Top 5 Tech Tips to Support Your Child with Personalized Learning at Home 

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During the COVID-19 closure, College Board is continuing to post updates concerning AP testing. Here are the latest updates: 

• 2020 Testing Guide 
• Student Exam Checklist 
• World Language Information 
• Music Theory Information 
• In-depth Educator-Specific FAQs 
• New Videos 

Colleges have already committed to awarding credit and placement for this year’s AP Exams. Admissions officers from across the country offer words of encouragement to AP students in this video.

AP students can now attend free, live AP classes and review, delivered by AP teachers from across the country. These AP classes and reviews are optional and designed to enable AP students to complete the few remaining topics of each AP course and then, throughout April, focus on reviewing the skills and concepts from the first 75% of the course. 

As College Board responds to the impact of coronavirus, our top priorities are the health and safety of students and educators. We’re working hard to make the SAT available in school and out of school as soon as possible.

Since students are currently receiving a Pass or Fail and not individual assignment grades, Gradebook in Skyward has been turned off. Parents can only see the progress report or report card under the “Performance” section in Skyward. For the remainder of the school year, progress reports and report cards will only show Pass (P) or Fail (F). 

If parents have questions or concerns, please contact your child’s teacher directly. 

Updates for AP Students Affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19) | College Board

Find out about AP online take-home exams for 2020 and free classes and review sessions for all subjects on YouTube.

 >View AP Updates for Students Affected by COVID-19

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) for AP Students Affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19) | College Board

A list of popular questions and answers around AP changes in 2020 related to coronavirus (COVID-19).

>View Frequently Asked Questions – AP Coronavirus Updates

The District has been collaborating with curriculum publishing companies on ways to provide continued services. With their guidance, the District is making videos and planning to continue to serve these students at a distance.

>Dyslexia Instruction at Home

Subject: Section 504 Student Parent/Guardian Letter

Due to the current unforeseen public health emergency, specifically the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, all school buildings are closed through at least May 4, 2020. Above all else, the priority during these times remains the safety and health of the students, staff, and our community. The state-mandated closure requires changes to the implementation of educational instruction, causing an emergency disruption to regular school-based instructional services. Until notified otherwise, all instructional services necessary for students to make progress in the general curriculum and services necessary for a free, appropriate public education (“FAPE”) must be provided remotely, and in some circumstances, in a condensed manner. The movement of instruction from a physical building to the Personalized Learning at Home virtual educational opportunity requires a temporary adaptation to your child’s Section 504 Services Plan.

The District has summarized below the its plan to effectively adapt the current Section 504 Services Plan until regular school-based instruction resumes. Once regular school-based instructional services resume, your child’s Section 504 Services Plan will again be implemented. At such time, the District will review all data regarding student progress during the emergency to determine whether to convene a Section 504 committee meeting to consider compensatory services.

Based on the virtual educational opportunities being provided to all students and guidance from federal and state agencies, the District has identified the below-listed services as appropriate for your child’s needs while physical presence in a school building remains unavailable. The Section 504 Services Plan will resume, as before, once physical school buildings re-open to students.

1. The District proposes the following access to academic instruction for your child:

· The Personalized Learning at Home virtual educational opportunity

2. The District proposes to support your child’s educational progress in this academic instruction by providing the following:

· Virtual “check ins” from Teachers, Section 504 Campus Coordinators, and Reading Interventionists

There may be accommodations outlined in your child’s Section 504 Services Plan that may be unavailable while the District is closed.

Parents of children with disabilities have protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. You can obtain a copy of the Notice of Procedural Safeguards from The Legal Framework at https://fw.esc18.net/display/Webforms/ESC18-FW-LandingPage.aspx?DT=G&LID=en or View Notice of Procedural Safeguards here.

If you have any questions or need assistance, do not hesitate to reach out to Maria Embrey, District Section 504 Coordinator, at 817-547-5785 or Maria.Embrey@birdvilleschools.net. You can also obtain assistance from Region 11 Educational Service Center at 817-740-3600 or the Texas Education Agency. The District appreciates your patience and flexibility as we all determine the best way to serve your student.

In making the determination to move to a pass/fail approach for the second semester, District and campus leadership focused on the following criteria:

• Due to the vast challenges represented by learning remotely and the need to provide support for students, we needed guidelines which were consistent and equitable for all students.
• The guidelines needed to prevent undue inflation of grades, as well as undue deflation of grades. For instance, giving students a numeric grade of 100 would indicate that all standards were mastered and that might not be the actual case for all students.
• Moving to the pass/fail approach would focus attention on the learning and not on the need to earn a specific grade. This would provide relief to all students as they focus on the core work of learning.
• College admissions typically take a comprehensive approach to evaluating high school transcripts. Students are evaluated in relation to their own district offerings, grading guidelines, opportunities for advanced learning, civic engagement, and leadership opportunities. Colleges almost always recalculate GPAs using their own scale as grading guidelines and learning environments differ so greatly between school systems.
• We ran several scenarios and looked at the effect of giving a numeric grade versus a straight pass/fail option. Both approaches presented greater benefit to struggling students and had minimum effects on the GPA of higher performing students.

We strongly believe that the differences between these two approaches will not have a negative impact on Birdville ISD graduates in the college admissions process.

Based on campus and community feedback, we are extending the due date for assignments given the week of March 30th to Sunday, April 5 at midnight. This will give students and parents some relief.

• The BISD Personalized Learning Online Plan will be delivered online and enables students to study independently at different locations and times, without real-time communication taking place. This Personalized Learning Online Plan provides students and families the flexibility to learn on any device, anywhere, anytime, and on any browser.
  
  
• This Personalized Learning Online Plan provides support for students while recognizing that instructional settings may vary. Students may log on at different times throughout the day.

• Students must submit/turn in completed work for each of their classes on Friday of each week by 11:59 p.m. 
  
  
• Students may complete the assignments any time during the assigned work week
  
  
• Students should contact their grade level/content teacher with questions first

• BISD teachers will design weekly lessons following the Personalized Learning Online Guidelines
  
  
• Teachers will be available during virtual office hours as follows: Monday–Friday, 9–11 a.m. and 1–3 p.m.  Teachers may be reached through email, Google classrooms, or Canvas courses
  
  
• Teachers will monitor student work and provide feedback 
  
  
• Teachers will respond to student questions in a timely manner. Teachers will respond to emails and requests for assistance during virtual office hours. As secondary teachers may have large numbers of students, there may be a slight delay in response time.
  
  
• General education teachers will collaborate with Special Education teachers to ensure lessons address  accommodation as identified in student Individual Education Plans (IEPs), to the extent possible.

Parents/guardians and students will find a link on their campus website that tells them whether the teacher is using Canvas or Google Classroom. Students will log into their My.BirdvilleSchools.net portal to access Canvas or Google Classroom. The lessons are tied to the subject area teacher.