Hello. My name is Tim Graham, and I am the math teacher of a student of yours at Roxborough High School. I am writing to inform you that your students performance on the Renaissance STAR Assessment this past Spring is a cause for concern.
Roxborough High School requires that all students take the STAR assessment in Math and Language Arts three times during every school year. The data is used at the school level to help plan instruction, and is forwarded to the District for use in other statistical purposes. For each student, the data includes a percentile rank, a grade equivalency, and is summarized by placing the students into one of four categories: Red (Urgent Intervention), Yellow (Intervention), Blue (On Watch), and Green (At or Above Benchmark).
You are receiving this message because your student scored either Red (Urgent Intervention) or a Yellow (Intervention) on the STAR assessment this past Spring. Such scores typically indicate performance at or below the fifth grade level. Because the STAR Assessment is not administered in a controlled environment, it may be accepted only as guidance, and not as an official record of your student’s ability. I believe it is important to notify you of this score, however, as low STAR assessment scores often correlate to in low grades in their corresponding classes.
Be advised that your student may experience difficulty in their math class this year. I recommend that you monitor your student’s grades this year using the School District of Philadelphia’s Parent Portal, and keep in contact with me via email at tgraham3@philasd.org. Due to the volume of students whose score indicates a need for intervention I can not reach out to parents individually, but I am typically responsive to email inquiries about individual students.
Students in my classes will be taking the Fall STAR Assessment by either by the end of this week or early next week. Please encourage you student to do their best, as the data is very important to teachers at the school level and administrators at the district level. Completion of the assessment will also be entered as a Performance-based Learning grade, with full credit being offered to students who score in the Green and Blue categories, and half credit being offered to those who score in the Yellow and Red categories.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to a productive academic year with your student at Roxborough High School.