Dear Middle School Parents & Students,

Today you will have received an email containing your child’s MAP test results and some basic information on how to interpret the results. Overall, the scores are representative of the expectations we have for our ICS students. Each year there are a few students whose Fall MAP test shows less growth than anticipated. There are a variety of factors that could cause this. One of the main reasons could be the changes and adjustments that come with a new school year. This is especially common for Grade 6 students who are just starting their middle school journey. The Fall MAP test gives us a baseline for this year and the Spring MAP test will show us how much growth has occurred over the course of this year. Whatever score your child received, please remember that their value and worth is not wrapped up in their academic success.

We also have Parent Teacher Conferences quickly approaching on October 23 & 24. The main parent signup will begin right after Fall break on October 12. I say “main signups” because there will be a smaller subset of parents of students who have been identified for an early signup date to ensure they have access to timeslots that work for them. We have run a few reports based on grades and learning behaviours to identify students who may be struggling a bit with grades, learning behaviours, or other aspects of their experience.

Like past years, it is impossible for every parent to meet with every teacher due to the number of students and the number of available meeting slots. We would need roughly 25 hours of conferences for each teacher to meet with each parent if the conferences were 10 minutes long. With this in mind, I do ask that parents book conferences where further discussion about learning will be beneficial. For most students, their learning is right on track and they are achieving consistent scores of 3s & 4s on their assessments. In these instances, we request that parents exercise judgement of whether a meeting is necessary or not. In addition, all of our teachers are willing and able to address questions you may have via email at any point along the way.