We have begun our Spring MAP assessments. Students in grades 2-5 will take one MAP assessment a week following the schedule below. Your child’s teacher will let you know what days they will be taking the assessments. You will note significant gaps between some of the assessments. This is due to holidays. 

MAP April 15 - May 23

• Week of April 15 - Language Assessment (completed)

• Week of April 21 - Reading Assessment (completed)

• Week of May 12  - Math Assessment

• Week of May 19 - Make-ups

The MAP assessments provide us with external data that compares your child’s performance with a set of recognized standards. Because the assessment is adaptive, we are able to gather information about children outside of the constraints of grade level bands. 

This is not an assessment that your child can study for. In order to help her or him do their very best, please ensure that your child gets plenty of rest and eats a healthy breakfast. You can also help your child by not making a big deal about this testing experience. It is not a high stakes assessment and the children have no reason to feel stressed about their performance. You will receive information about your child’s performance on the MAP assessment after all students have completed the tests. For more about the MAP assessment, you can jump to the MAP Family Toolkit. 

As a school, we look at the results of the MAP assessments to help us better understand each learner as well as our academic programs. Our classroom teachers will spend time together looking at MAP results in conjunction with other pieces of data about learning. As administrators, we use multiple data points (including MAP) over time to help us understand where our students are doing well and where we might consider making programmatic changes. The Spring data helps us to see trends in student growth over the year. Additionally, we will collect and analyze data from reading and writing assessments. 

Please ensure that your child is coming to school wearing close-toed shoes. Many students are wearing slides and flip-flops. While these shoes are fashionable and comfortable, they are not safe for school-related activities. 

Get ready to swap and share at our Book Swap on May 20th! Join fellow bookworms for an unforgettable literary exchange!

Spring readers, you nailed it! Keep the pages turning and the adventures flowing!

Chances are your child's emotions fluctuate quite often!  Over time, this may make you feel stuck as a parent around how to support your child and yourself in addressing emotional outbursts.  It is taxing work.

To possibly help, we've added another tool to our ES Counseling Website - Check out these Tools to Try posters you can print and hang in your home to remind yourself and family members that there are tools you can use.  The tools are best used together, as a family - not just for the kids!

We are here and happy to support you if you have any questions or would like to discuss ways to create a calmer home environment.

Tim Steadman and Hayley Jeanes