First Semester Ends January 26th
Rest of the Week Includes Assessments, Presentations and Family Conferences
Our 2nd cycle and 1st Semester end on January 26th. The remainder of the
week (Jan. 27-30) is officially the State�s Regents Testing week. As
explained in an earlier issue of The Vox, LACS is one of a select number of
New York schools that has been granted a Regents testing waiver from the
State�s Department of Education�essentially allowing us to offer alternative
assessments to the battery of high school Regents exams. Our middle school
students are not exempt from any of the New York State standardized tests,
and our high school students are still required to take the ELA
(English/Language-Arts) Regents exam. Attendance for these required tests is
very important to our school, as we must demonstrate a minimum 95%
percentage of successful participation. If we don�t reach that percentage,
regardless of how students actually perform on the tests, the State and
Federal governments could cite LACS as a school in need of improvement. With
the enrollment in each of our grades 2 students being absent would pull us
below the necessary participation required. So, again please DO NOT SCHEDULE
family trips or other events during or on these testing dates.
Although spared from the bulk of these high stakes tests, the school still
uses the Regents weeks in January (and June) to conduct our own
teacher-generated assessments and final projects and presentations, as well
as allowing time for portfolio presentations, as well as scheduling
conferences and to go over evaluations with students and their families to
review progress and learning goals. On a practical front, what this will
mean for our students at both the middle and high school levels will be that
they do not have a regular schedule during these weeks in January and June,
but more likely will have some work assigned to do at home, and may also be
required to come into school for a scheduled assessment or presentation�as
well as their scheduling and evaluation review conference with their
parent-caregivers and Family Group Leader. Again, While this is not a
regular week of school, we ask that families do not schedule vacations
during this time.