New Town Public Schools
Key Terms and Vocabulary
21st Century Skills: Essential skills needed in today’s society to be productive in life, work and citizenship. These skills include: critical thinking and problem solving; collaboration and leadership; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurialism; effective oral and written communication; accessing and analyzing information, and curiosity and imagination.
504 Plan: A plan developed for a child who has a disability to receive accommodations that will ensure their academic success and access to the learning environment.
Academic Success: The outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or school has achieved their educational goals.
Academically Ready:Academic readiness requires districts to establish readiness at key grades of transition, so that intervention programs can be provided for students who do not meet established criteria. In New Town those key grades are kindergarten, third, fifth and eighth.
Academy of Math: An intensive, online intervention program for students struggling with math. This dynamic program used systemic instruction that begins with simple concepts and moves to more complex skills. Ongoing assessment and progress monitoring provide data to inform instruction and show students’ progress.
Academy of Reading:An intensive, online intervention program for struggling readers. This program instructs students in five critical areas of reading – Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension. Ongoing assessment and progress monitoring provide data to inform instruction and show students’ progress.
Accelerated Math: Accelerated Math helps teachers personalize math practice, differentiate instruction, monitor progress and make data-driven decisions to guide each student to success.
Accelerated Reader: Accelerated Reader (AR) is a tool for monitoring and managing independent reading practice. AR monitors student progress toward college and career readiness, personalizes and guides independent reading practice, develops lifelong readers and learners, and increases parental support with web-based, school to home communications.
ACT: A standardized college entrance exam.
Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP):Student’s annual progress toward proficiency established by test scores.
Advisor Mentorship Program: School staff are assigned to work with at-risk students who are struggling to stay in school. They provide academic and emotional support to these students.
Assessment (Formative): An assessment that allows teachers to gauge student learning and drive instruction. Formative assessments may or may not be graded.
Assessment (Summative): These assessments include the following: traditional chapter tests, quizzes, and projects, which carry more weight in a student’s grade than a formative assessment.
Assessment ( Pre and Post): Pre-assessments are given before a unit of study while post assessments are taken after a unit of study has been completed.
ASVAB: A multiple aptitude battery that measures developed abilities and helps predict future academic and occupational success. This assessment is used primarily by the US Military to determine if a high school student would be eligible to become a member of the Armed Forces.
At Grade Level: A student is performing academically at the grade level in which they are enrolled.
Benchmark: A performance objective that is used to evaluate student achievement.
BIT: Behavior Intervention Team
BLST: Building Level Support Team
Common Core State Standards: Standards are designed to be robust and relative in the real world reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers. The majority of states, including North Dakota, have adopted these standards, which put all states on an equal playing field for state testing.
Credit Recovery: Credit recovery classes are designed to assist students with recovering failed classes without repeating the class entirely. This will assist the students with catching up so that they can graduate on time.
Data Driving Instruction: A teacher’s use of the results from various student assessments to plan instruction. Research has shown this process to be an effective way to improve student achievement.
Grade Equivalent (GE): Norm referenced score that represents how a student’s test performance compares with other students nationally.
I Can Statements: Standards stated in a student friendly way for the purpose of tracking student learning and driving instruction.
ICU: The Power of ICU is a communication tool, a shared, school-wide document that tracks missing students’ assignments. Refusing to give zeroes is the foundations of this process.
Individual Education Plan (IEP): Educational plan developed by a team of educators along with the parents of a child with disabilities designed to guarantee equal educational opportunity for the child; specifies adaptive tools and techniques necessary for the child to learn.
Intervention Strategies: School staff used specific curriculum to improve the academic skills of students who are not on grade level.
Interventions:A designated time for re-teaching learning targets.
North Dakota State Assessment (NDSA): North Dakota’s Annual Standardized Test given at grades 3-8 and 11 in the areas of reading/language arts and Mathematics. Science is given at grades 4, 8, and 11. Student scores determine if they are on grade level based on state standards. Students scores also determine if the school makes Adequate Yearly Progress.
NWEA/MAP Testing (Northwest Evaluation Association/Measure of Academic Progress): Test that measures student growth from spring of one year to spring of the next year in the areas of Reading, Math, and Language Arts.
Path Driver: An online assessment system for a fast and accurate measure of student’s reading proficiency, and basic understanding of math.
PBS: Positive Behavior Support. A system designed to recognize students who behave in school.
Percentile: The percentage of test takers who scored at or below the national average. Example, if a student is in the 20th percentile they are performing better than 19% of students, but lower than 80% of students based on the national average.
Progress Monitoring: Scientifically based practice that is used to assess students’ academic performance and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction.
PowerSchool: Student information system that provides access to grades, attendance, and standards.
Project 2015: New Town School District’s Improvement Goals for student academic success to be fully implemented by the end of the 2014-2015 school year.
Read 180/System 44: Asystem for raising student achievement, designed for any student reading two or more years below grade level. Read 180 uses technology to individualize instruction for students and provide data for differentiation to teachers.
Researched Based:The use of scientific research as a way to improve education.
Response to Intervention (RTI): A system that our school uses to identify at-risk students ensuring that they receive appropriate behavioral or academic assistance as needed.
RIT Score (Rasch Unit): Individual subject score a student receives in the NWEA / MAP Test that teachers use to identify students’ areas of strength and weakness.
Seeds/SLDS: Statewide Longitudinal Data System. Data collected on students and schools to show developments, changes and growth over time.
Standardized Test:A test designed to measure specific knowledge. These tests are intended to measure the degree of learning.
Star Reading and Math: Computer adaptive assessments in reading and math aligned to Common Core State Standards and linked to state tests so that educators at all levels can individualize student instruction.
Standards Based Grading: Teachers report what students know and are able to do relative to Common Core State Standards.
Strategic Planning: Roadmap that guides the direction of our district that includes our mission, vision, goals, resources, and data that are shared with all stakeholders.
Tiered Interventions: Three level of instruction; Level 1 – Core Instruction, Level 2 – Group Interventions, Level 3 – Intensive Interventions
UbD: Understanding by Design is a framework for improving student achievement. UbD is a standards driven method for writing school curriculum based that helps teachers clarify learning goals, devise assessments and create effective and engaging learning activities.