Excerpts from The Hall Weekly Bulletin - April 30, 2007 : Volume 12:32
Calendar		Principal's Message
This Week April 30 – May 11 • STAR Testing Period Friday, May 4 • Lost & Found Cleared Out Saturday, May 5th • CMLSF Auction –  A Night at the Kentucky Derby • Computer Literacy Challenge Exam Upcoming Thursday, May 10 • 6:30pm | Hall Gym | Hall Open House • 8:30pm | General PTA | Hall Library Saturday, May 12 • 7pm | Hall Talent Show Tuesday, May 15 • PTA General Meeting Wednesday, May 23 •7:15pm | Third Annual SF Giants Night		Surveys and Homework Over the last couple weeks the School Site Council and the faculty have begun examining the Site Council student and parent survey data.  Student and parent responses have been compiled and disaggregated for grade level.  The results of these surveys will soon be posted online.  The observations and action plans created by the Site Council will be shared at the board meeting in June.  Thank you to all of the parents who submitted your surveys. The information is helpful in identifying areas of strength and areas where more attention or inquiry is required. Overall the feedback is very thoughtful and helpful. Not surprisingly, the topic of the amount of homework is one of the areas that continue to warrant further attention.  Last year’s Site Council had identified this as a focus area and set target goals for this year’s data.  While the complex issue of homework continues to be an issue, progress has been made as evidenced by the survey data. Excluding fifth grade data (which was not collected for Hall last year), the percentage of parents reporting that the amount of homework is “about right” has increased as a school by 9% and for students it improved by 6%.  The improvement is seen across the grade levels, with sixth grade student attitudes making the greatest increase, up 16% from last year.  While the school-wide data does not signal that we have solved the issue, it does reflect movement in the right direction. At the faculty meeting last week the staff committed to continue to examine this issue this spring.  We recognize that the issue of homework is a complex issue. Homework issues manifest themselves differently for each child and family, and we want to make sure we take into account these nuances.  The issue is not as simple as too much or too little.  Too much or too little imply an internalized value of what the right amount is. One person may feel one hour a night is about right and the person next to them may feel that one hour a night is way too much.  So which is correct? The data from the survey is valuable information that provides some insight into parent and student perceptions of the amount of time spent on homework and the attitude towards its volume.  For next steps we will continue to disaggregate our survey.  We will further tease out data, identifying average homework amounts for students who feel the load is too much and for those who feel it is about right.  Grade level teams have committed to reevaluating our homework amounts as articulated in the Binder Reminder.  As a staff our goal is to clarify our grade-level and subject expectations when it comes to homework and be able to justify what we feel is appropriate at each grade level. In order to do that, we will need to know more. Following up on a Lead Team suggestion, we would like to investigate randomly selected focus groups of students and parents to gather more detailed data.  We feel an opportunity to have deeper discussions with a representative sample of student and parents would yield even more useful data. I continue to welcome your feedback and input on this issue.  I am confident that we can work together to create a successful plan. - Daniel Norbutas & Andy Boone - Hall Principal & Assistant Principal