Next week Dr. Robinson will celebrate his one year anniversary at ACA. I am so blessed to work with him as ACA's Elementary Principal. The Lord brought Mr. and Mrs. Robinson to HIS school for such a time as this in the school's existence. As we enter our 25th year, we are encouraged, as it seems that our enrollment is increasing each week! We already have 32 kindergarten children enrolled, which is the school's record.
Whether it be painting/rearranging the main office, cleaning bird's nests from the signage on the gym, resurfacing the playground, hanging soccer nets, adding parking spaces to the parking lot, or readying our computer lab and Chrome books for student use, Mr. Toppin, Mr. Coleman and our staff are diligently preparing for the new school year. We are excited to welcome students, parents and guardians to our 25th year, where we have the privilege of educating students' hearts and minds while "Building Christian Character for Tomorrow's Leaders."
In May we celebrated both Mr. Toppin and Mr. Coleman's ten year anniversary of faithful service at ACA. Many praise God for the work they have done here at God's school. Mr. Toppin is our Maintenance Director who often states, "Working at ACA is job security!" There are countless daily tasks that need to be done, in order for us to be great stewards of the building that God has provided for us. Duane works joyfully as unto the Lord, while masterfully handling these many needs. Mr. Coleman not only teaches high school science and math courses during the school year, but he also assists with computer technology support year round. We are grateful for his expertise and how he uses the talents that the Lord has given him for God's glory!
As we approach the midpoint in summer, please spend time reading each day with your elementary child(ren) or having them read alone. Returning to school, it is easy to identify the students who read consistently in the summer months. Earlier I shared that as a school we did well in the area of reading during our first year of using Formative Assessment System for Teachers (FAST). I was praising the Lord and celebrating with the teachers for how our readers progressed during our first year of implementation in grades K-6.
Readers were assessed three times throughout the year in their ability to read fluently and understand what they read. In October, January and May, we tested each reader's ability to read fluently, using a test called Curriculum Based Measure in Reading (CBMR). The reader's scores were median passage, based on the middle score they earned out of three, short, one-page stories. The reader had one minute to read orally as much of the story as possible in the time period, using his/her best reading-noting expression. We also provided online testing for children to complete in our computer lab called aReading. This was an untimed test, where the students answered questions from the reading passages until they reached their final level that was based on their correct answers.
ACA's percentage progression in children meeting or surpassing the expected grade level benchmark is as follows:
aReading: Fall-69% Winter-76% Spring-79%
CBMR: Fall-81% Winter-84% Spring-89%
Using the composite score in reading, ACA's percentage of elementary students who were at or above benchmark was 88.51% compared to all schools located in the Heartland Area Education Association (70.87%) and schools in the state of Iowa using FAST reading assessments (66.26%). I am thankful for the incredible work of our teachers, children and parents/guardians who helped us in our first full year of implementing FAST.
May God richly bless you as you celebrate the 4th of July. Let us thank those who have and continue to ensure that our nation is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Let us also be mindful of the free gift of salvation that Christ offers and how he sets the captives free of the chains of sin and guilt!
