Way to go Grade 4

Well yesterday's diagnostic field test went very well...we can't say the same for today. We were able to get Ms. Callan and Ms. Johnston classes connected and able to take the field test. However, we ran into some issues with Mrs. Lydecker's class. They were supposed to start their session at 8:35.  This is when we recognized that the COW (Computer on Wheels – the laptops) was not properly charged. We resolved this by adding power cords to all the computers and plugging them in. Once we solved that bump in the road we ran into trouble with connecting to the test site. After trying many different strategies, at one point we had 5 district tech members in Mrs. Lydecker’s room; the decision was made not to take the field test for Mrs. Lydecker and Mrs. Nazzaro classes. Mrs. Nazzaro’s class would not have had enough time to take the test based on the half day schedule and the difficulty that we were having.  It was identified that there were issues with the strength of the internet connection in room 10 as well as some errors from Pearson.

I am looking at this as a GREAT test run for PARCC. Lou Caputo, the district Network Manager and I walked through the building and identified classrooms that have the strongest internet connect and therefore should be used during PARCC. I will personally double check before leaving that the COWs are plugged in properly the night before all PARCC tests.  We are moving forward with grade 2 tomorrow and Friday.

A BIG SHOUT OUT to the students in room 10 for being so well behaved and patient as we were troubleshooting the issues