ICS Newsletter 6.13.14
UPCOMING EVENTS
AUGUST
11 – 15 – Back to School Sale (used uniforms, PE uniforms, lunch cards)
14 – Back to School Blessing and Orientation
18 – First day of School
SEPTEMBER
1 – No School – Labor Day
25 – ½ Day, Conferences
26 – ½ Day
OCTOBER
16 – No School; DOSP In-Service
17 – No School
31 – ½ Day of School
NOVEMBER
7 – ½ Day of School
24 – 28 – NO SCHOOL – Thanksgiving Break
DECEMBER
19 – ½ Day, Skating Party; NO AFTERCARE AVAILABLE
22 – 31 – NO SCHOOL – Christmas Break
JANUARY
1 – 2 – NO SCHOOL – Christmas Break, continued
5 – Classes resume
19 – NO SCHOOL – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
FEBRUARY
5 – NO School, DOSP In-service (*please note that this is a Thursday)
12 – ½ Day of School, Conferences
13 – ½ Day of School
16 – No School, President’s Day
27 – ½ Day of School
MARCH
2 – 13 – IOWA Assessment, Grades 2 – 8
20 – No School, DOSP In-service
APRIL
3 – ½ Day of School; Holy Thursday; NO AFTERCARE AVAILABLE
4 – 10 – Easter Break, No School
17 – ½ Day of School; Carnival; NO AFTERCARE AVAILABLE
18 – 19 – Carnival
20 – No School, Carnival Clean-up
MAY
8 – ½ Day of School
25 – NO SCHOOL – Memorial Day
JUNE
5 – ½ Day of School, Last Day of School; NO AFTERCARE AVAILABLE
***Please note that the above 2014 – 15 ICS Calendar is subject to change.***
PRAYER INTENTIONS
Let us pray in thanksgiving for the completion of an AMAZING 2013 - 14 school year. Thank you to our teachers for their hard work, the students for their efforts and parents for their support.
May God grant the ICS community and all families with a safe, relaxing and enjoyable summer!
Let us continue to pray for the following people:
-Sophia Castro
-Mario Mora
-Mireida Abad
-The Baker Family
Have a prayer intention? Send it to icsmzele@icstampa.org
CELEBRATING SUCCESSES
Congratulations once again to Mrs. Doyle and Mrs. Harris as they enter into their respective and much deserved retirements! We also wish Mrs. Glaum and Mr. DiCarlo the best as they move on to other endeavors as well.
Finally, let us continue to celebrate the ICS Class of 2014 as they prepare for high school. GO IRISH!
IOWA ASSESSMENT SCORES
Last week, we sent out information to families of students in grades 2 - 8 about their child's performance on the Iowa Assessment. See below for details about some of the types of data you will see on the various forms.
-National Percentile Ranking (NPR)
The familiar form includes your child's National Percentile Rankings for the various domains of the test. A National Percentile Ranking (NPR) is not the same thing as a letter grade or percentage score used in classroom settings. For example, a 65% on a science test administered by your child's classroom teacher is much different than scoring in the 65th National Percentile Ranking. Scoring a 65% on a classroom assignment means that your son/daughter only successfully got 65% of the items correct. A National Percentile Ranking of 65, though, means that your son/daughter scored better than 65% of the other students who took the same test at the same time. An average NPR score is around the 50th NPR. An NPR score of 50 would mean that your son/daughter is progressing at the typical pace of a student from that particular grade level.
-Grade Equivalent (GE)
One of the two new forms that we have decided to include this year involve a longitudinal view of your child's progress over the past three years (2nd graders will not have longitudinal data as this is the first year they took the test; 3rd graders will only have two years of data). This form will include both the NPR scores and a Grade Equivalent (GE) mark. A Grade Equivalent is a measure of your child's abilities in terms of grade level and month of the school year. So, for a 5th grader who receives a GE of 5.7 for a domain means that he/she scored like a student is in the seventh month of 5th grade. However, a 5th grader who receives a GE of 10.8 (the eighth month of sophomore year) should not be expected to jump from 5th to 10th grade. A GE score that is higher than the current grade level of your child (10.8 for a 5th grader) indicates that your son/daughter scored as well as a sophomore in the eighth month of school would have scored on the 5th grade exam. For this longitudinal form, look for an upward line (from left to right) and at least one GE growth for each point on the graph. A downward line may indicate the need for remediation.
-Percent Correct
The second of the two new forms shows the percent correct for each area on the test. This aligns with a traditional understanding of academic scores and is the closest to feedback received on classroom level assignments. Simply, this form will let you know how the percentage of items your child answered correctly for each domain of the test.
As was mentioned last week, ICS is almost finished with its Iowa Assessment Interpretation Video Series. Follow this link for where the videos will be posted: http://incarnationcsca.blogspot.com/?view=classic
GO. DO WHAT YOU BELIEVE AND BELIEVE IN WHAT YOU DO.
Today's quote focuses on the theme for the 2014 - 15 school year: "Go. Do what you believe and believe in what you do." It is the piece of Scripture that the Class of 2015 selected to coincide with the theme (Mark 16: 15 - 18).
May this new theme inspire us to GO into the new school year! GO IRISH!
SUMMER OFFICE HOURS
The ICS Office will be open over the summer should you have any questions, concerns or needs. Please adhere to the following schedule:
June 16 - 20: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
June 23 - 28: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
July 1 - 4: Office Closed
July 7 - 11: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
July 14 - 18: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
July 21 - 25: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
July 28 - August 1: 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
August 4 - 8: 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
August 11 - 15: 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
August 18: First day of school!
Should you need to conduct business outside of these times, please feel free to contact the Office and we will be happy to coordinate our schedule to coincide with yours! In this way, if you need the Office before 9:00 a.m. or after 1:00 p.m. please just let us know!
SCHOOL OFFICE MOVE
Due to the upcoming expansion of Webb Road, the current location of the School Office will move to the Hillsborough side of campus. We are in the process of renovating St. Brendan Room, the conference room at the front of St. Michael Hall. This change will take effect at some point over the summer. We will notify you to let you know we have officially moved!
Of course, any change brings with it many challenges and other changes. For this particular move, things like carline (drop-off and pick-up) will be affected. Stay tuned for more details about this change.
SYCAMORE TO REDIKER
Another change that will take place over the summer is a shift in our administrative software. Currently, we use Sycamore to handle our database of students, families, grades, attendance and other administrative pieces of information. As a way to streamline communications with the Diocese of St. Petersburg, most Catholic Schools have moved to using Rediker for their administrative software. Incarnation will be transitioning to Rediker for next school year.
This change will afford us the opportunity to more fully utilize this system to communicate internally and with families. Once again, there will be some residual changes that will result from this change - website addresses, login and password information, etc. Please trust, though, that ICS will walk you through every step of this transition and that it will be a huge benefit to our school community.
SUMMER
May you and your families have a restful, enjoyable and safe summer! See you next fall!
In keeping with our tradition, we at Incarnation Catholic School:
Inspire life-long learning,
Challenge each individual to be a disciple of Christ, and
Strive to live our Catholic faith through service to each other and the community.
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5111 Webb Rd. * Tampa, FL 33615 * Tel: 813.884.4502 * Fax: 813.885.3734 * www.icstampa.org
