001Falls school districts vision is to empower students to be globally competitive and innovative thinkers that contribute to their communities sustainability for the past few years we have been preparing our students to be successful in the next grade as well as in college and career in spring 2015 your child took the new a Z merit assessment for the first time a Z merit took the place of aims in reading writing and math AZ merit is aligned to the rigorous Arizona college and career-ready standards ball School District uses many tools in addition to AZ merit to determine if students are in target for their grade level and beyond as you begin receiving your child's first ever AZ merit family's score reports for the test taking in spring 2015 you may have questions about how scoring and proficiency
002levels were determined we would like to help clarify some of that information to help you better understand this report there are four performance levels determined by the AZ merit assessments highly proficient which indicates an advanced understanding of the content subject area proficient which indicates a strong understanding partially proficient which indicates a partial understanding and the possible need for additional support minimally proficient which indicates a minimal understanding and probable need for additional supports many proficiency rates are low across the states which can be distressing since we are more familiar with the aims meets and exceeds rates it is important to remember that a Z merit is not at all comparable teams AZ merit measures different skills and knowledge then aims assessments did AZ merit and aims results will look different because they are two entirely different
003tests in addition expectations and standards changed dramatically which is a good thing your child will now be more prepared than ever to come to compete with students from other districts in other states for college and career placements AZ merit was our first assessment aligned to the Arizona college and career-ready standards the lesson to learn from the results is not the scores are down but that expectations are rising every student who took the AZ merit assessment will receive a family report for ela or English language arts and math you and your child may have questions about the proficiency levels he or she achieved your child's teacher is a great resource for further information you can better understand your child's strengths and weaknesses by reviewing scoring categories on the back of the report you received the most
004important thing you can do is make sure the lines of communications are open between your child and your child's teacher set shared goals for what your child needs to know and check in often on your child's progress you can also bring learning opportunities into everyday life such as mixing math into shopping or asking your child to express their opinions with justification of their views remember what's important is that your child is on track to be better prepared for the next grade level and ultimately college and career as a community we will continue to prepare our students with these high standards and we are confident that we will see the AZ merit scores rise year after year