New Beginnings of Year Assessments
ROAR (Rapid Online Assessment of Reading) by September 30th (if you have iPads by then)
MCLASS- online universal screener and progress monitoring tool for math by September 30th.
Math Happenings
Math Housing Documents – are ready and posted under your grade level tab! Or find them here! They include links to print shop ready files!
District Ordering Form – There is a delay in adding Amplify Desmos Math assessments to the district ordering form. Please print shop all of unit one assessments, pre-unit check, sub-unit quizzes, and the end-of-unit assessment yourself. They are shorter than the Bridges assessments, so it shouldn’t impact your account. As September settles in, IT will update us on the progress.
DreamBox – Attention 3rd grade teachers (and maybe 4-5 teachers)! You need to manually update the learning environment for students to transition from the K-2 environment to the 3-5 environment. This Support Article has step by-step-step instructions. Reach out to Kerry Morton, Robbie Faith, or your Instructional Coach if you need support.
DreamBox – Attention Kindergarten teachers! Here’s what to expect for Kindergarteners this Fall:
- They will skip Launchpad.
- They’ll be placed directly into kindergarten math lessons.
- A Kindergarten-level initial standing will show up for each student on the progress report after they complete their first lesson with demonstrated understanding.
- Their learning experience is tailored to early exploration, play, and growth in age-appropriate concepts.
Forefront for Amplify Desmos Math is still being built, rostered, and synced. It should be up in the next few weeks. Save your assessment data to enter when it is available.
Literacy Happenings
Expeditionary Learning in Forefront
To make scoring standards-based report cards easier and help identify trends that support instructional decisions, the EL assessments for K-5 are being manually entered into Forefront. There is no expectation or requirement for teachers to enter assessments into Forefront—this is simply an option for those who prefer that format. Once EL and Forefront are ready, details and instructions will be shared in the TLC blog for anyone interested in using them.
An important update: Early in this process last winter, it was discovered that scores from ILC’s system cannot be transferred directly into Forefront. This affects teachers currently using ILC’s online platform for automatic grading. To understand the impact, a list of teachers using the digital assessment platform was requested. Those who assigned assessments more than four times last year (fewer than 20 teachers out of 350+) were contacted for feedback on possible changes.
One key question asked was how they would feel if the teacher team entering assessments into Forefront adjusted some questions and scoring to better align with Bend-LaPine’s priority standards. This is significant because using the better-aligned questions would mean those teachers could no longer give EL assessments online to their students. About 90% of respondents were either indifferent or supportive of these changes.
Based on this feedback, the team proceeded with adjusting some questions and scoring to better support teachers with instructional decisions and report card scoring. These changes will be reflected in the assessments printed for teachers and their teams.
Expeditionary Learning Assessments print shop- update
The Expeditionary Learning assessments from the print shop are currently on hold—this is actually great news (see above)! A team of teachers is manually entering all assessment questions into Forefront. During this process, some questions may be revised to better align with priority standards and report cards.
Once this work is complete, the assessments will need to be retyped to reflect the updated questions and scoring for K-5. Retyping will be prioritized for grades 3-5, with the goal of having all grade levels ready in time for Module 1 mid-unit assessments (3-5) and Module 1 end-of-unit assessments (K-2).
When Module 1 assessments are ready, an announcement titled “Time to Order Module 1 Assessments” will be posted on the TLC blog—or sent via email if the next blog post is too far away—along with the ordering link for teachers and their teams.
If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to Lindsley Gehrig.
EL and RGR print shop orders- update
EL and RGR print shop orders placed at the end of last school year have all been ordered and delivered. Schools received everything in mid-August. If you are missing any items, please first check with your building office and custodial staff, in case they were temporarily stored somewhere. If you need to place a new order, please do so here. I check this daily and will get them ordered asap.
Please reach out to Lindsley Gehrig with any questions or feedback.
4th Grade Tribal History Shared History Literacy Module Timeline
The timeline for the 4th-grade Tribal History Shared History Literacy Module has changed. This timeline allows time to further develop the materials, gather valuable feedback from Warm Springs and other stakeholders, provide a pilot of the materials in classrooms, and plan budgeting for both materials and professional development.
This fall, lessons, resources, assessments, and slides will continue to be developed to ensure an authentic and culturally honoring learning experience. The pilot phase is planned for February/March 2026 with small, manageable teams of volunteers. Full-day training for all 4th-grade teachers will be provided in the fall of 2026.
What’s next?
- Pilot Announcement: The pilot of these materials is expected to be announced in December. But your team can begin considering if you want to participate in the pilot, which will include a limited number of teacher teams who will teach the materials and provide feedback to help improve them.
- For teacher teams not participating in the pilot program: Teams may continue using previously developed Tribal History materials and units, utilize Oregon’s Tribal History / Shared History lessons and resources, or extend other Expeditionary Learning modules during this time block on the curriculum map. More resources and information will come regarding this in a December TLC blog.
- Professional Development & Classroom Opportunities: Collaboration is ongoing with community partners such as the High Desert Museum, Nature Connect Central Oregon, HDESD, COREN, and Upper Deschutes Watershed to identify professional development and classroom opportunities. Many organizations are currently finalizing grants and plans. A one-pager summarizing all available opportunities is expected to be shared via the TLC blog in late fall (best guess).
- Module Overview & Resources:
In the spring, a draft overview of the module was created by an exceptional team of teachers and equity coaches. This work was supported by training opportunities and materials shared by Warm Springs members, the High Desert Museum, and other key partners. For those interested in the books being ordered for classrooms, they can be viewed HERE– these are subject to change due to budgets/further research, but fun to take a look. The required text, My Name is LaMoosh, will be provided as a copy for every student, while the other recommended texts will be supplied as one copy per classroom. This book list was designed from recommendations of Warm Springs, High Desert Museum, other community organizations, the team’s research, and input from teachers and media specialists from a blog post last year.
Future updates will be posted in the TLC blog. Please reach out to Lindsley Gehrig with any questions or feedback.