Freedom Intermediate School Honors Parent Orientation

Honors Program Vision The vision of the Honors program is to empower students to acquire academic skills necessary for success in Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

HOW??? Accelerated Classes Challenging Materials Emphasis on Rigor Higher Order Thinking Skills Compacting Material Coaching Student Responsibility Allow/Learn from Failures

Honors Qualification Meet qualifying cut scores on Explore Test for your grade level.

Explore Test 8th Grade Level Test A predictor of future success on ACT & AP Performance Standards aligned with College Readiness Standards www.act.org/standard/index.html

Assessment Swim… Who can swim across the POOL? TCAP Proficient (on target) Who can swim across the POND? TCAP Advanced (above target) Who can swim across the RIVER? EXPLORE/PLAN/ACT (college/AP ready) Who can swim across the OCEAN? AP Exam - College Success!

Honors Qualification Explore cut scores 2013-14: 5th grade 6th grade Lang. Arts*: 15 16 Reading*: 16 17 Math: 16 17 Science: 17 18 *Social Studies: Qualify in Lang. Arts and Reading RLA is tested as one class and student must qualify for both May qualify in one or more subjects

Student Characteristics Demonstrates an ongoing ability to actively participate in class and punctually complete advanced level assignments Thrives upon learning beyond the basic element of a concept Has sufficient organizational skill to sustain the rigorous pace of course work

www.collegeboard.org 32.4 percent of U.S. high school graduates in the class of 2012 took an AP Exam at some point in high school. Among the class of 2012, 19.5 percent of U.S. public high school graduates scored a 3 or higher on an AP Exam during high school.

Honors Criteria A student does not need to re-qualify each year Once a participant - always participant if: Maintain a “C” in all Honors Classes, and… Continue quality work ethic Parents will be asked to sign a commitment form each year Must re-qualify if a student drops Honors See complete Honors Guidelines on school website

New In 2013-14 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Tncore.org Full Implementation in Math Partial Implementation in English/Language Arts Tncore.org

Literacy for social studies, math, and science We will begin state-wide implementation of 3-8 math standards this coming school year 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 Grades K-2 Math and ELA Grades 3-8 Math (partial) Math and ELA (partial) Grades 9-12 Grades 6-12 Literacy for social studies, math, and science

TCAP We will remove 15-25% of SPIs that are not reflected in Common Core State Standards from the TCAP NEXT year. The specific list of SPI’s will be shared on May 1. We will narrow the focus of the TCAP and expand use of Constructed Response Assessments Constructed Response We will expand the constructed response assessment for all grades 3-8, focused on the TNCore focus standards for math. 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 PARCC NAEP NAEP

Tennessee’s Competitiveness Our transition to Common Core Standards is central to strengthening Tennessee’s competitiveness Tennessee’s Competitiveness Only 21% of adults in TN have a college degree TN ranks 46th in 4th grade math and 41st in 4th grade reading nationally 54% of new jobs will require post-secondary education Only 15% of high school seniors in TN are college ready Source: “Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018” (The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce), 2011 NCES NAEP data, ACT

The Common Core State Standards represent six key instructional shifts ELA: Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction and informational texts Reading and writing grounded in evidence from text Regular practice with complex text and its academic vocabulary MATH: Focus strongly where the Standards focus Coherence: think across grades, and link to major topics within grades Rigor: require conceptual understanding, procedural skill and fluency, and application with intensity. (SAY) The Common Core transition requires six instructional shifts, three in English/Language Arts and three in mathematics. The focus standards in each subject area are shown here, and we would like to direct you to information about the instructional shifts in your packet. In ELA, we will shift toward more non-fiction and informational texts, to reading and writing grounded in evidence from the text, and to regular practice with complex text and academic vocabulary. In math, the three shifts are: focus, coherence, and rigor. Though the focus of our training is 3-8 math, as this is the portion of the standards we will be adopting this school year, we believe that it is important for you all as school leaders to be well versed in the instructional shifts overall. The shifts in each area demand changes across the curriculum, and part of this transition will be working on specific pieces of implementation (like the focus standards we are implementing this year), while maintaining a concept of the larger direction and intent of common core. These six instructional shifts are positioned at the center of our implementation of common core.

What does this mean for my student? High standards in ALL classes for ALL students Students expected to perform at higher levels of THINKING Students will be expected to reason, explain, and give evidence How we assist students as they struggle will be different

FSSD 5th-8th Grade Honors path…

Candidate for 7th Grade Foreign Language 5th Grade Honors RLA 6th Grade Honors RLA 7th Grade Honors RLA Candidate for 7th Grade Foreign Language 8th Grade Honors RLA

Honors is NOT….. …a program for giftedness …for those who do not want to make a B …easy …a social club …a group of students that are “smarter” than everyone else …a requirement for those who qualify …an automatic course placement (i.e. 7th grade Algebra)

Honors is….. An excellent opportunity for students to be challenged and pushed to reach full potential for growth in future AP success.

Freedom Intermediate School Please be sure to submit your signed Honors Parent Commitment Form. Questions…????