Dear Parent/Guardian,

Help your child succeed in school - sign up for free tutoring! As a result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, your child can receive extra help in the areas of math, reading, and language arts. You can receive this free tutoring because your child's school is in its second year or later of "school improvement," and your family meets the income limits under the law.

Your child's school has been identified for improvement because it has not made adequate yearly progress on state measures of academic achievement for at least three years. Our district's report card (enclosed with this letter) shows how your child's school compares to other schools in our district and state. Your child's school has been identified because of improvement status. We will be sending you more information in a few weeks about how you can help us improve the school in these areas.

For now, you can choose a free tutoring program that is best for your child. A list of approved tutoring programs in your area is enclosed and can also be viewed at:

httD://dnetol.ode.state.oh.us/ses/ProviderLookup.a5px. These programs have been approved by the state department of education and will provide your child with tutoring that is coordinated with what Is being taught In school.

When deciding which tutoring program is best for your child, you may want to ask these questions:

Can the tutor help if your child has disabilities or is learning English?

is transportation available to and from where the tutoring will take place?

often and for how many hours In total will your crtld be tutored?

What programs, by grade levels and subjects areas, are available for your child?

What type of instruction will the tutor use: small group, one-on-one, or the computer? What

are the tutors' qualifications?

Although our school is in school improvement, we are happy to report we missed making what is called safe harbor by a small percentage due to attendance on the Ohio Academic Achievement Test. We are on target to be out of academic emergency by Spring of 2010. What has helped us achieve this success is our focus on progress monitoring not only for our teachers, but each student. We assess students four times per year with an alternate standardized test called Orchard, in addition to the State mandated tests and the Stanford 10 test which is administered twice per year. We have an assessment coordinator and a full computer lab where each class is tested. The reports are then sent home to parents and they can see the progress or areas students need to work on.

 

We have not had transportation provided by the local school district because they did not have the funding for us. We have had great success in our enrollments each year and may at times have a waiting list for various grade levels which may close out certain students due to our charter agreement which only permits a certain number of students per class.

If you are choosing another school for your child(ren) you may contact the Cleveland Public schools or the Ohio department of education, office of community schools in Columbus, Ohio to find another community school in your area.

Please call Mrs. Stephens at 216-283-5100 if you have any questions about these services. You also may join us to talk to the tutors to help you decide which program is best for your child. Once you sign up you will receive a letter from Harvard Avenue Community School telling you when the free tutoring will start.

Finally, if you do not wish to sign up for these services, you may also choose to transfer your child to another school in the district. The enclosed School Choice letter gives more information about the school choice in our district

Thank You,

Mrs. Stephens, Principal