July 7, 1997
Volume 4, No. 1
by Terry Cook and Ron Goldfarb
Summit's inaugural graduation, under the careful direction of Principal Kirk Adams, proceeded in near splendor on Friday, June 6, in the Fairview High School auditorium. The cast of speakers included retiring Superintendent Lydia Swize, Board of Education President Stephanie Hult, and Summit's own eighth graders Alix Oreck and David Shams.
The two students gave messages that reminded those assembled of the key ingredients which make the Summit experience so special. Alix spoke of the positive attitudes prevalent in the student body, the friendships that transcend ages and grade levels, and the courage each student possessed to leave their friends and swim in uncharted waters at Summit. Paraphrasing a classic line from Forrest Gump, David said, "Life at Summit is like a box of Godiva chocolates: you may not know exactly what you are going to get, but you can be sure that it will be the best."
Reflecting on the work students have put in all year and the ceremonies in their honor, Alix said, to spirited applause, "We all worked so hard! We all deserve everything we are getting today!" Alix could not have anticipated the tornado that touched down in Boulder County within an hour of her speech. We think the tornado may be an omen of future events as graduating Summit students move on to high school.
The Summit administrative office is closed for the month of July. Course registration forms and other mail may be sent to P.O. Box 3125, Boulder, CO 80307. Mail sent to our street address will be forwarded automatically to our post office box during July. The Summit office will reopen August 4.
Foreign language course levels at Summit have been revised for 1997-98. Previous levels I, II and III have been renamed Beginning, I and II. Each class will correspond to two thirds of a high-school year of foreign language. Thus, a student who completes three years at Summit will have taken the equivalent of two full years of high-school foreign language.
Due to the transition, we will offer some special foreign language classes in 1997-98 only. Recommendations made in the spring for French and German already included transitional classes. We made the following two changes in Spanish: (1) Students who were enrolled in Introductory Spanish in 1996-97 will continue in a special section of Spanish. (2) We will offer Spanish III Hybrid at Summit, instead of Fairview, for students who were in Spanish II and for a group of students who were in Spanish Hybrid in 1996-97.
The Summit Board of Directors presented its first annual Outstanding Teacher Award to science teacher Dr. Sharon Sikora during graduation and award ceremonies on June 6. The award consists of a plaque and $500. A companion plaque is displayed in the Summit administrative office.
The Board established the award to recognize a teacher who exemplifies qualities valued at Summit: love of learning, hard work, knowledge of subject matter, exceptional teaching skill, dedication to students, and inspiration for students. The Board considers quality of teaching in relation to number of years of teaching experience.
The recipient is selected by the Board in executive session at the end of the academic year. To qualify, a teacher must have been employed at least half-time at Summit for at least one semester. Two intervening years must elapse before a teacher can receive the award again. (Dr. Sikora will be eligible again in 2000!)
In a touching, extemporaneous acceptance speech, Dr. Sikora said, "Thank you for letting me teach!" Dr. Sikora has recently received alternative teacher certification from the Colorado Board of Education.
Summit students are required to take one semester of Health during their middle school years, unless waived by parents in writing.
Summit students are supposed to take a Physical Education elective every semester. Parents may exempt their students by sending a letter to the school each semester stating that their students are engaged in adequate exercise on a regular basis (e.g., year-round swim team) outside of school.
State law requires all incoming seventh graders to have had their second MMR shot and the Hepatitis B series before starting school next fall. The Hepatitis B series requires three separate shots over a period of four to six months.
Vaccines are available from your regular doctor and from the Boulder County Health Department. The Health Department holds weekly clinics; details can be obtained by calling 441-1160 (Boulder), 678-6171 (Longmont) or 666-0515 (Lafayette).
Immunization information was mailed to parents with fall registration materials. Further information and exemption cards may be obtained from the office.
. . . Summer activities, school calendar, daily bell schedule.
Based on recommendations of the Principal Search Committee and interviews with finalists, the Summit Board of Directors has signed a contract with Dr. Boyd Dressler to be Summit's next principal.
Dr. Dressler has been active in education for 32 years. He has a B.S. in English and Social Studies, an M.A. in Education with a concentration in school administration and personnel, and an Ed.D. in administration, supervision, and curriculum development, with a concentration in organization development. He taught English from 1965 to 1973. He was assistant principal at Erie Junior-Senor High School, 1973-75, and was principal there, 1975-79. He was also the principal at Niwot High School for one year.
Dr. Dressler was a federal programs consultant in the Special Projects Unit of the Colorado Department of Education (CDE), 1980-84. He was the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at CDE, 1984-89, and was the Education Advisor to Governor Roy Romer, 1989-90. In 1990-93, he was both Clinical Associate Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, College of Education, University of Northern Colorado (UNC), and vice-president for product development and training at Student Planner Program, Inc. He was Associate Director and State Facilitator for National Diffusion Network, 1992-96, engaging in outreach to Colorado superintendents and education leaders in curricular program awareness, staff development, and research program evaluation.
Dr. Dressler is currently Adjunct Professor at both UNC and University of Phoenix, teaching graduate level classes for prospective school administrators. He is also an Associate at the Tointon Institute for Educational Change, UNC, and Assistant Chair, Education Administration, Center for Distance Education, University of Phoenix.
Dr. Dressler wrote, "I see wonderful opportunities for young people in schools designed to meet their needs. Summit is one of those schools. After visiting Summit . . . I believe my experience and knowledge would enhance this burgeoning successful experience for its students."
When asked why he wanted to be Summit's principal, he wrote, "I have a continuing interest in quality education for all students. . . . This means attention to meeting the needs of each student in an environment that is truly built on trust and mutual respect. Those values are clearly part of the Summit Middle School experience. While I feel all students need to explore and discover the world, they need to do so (and in fact can only do so) with a set of basic skills and a knowledge set that helps them process the information they see and collect." He continued, "I am a fan of charter schools. I want to be part of the efforts to bring stability and viability to an emerging school while working in an environment that is exciting and unlimited."
We welcome Dr. Dressler and thank the parents, teachers, community members, and Board members who were part of the Search Committee, as well as the students who helped interview the candidates.
Beginning in the fall, our popular, erstwhile acting principal, Kirk Adams, will assume half-time duties of assistant principal, where he will be in charge of student discipline. He will also teach P.E. half time.
Individual CTBS Terra Nova score reports have been mailed to parents together with report cards. Although we expected that anticipated scores would be included, they will not be available until August. The reports give national percentile scores. For 7th graders, local percentiles are also given. "Local percentile" refers to a student's score vis-à-vis all other Boulder Valley 7th graders. Since Summit was the only Boulder Valley school to also administer the 6th- and 8th-grade CTBS, local percentiles are not provided.
Areas of relative deficiency for Summit students are math computation for 6th graders (median national percentile 64.6), language mechanics for 8th graders (73.5), and spelling for 8th graders (72.0). This fall, in addition to regular course work, the math teachers will be reviewing math computation skills — which include decimals, fractions, integers, percents, and order of operations — with last year's 6th graders.
The following is a table of 1997 7th-grade CTBS scores for all Boulder Valley middle schools obtained from the Boulder Valley Education Center. We give the "Total" scores — which is a composite of reading, language, and mathematics — for each school's own 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile students, along with the number of students tested.
| School | No. | 25th | 50th | 75th |
| Angevine | 242 | 22.5 | 41.1 | 64.0 |
| Base Line | 140 | 51.5 | 76.0 | 90.2 |
| Broomfield | 322 | 35.8 | 60.4 | 79.2 |
| Burbank | 124 | 33.7 | 65.3 | 84.0 |
| Casey | 107 | 41.3 | 68.0 | 84.8 |
| Centennial | 169 | 55.4 | 74.6 | 87.2 |
| Horizons | 21 | 64.3 | 92.3 | 96.3 |
| Louisville | 257 | 44.1 | 72.7 | 87.2 |
| Nederland | 55 | 38.5 | 68.0 | 84.0 |
| Platt | 219 | 48.1 | 73.4 | 88.2 |
| Southern Hills | 128 | 57.4 | 75.0 | 92.6 |
| Summit | 107 | 80.7 | 92.8 | 97.4 |
| District | 1891 | 42.4 | 69.1 | 86.6 |
The spread in Summit scores (75th minus 25th percentile) is 16.7, whereas it is 44.2 for the district.
We cannot tell from the above data alone whether Summit has added significant value to students' education. The anticipated difference scores, when available, will provide some indication. However, for highly capable students, anticipated difference scores are not likely to be very positive. For example, a student with an anticipated score of 99 cannot have a positive difference score.
A better way to gauge value added with standardized tests is by tracking each student's national percentile scores from year to year. Summit is currently the only public school in Boulder Valley that plans to do just that. However, measuring progress for students scoring above about 90 can be very imprecise. Considering this year's CTBS scores, we will be investigating alternative tests that might be more suited to our student population.