February 27, 2014

Dear Parent of a Mountain Island Third Grade Student,

The CMS School Board has approved alternative assessments in place of the Read to Achieve Portfolio for all third graders in CMS. The alternative assessments, which are currently in place at Mountain Island and have been approved by the CMS School Board are MAP, 442 BOG Score, Discovery Education, and TRC. Your child is now exempt from the Read to Achieve Portfolio because he/she has met one of the following criteria:

Limited English Proficient student with less than two years of ESL instruction

Has an Individual Education Plan (IEP) and is assessed on the NCExtend 1 or NCExtend 2

Has received reading interventions and previously been retained more than once in kindergarten, first, second or third grade

Received a score of 442 or higher on the 3rd grade Beginning of Grade Assessment

Earns a Level P or above on the TRC portion of the mClass benchmark assessments

Completes a Read to Achieve Portfolio with a combined score of 70% or higher on 3 passages for each standard

Proficient on the Measures of Academic Performance (MAP) with a RIT score of 197

If you have any questions about what this means for your child, please contact your child’s third grade teacher or Vicki Douvikas at 980-343-6948 (phone) or vicki.douvikas@cms.k12.nc.us

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Ruppenthal, Principal