Principal’s Message
September 19, 2022
Data Share:
We have reached the point where the state has finalized last year’s RISE data. We have been working with preliminary data for proficiency throughout the summer and just received our growth data last week. We have a lot of good news to share pertaining to the data, and I will include last year’s final Reading Growth Measure information as well.
To get everyone on the same page with what the data means, Proficiency is the percent of students who took the test who scored a 3 (Proficient) or 4 (Above Proficient). Growth is a measure of how much students learned during the school year. Individual student growth is determined based on the last two years’ of testing data, so we didn’t generate growth scores last year, but we did this year now that we’ve tested two years in a row.
The school’s MGP (Median Growth) is determined by taking the score in the exact middle of all the student scores if you were to organize all their individual growth scores in a line. So, the higher the MGP, the better students are doing in growth because the middle score of all students will be higher. Half the student growth scores will be higher than the MGP, half will be lower. So, we want the MGP as high as possible. Generally, a growth score of 40 is the baseline for about a year’s growth. Anything 50 or above is a strong score, and anything 60 and above shows the students did a significant amount of learning during the year.
| ELA | Math | Science | |
| Proficiency | 64 (1) | 59 (1) | 70 (1) |
| Growth | 58 (1) | 56 (3) | 60 (1) |
In the table, the number is our proficiency/MGP for the 2021-2022 school year. The number in parenthesis is our rank amongst the district junior highs (there are 15 junior highs in the district). Not listed in the table is that our ELA proficiency score went up 10 points, our math was up 11 points, and science was up 6 points. Those are all substantial jumps from year to year. We are excited about how the students performed and the learning that is taking place at Olympus Jr.!
If you are interested in exploring our data more, you can check out the USBE (Utah State Board of Education) Data Gateway website at datagateway.schools.utah.gov. A cool feature on the website is the “Compare Schools” tab. This tab allows you to choose a school and then it will bring up data for schools from around the state who have similar demographics to your selected school. This feature will allow you to see how Olympus Jr. performed compared to schools outside Granite District.
The Reading Growth Measure (RGM) took the place of the Reading Inventory assessment last year. The RGM tries to assess more about a student’s reading than just pinpointing a Lexile score. The assessment has content questions as well as reading comprehension questions, so it tries to determine a student’s reading ability grade level equivalent in addition to a Lexile range. The assessment is still taken three times a year (September, December, and March). We track student growth from September to March, and our goal is to get as many students on or above grade level equivalency as possible. Our data for the end of the year last year was:
| BoY | EoY | Growth | |
| At/Above Grade Level | 87 (2) | 95 (1) | 7 |
In September, 87% of our students were on or above grade level, which was the second highest percentage amongst the district junior highs. By the March assessment, our percentage of students on or above grade level jumped to 95%, which was first amongst the junior highs. Our seven points of growth is great considering the high percentage of on grade level students in September. It shows that the teachers are doing a good job of continuing to push students who are already proficient while supporting and working with students who were lower to help them catch up to grade level.
Parent Teacher Conferences:
Conferences will be September 20 and 21st from 4-7pm. The 20th will be on-line, and you will need to sign-up for time slots for the teachers you would like to talk to. The 21st will be the traditional style conferences where you can come to the school and all the teachers will be in the commons/cafeteria and you can meet with them face to face.
Please use the online scheduler to schedule your teacher appointments. The link to the online scheduler is posted to the school’s website. The window to schedule appointments opens on September 15 and closes today at midnight. Also, if you can’t make it to conferences, you can email any of your student’s teachers with questions and they will get back to you.
Boo to the Flu will be here on Wednesday from 4-7. This is a great time to come get your flu shots for the year. There is no cost if you bring your insurance information. Everyone and anyone in the family can receive their flu shot at Boo to the Flu.
Spirit Store:
We are currently running a Spirit Store fundraiser. The store is open until this Friday, September 22. You can access the store here: https://bsnteamsports.com/shop/dqBppCGE7s
PTA/Reflections:
PTA needs someone to run Reflections this year. Student submissions for the contest are due in mid-October, so there is some urgency to get someone in place now. Reflections is run on-line, so the person in charge would be maintaining the entries, checking them for following the rules, and then organizing judges to evaluate and rank the entries that come in. If you are interested in running Reflections, please email me at jeleroy@graniteschools.org and I will pass your information on to the PTA.
Class Fees:
Class fees for electives and other classes will be added to accounts this week. So far, student accounts have been charged the basic registration fee and the science fee, so please check your student’s account at the end of this week or early next week for the fees so they can be paid in a timely manner.
Fees can be paid via the webstore. If you need help resetting your account or accessing it, please call Ms. Lisa Cannon at 385-646-5224.
Community Council:
We currently have two openings for the Community Council. We benefit from having a full council because the input and feedback from parents helps inform decisions we make at school. If you would like to be on the council, please email me at jeleroy@graniteschools.org
The main responsibility of the council is to discuss academic goals for the school and then work with me to allocate the roughly $100,000 we receive from the state Land Trust program to best support meeting those goals. The council is also used as an advisory board of sorts to provide feedback on school rules/policies, school events, and council members receive a lot of detailed information on the running of the school and issues/concerns we are working to solve.
Yearbooks:
Remember to pre-order yearbooks now. We will only order yearbooks for those who preorder, so if you want one, you need to get it now. Pre-order sales will be open until January 31. Remember that yearbooks are not automatically charged to student accounts, and they are not part of the general registration fee that is paid at the beginning of the school year.
Facebook Page:
I do maintain a Facebook page for the school that has updates and information on it. Many times, information will be posted there before I send it home in one of these messages, so I suggest to everyone to follow our page. If you go to our school website and click on the Facebook link in the upper right corner, it will take you to the correct page and then you can click “Follow.”
Upcoming Dates:
Sept. 20 Suicide Prevention Assemblies (information sent last week)
Sept. 20 Online Parent Teacher Conferences (4-7pm)
Sept. 21 In person Parent Teacher Conferences (4-7pm)
Sept. 23 No School
Sept. 26 Student Non-Attendance Day
Sept. 27 East Divisional Cross Country Race @ Cottonwood Complex
Sept. 28 Soccer vs. Churchill
Oct. 3 Soccer vs. Eisenhower
Oct. 4 Cross Country Championships @ Valley Park
Oct. 5 Soccer vs. Wasatch
Oct. 6 Picture Make-up day
Sincerely,
Josh LeRoy
Principal
