The second semester starts on Tuesday. Any student who would like to request a schedule change will need to make an appointment to see Mr. Hardie. All changes should be completed by Friday January 31st. Semester grades will be mailed home by January 31st as well. State testing for juniors, seniors who still need to test and those sophomores and freshman in advanced classes will begin in February.

State testing is on the horizon. This year is the last year of testing with a test called OAKS. Starting next year we will use a test from Smarter Balanced. Other states are already using the Smarter Balanced tests and they are finding that for the most part student scores on these tests have decreased in comparison to their previous test results. We are also anticipating some drop in test scores. Because passing state tests in reading, writing and math is now a requirement for graduation it will be very important for all students to focus on doing their absolute best on each test. Any junior, sophomore or freshman who passes state test this year, on OAKS will have met graduation requirements for that assessment. Scores from this year will be "banked" so that students don't have to pass tests twice. Another way of meeting the writing, math and reading requirement is to pass what are called local assessments. These are typically classroom assignments that are graded using the state scoring guide. Students can meet the requirement by passing two of these in each area during the course of a class. There will be many opportunities to do local assessments starting in the 9th grade.

It was so nice to see all of the students dressed up last evening for the Winter Formal dance held at the World Forestry Center in Portland. Although the weather did not cooperate it was a nice venue with enough space to accommodate the 170 students who attended. Congratulations to Josh Krieger who was crowned king of the Winter Formal court! With the start of the second semester comes new classes and state testing. All juniors will be tested in math, reading and writing unless they have already passed state tests or local assessments in these areas. The requirement for obtaining an Oregon and Banks High School diploma now is that students have passed tests or local assessments in all three of these areas and that begins with this graduating class. Students will be tested, usually during class time, throughout this semester. Math and reading tests can be taken more than once in a year. State writing tests can only be taken once in the junior year and then again in the senior year. We will be very focused on state testing, monitoring who has passed them and most importantly who has yet to pass them. We will provide communication to parents from this point forward, where their student stands in terms of meeting state testing standards. This information will come with progress reports and semester grades.

With the start of the new year, it's time for the return to school. I hope that you had a wonderful break spent with family and friends. We now gear up for the last three weeks of the first semester of this school year. All course grades will be final on January 27th. This is the grade day date and semester grades from teachers are due on this date. A reminder that semester grades are final and are permanently recorded on transcripts. These grades are also used for calculating cumulative grade point averages. For the first time, some students course grades will be "weighted". Grades in all AP courses will be weighted which means that an A grade in an AP course carries with it 5 points instead of the usual 4 points. A grade of B carries with it 4 points etc. Because of weighted grades it will now be possible for students to accumulate a cumulative grade point average of over a 4.0 GPA. I also want to remind each of you that beginning with this years graduating class an Honors Diploma is a requirement for consideration as a Valedictorian or Salutatorian. This is a significant change from past policies. Please encourage your son or daughter to continue to do their absolute best in all classes between now and the end of this semester, mad welcome back to school!