March 15 Board Meeting and Student Success Plan

Hello Mapleton Families!
I’m writing to share information from our March 15th Board meeting.  Following many conversations and presentations about state assessment practices, our Governing Board voted unanimously to adopt the below resolution. This shifts our district from an opt-out district to an opt-in district, where families must sign their students up to participate in Oregon’s standardized Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests (SBAC) testing.  In the next few weeks, we will send information home about the purpose of state testing at the individual, school/district, and state levels.  Students who participate will take the assessments and those who do not will engage in classroom learning.  Students who participate will be excused from all missed assignments.  

The Board also approved our Student Success Plan, which integrates our Student Investment, High School Success, Continuous Improvement, Everyday Matters Attendance, Early Warning Data, and Career and Technical Education plans.  In it, we prioritize communicating our K-12 curriculum aligned to our Mapleton Portrait of a Graduate (finalizing this Spring).  Assessment practices, including local performance assessments, student-led demonstration of learning and growth (through exhibitions of learning, conferences, and portfolio development) are an integral part of this work.  Beginning next year, staff will have weekly professional learning and collaboration time to engage deeply in this work (day and time (AM or PM) still to be determined).  We aim to build strong partnerships with each and every family in order to best support each student to meet their full academic and personal potential.  

We hope you can join us April 4th 5-7pm for our Community Portrait of a Graduate event, with Bingo too!  If you have any questions, concerns, or ideas, please feel free to connect with me at any time.

Thank you,
Sue Wilson
Mapleton Superintendent

We, the Mapleton Board of Education, given our responsibility to safeguard and guide the education of all Mapleton students, have been evaluating the appropriateness of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium tests (SBAC) in our school community and have come to the conclusion, as follows.

WHEREAS, Mapleton School District is committed to educating all students, including focusing on their mental, emotional, physical, and social wellbeing;

WHEREAS, students of all ages continue to be impacted from the loss of countless hours of instructional time due to the global pandemic;

WHEREAS, state-mandated testing will require sacrificing hours of badly-needed instructional time for students;

WHEREAS, the achievement gap has grown wider over the years of the pandemic;

WHEREAS, state test results do not provide data or information that individual teachers can use to inform their instruction or identify areas for remediation among their students;

WHEREAS, Mapleton schools have been administering valid and reliable formative tests throughout the school year, providing timely data that teachers use to provide multi-tiered systems of support and meet individual student needs;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED,  the Mapleton School District will administer the SBAC only to students who have submitted an opt-in form.  

Adopted date 3/15/23
Michelle Holman, Board Chair