For the past three school years, parents in Newton USD 373 have questioned Summit Learning – expressing concerns about how much lessons have been delegated to the computer software, how much screen time their kids have in school, and how many assessment and diagnostic tests have taken were administered – and failed – in the system.
Many of these concerns and questions came to the fore Monday night during a “parenting college” at Santa Fe Middle School – a program created by the staff at Santa Fe Middle School.
Parents were able to attend 30-minute sessions in their students’ living quarters, and these sessions were intended to provide parents with the information they need about the summit.
The night was part of a district improvement effort launched last year under the auspices of the Newton USD 373 Board of Education to address not only parent complaints but the number of incomplete grades reported at Chisholm Middle School react.
The board is expected to decide on the future of the learning platform in the school district in December.
In each classroom it was discussed how parents can log into the Summit system at home and how they can check the work progress of their students. Color codes were given for each area.
Each class that Summit uses is divided into three different areas – projects, focus areas, and additional focus areas.
“Extra ones are just to solidify their grades,” said Kirstyn Pracht, fifth grade ELA and social studies student during one of her sessions at the parents’ university. “It can get them from B to A or from C to B. If they need an extra boost, they will.”
The project area is the bulk of a student’s grade – 80 percent of a student’s final grade. Achievement focus usually makes up 14 percent of the final grade, with additional focus areas six percent.
“If they are not doing well in a project area, we will have them repaired,” said Pracht.
Students can set weekly goals that enable “mentor check-in”. Students can have a bi-weekly mentoring session with their teacher.
There is also a “Year View” where students and parents can see the progress in each assigned area for the current semester. That was a change this summer – previously the year view showed the entire school year.
“We usually did the whole year. We found that for many students, especially at the beginning, it was stressful to see everything they had to do for their year,” said Pracht. “We shortened it. It’s much better. It’s manageable.”
The system also provides a “progress view” where parents can see teacher feedback on students and, when updated, see grades.
A common complaint from parents over the past two years that has been brought to the Education Committee multiple times is the frequency with which students take the same placement test in order to pass the test and advance to a class in Summit.
“We allow three attempts each,” said Pracht. Students should not take a particular exam more than three times. If a student fails the exam the second time, teachers schedule a workshop session to provide additional support for the area being tested.
“We keep a very close eye on how often they take it,” said Kristie Thompson, a fifth grade math and science teacher in Santa Fe. “You have to fill out a ticket to take it off. And these are things you can’t do at home. You can take notes at home, but you can’t do the assessment at home … because we have to approve it.” “
Students cannot proceed to the next focus area until they have demonstrated mastery of the area they are in – with an 8 out of 10 rating for the focus area.
Part of what parents saw this week was fewer tasks as the number of tasks was reduced this summer, especially when compared to the online-only worklists from last school year.
“Online kids had more additional offers and areas of focus, and we lost a lot,” said Pracht. “We tried to cut it down. It just wasn’t fair. It was too much. Some kids could do it, but for others it was impossible.”
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