August 21, 1998
Volume 6, No. 1
Aug. 27: First day of school for 6th graders only
Aug. 28: First day of school, beginning of 1st semester
Aug. 29: Fun Night - East Boulder Recreation Center, 8:00-12:00 PM
Sep. 7: Labor Day, no school
Sep. 10: Back to School Night, 6:30-8:30 PM
Sep. 15: School Photo day (tentative)
Sep. 16: Meet & Mingle, George Reynolds Branch Library, 7:00 - 8:30
PM
Oct. 12: Summit Charter Day, no school
Oct. 13: School tours for prospective students, 8:10 AM
Oct. 13-16: Talent show tryouts
Oct. 22: Summit concert
Oct. 30: All-campus dance, 3:15-5:00 PM, sponsored by Southern Hills
Nov. 3: End of 1st quarter grading period
Summit will provide lunch to 6th graders on Thursday, August 27. All students should bring sack lunches to school on Friday, August 28. Normal cafeteria service begins on August 31.
School begins at 8:10 AM. Class periods are 48 minutes each. Four minutes are allowed for passing. Lunch is 30 minutes; it does not overlap Southern Hills’ lunch periods. Summit has a mandatory 20-minute study period after 7th period.
Note that there is no passing time between 7th and Study periods. Students remain in their 7th-period classrooms, except for students meeting with teachers for scheduled conferences and help sessions.
Teachers will inform students of the school supplies they need once classes have started. Because of the individualized class schedules at Summit, it is not practical to list supplies in the newsletter for all students. It is likely that most students will need two three-ring, two-inch binders, paper, and pencils.
All Summit students are invited for an evening of fun at the East Boulder Recreation Center, 5660 Sioux Drive, on Saturday, August 29, from 8:00 to 12:00 PM. We are renting the whole place and will have pizza and soft drinks, dancing, the swimming pool, games, basketball, and more! We are hoping to also offer the climbing wall as an optional activity. We expect the cost per student to be $8 or $9 (paid at the door). Anyone needing a scholarship for this event should request one in the Summit office.
Ms. Grove and some teachers will be on hand. Parents and teachers who chaperone will get in free. We need a ratio of chaperones to students of 1:10. To volunteer for chaperoning, or if you have any questions, please call Jeff Bradley, 303-499-4275 or Barbry Hogue, 303-665-3798. You will have a lot of fun, meet new people, and not embarrass your student!
No students can be admitted without a Summit permission slip. A permission slip will be included in the packet of papers sent home on the first day of school. They will also be available at the Recreation Center on Saturday. If you drop off someone else's children, make sure they have permission slips with them, signed by one of their parents.
This event is for Summit students only; sorry, no siblings, friends, or pets. Once signed in, students can leave Fun Night only accompanied by a parent or designated adult. Bring: bathing suit, towel, money for extra snacks. Do not bring: electronic items or any valuables.
Incoming sixth-grade parents: This is an excellent opportunity to meet other Summit parents. There will be a designated place for parents to socialize. See you there!
The Fall '98 student schedules have been carefully balanced to minimize course conflicts and ensure small class sizes. Thus, requests for schedule changes are strongly discouraged. It important, however, that students are appropriately placed in their core academic subjects, and occasionally, scheduling mistakes occur. If you feel that your student is not correctly placed, a request for a schedule change must be made in writing, signed by a parent, and submitted to the counseling office. For core course changes, the signature of the current core subject teacher must also be obtained. Schedule change request forms are available in the Summit office. If there is a problem with the requested change, Mrs. Bartley, the counselor, will get back to you.
If you would like any information withheld from the 1998-99 student directory, or if you would like your e-mail address included, please send a note to the office via student courier, fax (303-499-0215), or post.
Summit’s Back-to-School Night for parents will be held on Thursday, September 10, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM. This will be a time to meet the staff and especially your student’s teachers. A short opening session in the auditorium will be followed by informative meetings with teachers. We look forward to seeing you there.
Please try to carpool to and from school, or take the bus, ride a bike, or walk. Each student who arrives or leaves in a single-passenger vehicle adds to the congestion around the campus. This congestion is both dangerous and an annoyance to the neighbors.
Please mark your calendar for the first Meet-&-Mingle occasion of the year. This is the first of a series of regular monthly gatherings of parents for conversation and interaction with other parents, various teachers, and various board members. Plan to join us on Wednesday, September 16, in the meeting room at the George Reynolds Branch Library, located at the corner of Table Mesa Drive and Stanford Avenue. Drop by any time between 7:00 PM and 8:30 PM for refreshments and conversation about Summit. All Summit parents are invited, and we look forward to seeing you there. We especially welcome parents new to Summit.
The Parent Volunteer Connection (PVC) welcomes the Summit community for the 1998-99 school year. We are enthusiastic about putting the myriad skills of our Summit community families to work for our teachers, staff and students. Each and every volunteer makes a difference, and we hope to involve as many Summit parents as possible on our team of volunteers in the coming months. We need and value your volunteer time and energy.
On the first day of school, your student will be bringing home your very own copy of the 1998-99 parent volunteer survey form. Please take the time to fill it out as completely as possible and return the form to school promptly.
If you would like to talk about your ideas for volunteering at Summit, please call Barbry Hogue, 303-665-3798.
The Summit Board of Directors will meet at 7:00 PM on September 8 and 21 in the staff workroom. Parents are invited to attend, as always.
All athletes are required to submit to the office a sports physical report, a parent permission form, and an athletic insurance waiver form.
Interscholastic Sports (8th grade only):
Football, Aug. 31 - Oct. 19
Participation Fee: $50 per sport or a maximum or $150 per student; $200 per family in one year.
Extramural Sports (6th, 7th, and 8th grades):
Participation fee: $30 per sport.
Intramural Sports:
Participation fee: $10 per sport.
Below is a table of 1998 7th-grade TerraNova CTBS scores for all Boulder Valley middle schools. “Total” scores — which are a composite of reading, language, and mathematics — are shown for each school’s own 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile students, along with the number of students tested. Actual (“Act.”), anticipated (“Ant.”), and difference (“Dif.”) scores are given for each school’s 50th percentile (median).
School |
No. |
25th |
50th |
75th |
||
Act. |
Act. |
Ant. |
Dif. |
Act. |
||
| Angevine | 209 |
23.9 | 50.7 | 51.0 | -0.3 |
78.1 |
| Base Line | 125 |
47.5 | 82.4 | 70.9 | 11.5 |
91.6 |
| Broomfield | 298 |
42.9 | 66.0 | 65.3 | 0.7 |
83.6 |
| Burbank | 112 |
55.4 | 76.7 | 71.8 | 4.9 |
88.2 |
| Casey | 129 |
24.8 | 56.4 | 59.5 | -3.1 |
84.3 |
| Centennial | 203 |
55.1 | 80.2 | 70.3 | 9.9 |
89.4 |
| Horizons | 24 |
69.3 | 82.3 | 78.8 | 3.5 |
94.3 |
| Louisville | 188 |
53.3 | 73.8 | 65.0 | 8.8 |
85.8 |
| Monarch | 163 |
42.4 | 62.4 | 66.8 | -4.4 |
77.8 |
| Nederland | 69 |
54.2 | 67.5 | 63.7 | 3.8 |
85.6 |
| Platt | 208 |
55.3 | 75.0 | 69.2 | 5.8 |
87.8 |
| Southern Hills | 107 |
52.2 | 74.8 | 73.0 | 1.8 |
88.2 |
| Summit | 96 |
81.6 | 91.6 | 86.8 | 4.8 |
96.0 |
| District | 1931 |
47.2 | 71.4 | 68.3 | 3.1 |
87.2 |
The spread in Summit scores (75th minus 25th percentiles) is 14.4, whereas it is 40.0 for the district. Summit compares very favorably with the district in terms of spread, actual scores, and positive difference. Compared to 1997 CTBS scores, Summit declined slightly in terms of actual scores at the 50th and 75th percentiles and anticipated difference at the 50th percentile. The district improved in actual scores and anticipated differences.
In comparing anticipated differences, one should note that they are based on national percentile scores. The “Teacher’s Guide to TerraNova” observes, “[National] percentile ranks are not equal-interval data. Differences between percentile ranks are larger near the ends of the range than they are in the middle. For example, the difference between percentile ranks of 5 and 10 or between 90 and 95 is much greater than the difference between percentile ranks of 50 and 55. Because the intervals between percentiles are unequal, percentiles are not suitable for statistical work such as computing averages.”
To compare the value added by different schools, reference must be made to scores reported on an equal-interval scale. Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) scores are often used for this purpose. NCE score reports are available from the publishers of TerraNova but traditionally are not requested by BVSD. However, formulas or tables may be used to convert national percentiles to normal curve equivalents.
The following table gives actual and anticipated NCE scores for the middle schools. Note that NCE scores are not percentile scores and are not very useful for gauging the achievement of individual students. Their utility, for present purposes, is in the difference computation, the last column in the table.
School |
Median NCE Scores |
||
Act. |
Ant. |
Dif. |
|
| Angevine | 50.4 |
50.5 |
-0.2 |
| Base Line | 69.6 |
61.6 |
8.0 |
| Broomfield | 58.7 |
58.3 |
0.4 |
| Burbank | 65.4 |
62.2 |
3.2 |
| Casey | 53.4 |
55.1 |
-1.7 |
| Centennial | 67.9 |
61.2 |
6.7 |
| Horizons | 69.5 |
66.8 |
2.7 |
| Louisville | 63.4 |
58.1 |
5.3 |
| Monarch | 56.7 |
59.1 |
-2.5 |
| Nederland | 59.6 |
57.4 |
2.2 |
| Platt | 64.2 |
60.6 |
3.6 |
| Southern Hills | 64.1 |
62.9 |
1.2 |
| Summit | 79.0 |
73.5 |
5.5 |
| District | 61.9 |
60.0 |
1.9 |
In comparing difference scores in the two tables, they become smaller for schools near the 50th percentile and larger for schools well above the 50th percentile. For example, Base Line’s difference score converts downward from 11.5 to 8.0 whereas Summit’s difference score converts upward from 4.8 to 5.5. Similar relationships would be obtained using any equal-interval scale such as “z-scores” or “T-scores.” Unlike the national percentile scale differences reported by BVSD, a difference of 5.5 NCEs represents the same amount of value added at all levels of achievement.