Email about the importance and usage of our Learning Records

Hello (____CS) Parent!

Here is a helpful reminder email about LEARNING RECORDS for our school.

Our learning records are very important for our school as we use them to document learning achieved for our students based on the attendance claimed. In order for me to provide this documentation to the state, I need to meet with you and your students at least monthly to verify what wonderful things you did over the course of the learning period. I also need to collect a sample of an activity you did that month to learn that topic.

PURPOSE OF LEARNING RECORDS (from our ES Resources):

“A learning record:

1. Is one of the most important parts of the ES job.

2. Is an auditable, legal school document that becomes the course of study description for that course.

3. Is looked at by other schools as it becomes a part of the cume file if a student transfers.

4. Is read by college counselors to determine if prerequisites for courses have been met.

5. Is read by the superintendent of the school district and the board to assess the quality of the charter school and the students’ achievements, and may be a determining factor in whether or not a charter is renewed from year to year.

6. Is read by a financial auditor who views items discussed in the LR almost like a PO.

7. Is viewed by a programmatic auditor to determine if we are complying with charter law requirements in stating activities, means of assessment/evaluation, school resources used, and objectives (standards) for each subject area covered.

8. Is compared to the transcript by the programmatic auditor to be sure it supports the awarded grades and credits.”

What we need to do During our Face-to-Face Meetings:

The following activities must occur during the face-to-face meeting that occurs every 20 days or less:

· assessment of the student's work product during that learning period to verify that the student has made adequate and appropriate progress toward the attainment of the student standards

· provide educational support and counsel to the parent

· pick up of the hard copy attendance roll sheet which the parent kept for that learning period, and provide them with one for the next period.

· arrange the next two appointment dates and locations with the parent.

· pick up learning activity samples each month

· assign work if AESS

· council on the school yearly writing sample/other school information

IMPORTANT REMINDERS:

· Copies of learning records may be given to parents upon request as long as the students are enrolled in the school. BUT, after a student has dropped, the request for any school info needs to go to the IEM office for processing.

· During the face-to-face meeting, it is expected that each ES will view work completed that learning period, and interview the students to ascertain/verify the learning for that period. This can be accomplished by viewing the entire body of work, interviewing the student extensively on what they did/learned in each subject, or the best way is to use a combination of both viewing work and interviewing students. Work samples will be selected for the ES to keep to validate your learning every month.

· Parents are NOT REQUIRED to keep lesson plans, take notes or write learning records. Parents can choose to keep notes or a journal if they wish. Parent notes can be written by hand or sent to the ES electronically via e-mail. If the parent does document their observations of the child's learning, that documentation can be used as the basis of the learning record along with the ES’s own observations. Even with parent documentation, the ES is still required to meet face-to-face with the parent/student in order to assess the work product.

If you have any questions about learning records or our monthly meetings, please feel free to ask me!

Thanks,

(ES Name)