Dear Students and Parents,
How wonderful to have students back in school! We hope that the orientation over the past two days has allowed students to reconnect and learn some helpful organizational tools to hit the ground running Monday.
As some families new to our community may not have had access to the newsletter last week, a few key pieces of information have been repeated herein. In case you missed it, please do watch the introductory video to orient yourself to our virtual learning environment.
Congratulations to our AP Scholars!
AP Scholar (a score of 3 or higher on three or more Advanced Placement exams):
Hyoeun Kim
Jihoon Kim
Minji Kim
Sungho Kim
Yewon Nam
Tejas Narayan
Yunseung Park
Seoyoung Ryu
Min Jun Shin
Younghyun Shin
Jeong Hyun Song
Sungbin Yoon
AP Scholar with Honors (an average score of 3.25 on all exams and scores of 3 or higher on four or more Advanced Placement exams):
Arjan Chakravarthy
Haeun Kim
Hye Kyo Lee
Seoyoung Lee
Anya Mall
Leah Tak
Ahira Varkey
Seoyoung Youn
AP Scholars with Distinction (an average score of 3.5 on all exams and scores of 3 or higher on five or more Advanced Placement exams):
Ananya Atluri
Anant Bajaj
Manav Chakravarthy
Han Gyul Cho
Nithya Gogineni
Miles Gold
Harin Jeong
Hyoeun Kang
Jae Hyeok Kim
Juyang Kim
Taeuk Kim
Anusha Madhusaudanan
Tarun Murugan
Sunki Park
Shriya Paruchuri
Arjith Shankar
Harish Srinivasan
Vinay Sriram
Pranav Unni
Yoobin Yoon
AP International Diploma (a score of 3 or higher on five or more Advanced Placement exams in three or more subject areas):
Ananya Atluri
Manav Chakravarthy
Pranav Unni
Student Handbook - Updates and Signature Pages
The High School Handbook is an important document for all families to reference. You can view a copy of the handbook on our website. Mike Malone created this highlights from the Handbook presentation with voice over to highlight changes from last year to this year and important-to-review sections in the handbook.
Kindly take some time to view this presentation and look at the handbook. We ask that all students and parents sign the final page of the handbook acknowledging an understanding of the key parts referring to rules and expectations. This year you can sign the page virtually by clicking here.
Grade 12 Families - Save the Date - Grade 12 College Night
On Tuesday, August 18th, the counselors will host our annual Grade 12 College Night to walk families through the university admissions process. Families are encouraged to look out for an email with the video conference link and password.
Standards Based Assessment and Reporting
The high school uses standards-based assessment and reporting for all courses. Teachers award scores using a 1 - 8 scale four times per year (October, January, March, and June) using common reporting achievement strands and common learning habits ratings. Details about the grading and reporting system can be found on page 44 of the High School Handbook or by accessing this informational document.
In addition to formal reports, students will receive regular informal feedback from teachers in class including verbal comments and written feedback on small assignments (eg: exit tickets, short quizzes). At least once before each summative assessment, students will receive formal feedback on a more comprehensive formative assessment. Formative assessments are assessments for learning and help students identify areas of strength and growth in preparation for their summative assessment. Such assessments are reflected in PowerSchool but are not used in determining final scores.
At least once per unit, students will complete a summative assessment. Such assessments provide feedback on the proficiency of the standards related to the unit. Performance on summative assessments determines a student’s final score in the course based on recent, most consistent performance. In the high school, the last three summative assessments of the semester (which may include the student’s semester examination) are used at the data, alongside the strand and holistic rubrics, to determine the final score in the course at the end of each reporting period. The rubrics for each specific to each class can be found linked to the course syllabus. A link to all course syllabi will be circulated in next Friday’s notes.
New Families - Save the Date - First Parent Coffee
Our first high school virtual parent coffee will take place on Tuesday, August 25th, from 8:45 - 9:45 am. This coffee is aimed to get parents new to high school up to speed on our Standards-Based Assessment and Reporting system. While returning parents in grades 10 - 12 are welcome to attend, please note that no new information will be shared.
PowerSchool Reporting Dates - Repeat Announcement
Families will receive regular updates about academic progress throughout the year. Progress reports with scores and comments are sent home and posted online in the middle of each semester. Report cards are sent home at the end of each semester. Approximately once per month in between these official reports, teachers will update their marks in our new student information system PowerSchool for your review. We call this a “Progress Update.”
For your information the reporting periods this academic year will be as follows:
September 11 – Progress update
October 9 - Progress update
October 27 - Progress report with comments
November 26 - Progress update
January 22 - Report card with comments
February 5 – Progress update
March 5 - Progress update
March 25 – Progress report with comments
April 23 – Progress update
May 14 – Progress update
June 9 – Final report card
Student Schedule Changes - Repeat Announcement
As we are beginning the year virtually, we have extended the drop/add period for schedule change until August 18th at 4:00 pm. This deadline is in place to help students settle into their classes as soon as possible. Students who wish to change their schedules should contact Ms. Priya (spriya@aischennai.org) to schedule a meeting with their counselor. Please note that priority will be given to students without a full schedule. After all students are fully scheduled counselors will begin meeting with students about changes.
Schedule changes made during this time do not require parents signatures. This means that it is very important for families to discuss potential schedule changes before the student seeks out his or her counselor. If a family feels strongly that no schedule changes should take place without written parent permission they are encouraged to contact the appropriate counselor.
Please note that it is our expectation as a school that students would have made wise choices regarding their schedules last spring during the registration process. As such, we expect students to pursue schedule changes only when truly necessary. We will not entertain changes motivated by a desire to be in class with particular friends or to seek out a particular teacher. Our counseling staff works very hard to balance our schedule such that no class is overloaded or too small. This is to everyone’s advantage in terms of student learning.
A copy of the master schedule for planning purposes can be found here.
Attendance and Intervention in the Virtual Space - Repeat Announcement
As you are aware, our school policy is to require 85% attendance in order to be eligible for credit in a course. This is normally calculated by block and is based on physical presence. In a virtual space, attendance takes on a different guise and the focus is really on engagement rather than physical presence.
As was indicated in the introductory video (linked above), we will be following our regular school timetable organized by two week modules. All of the required information for each module will be reflected in PowerSchool. This will include engagement expectations linked to participation and attendance.
Modules will run for two weeks and will begin on a Monday.
At the end of Week One, teachers will take stock of student progress and mark students who are not on track as “IE” or “insufficient evidence.” Students who are following the pacing guide will be marked “OT” or “on track.” Attendance will be posted by the end of the day of Monday of Week Two. Students marked “IE” will receive a follow up email from their teacher. This email will be cc’d to Ms. Sunita so she can check in with the family about connectivity should the teacher get no reply.
At the end of the second week the module will come to a close at 4:00 pm on Friday. Students will be marked “AB” or “absent” if they do not meet the engagement expectations outlined by the teacher. Attendance will be viewable by the Monday night following the close of the module. The teacher will also assign the student to the next available School Monitored Study Session to get caught up and will reach out for a conference to touch base.
Students who are absent in more than one course will be assigned a Case Manager to help them with their organization and to expedite connecting them with further support as needed.
Students who are absent for more than two modules in the semester will lose credit as they will not have been present for at least 85% of the course. In truth, with so many checkpoints along the way, no student should reach this point if the student is actively engaged in his/her studies.
Sincerely,
Joelle Basnight
High School Principal
