve. While parent involvement offers many benefits to parents, students, and schools, the most important purpose must always be improving student achievement.
The purpose of maintaining good relationships with parents must be to encourage them to become and stay directly involved in helping their children learn. Many common activities, such as getting parent volunteers to help in the classroom, serve as field trip chaperones, or spearhead fundraising activities are only remotely related to building student achievement. Their impact pales in comparison to helping parents:
- Understand what their children are learning and doing in class and reinforce those things at home;
- Participate in family math, science, and reading nights at school; and
- Use materials to help motive their children to study more effectively or to learn how to tap into children’s interests to find things they will want to read.
Active outreach by teachers to parents can dramatically improve student achievement. A 2001 longitudinal study of standards-based reform practices conducted by Westat and Policy Studies Associates for the U.S. Department of Education tracked reading and mathematics achievement among students in 71 elementary schools as they progressed from third to fifth grade. The study found that in schools where teachers reported high levels of outreach to parents of low-achieving students, reading test scores grew at a rate 50 percent higher and math test scores at a rate 40 percent higher than in schools where teachers reported low levels of outreach. Successful outreach was defined simply as teachers being especially active in meeting face to face with parents, sending parents materials on ways to help their child at home, and contacting parents routinely and when their child was having problems.
Educators must overcome barriers that prevent parents from getting involved. Parent Institute studies find that the most frequent barriers include:
- Parents who do not feel that the school invites, welcomes, or encourages their involvement;
- Parents who do not believe they have the ability to help their child do better in school;
- Schools that do not provide practical advice to parents about what they can do to help children learn;
- Schools that fail to alert parents as soon as children begin to have problems;
- Lack of true, two-way, respectful partnership communication between parents and school personnel; and
- Parents who feel intimidated by and don’t trust the school.
Now is the best time of the year to brainstorm with your staff to develop plans at your school to overcome the common barriers that prevent parents from getting involved.
CALENDAR
August 19-23 Regular School Hours Begin 8:55-3:38
August 20 Band lessons begin
August 22 PTA Skate Night 6-8:00 p.m. at Skate Zone
August 26 GET meets 8:10 in library
August 27 PLC Early Dismissal 2:18
August 27 Scout Recruiting Night 6:30-8:30
August 28 BIST Consult Day “First 15”
August 28 Grade 5 to the Saltdogs’ baseball game
August 28 Expressive Arts Team meets with Safe Walk to
School organizers for October 8th celebration 4:00-4:30 in library
August 28 Recruiting America Reads/Counts students @ UNL 4:00-6:00
August 29 First instructional conferences: Dr. B. with teachers in grades 4, K, 1 in p.m.
August 29 Club Choice Fundraiser Kick off
August 30 First instructional conferences: Dr. B. with teachers in grades 5, 2, 3 in a.m.
Sept. 2 NO SCHOOL Labor Day
Sept. 3 PTA 6:30 p.m.
Walking path ribbon cutting celebration!
Sept. 5 Randolph Night at HyVee (84th Street) 4-8 p.m.
Sept. 5 4W writing/walking club starts 3:45-4:30
Sept. 6 Elders’ Day!
Sept. 6 BIST teaching #1 due
October 8 Full band practice begins 8:15 (use door #3 for entry)