22 MAIN STREET ST.

NEWBURY, MASSACHUSETTS 01985-1897

MERRIMAC

April 7, 2003

 Dear Parent or Guardian:

On January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 into law. There is a new federal requirement that all states and school districts in receipt of Title I assistance must, by 2003, issue annual "report cards" to parents. The purpose of the report card is to give parents information about their child’s school in terms of academic achievement and the professional qualifications of its teachers. By making this information available each year, parents will learn about their school’s goals and student performance.

Attached is your child’s school’s first "report card." Included is information about the qualifications of the teachers on the faculty. The information is divided into two parts: (1) the percentage of teachers who are certified or licensed to teach in Massachusetts and (2) the percentage of classes taught by teachers who are highly qualified in core academic areas such as mathematics, science, reading, history, English language arts, etc. Both pieces of information are intended to help you understand the backgrounds and preparation of the teachers who are working with your child. As you will see, most if not all, teachers in the school are certified and licensed. Most teachers meet the state’s new standard, "highly qualified." Those who do not meet this rigorous standard are either working, via a waiver granted by the Massachusetts Department of Education, or are long-term or permanent substitutes. While qualified to teach within Massachusetts, certain teachers are now in the process of demonstrating subject matter competency through additional coursework. No Child Left Behind requires that all teachers be highly qualified by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, and thus what you will see in the percentages are indications of how far our school has to go in order to comply with this deadline.

No Child Left Behind requires that test results for reading and mathematics be reported annually. The information contained summarizes how students did on the last round of MCAS examinations. The data is broken down by grade level, subject area, and the performances of different subgroups, or learning populations in the school such as students with disabilities. This information is similar to what you received about your child’s MCAS scores in November. Now these data have been added together to provide a snapshot of how the students in our school have performed as a whole.

Additionally you will find information about how well the school is doing relative to others in the district and to its performance in past years. The "Proficiency Index" (PI) scores for Mathematics and English Language Arts are part of Massachusetts’ School Performance Rating system. This system has been set up to comply with the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind which require, among other things, that each school make adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting a national goal of all students being "proficient" in mathematics and English by the year 2013-2014. The Proficiency scores and AYP ratings in the student achievement data are meant to signal whether or not our school is on target to meet this goal or whether it has fallen behind and is "in need of improvement."

The information describing student performance shows that we have made AYP for English Language Arts and Mathematics for 4 consecutive years. Therefore we are not "in need of improvement."

This school report card is designed to help you be an informed consumer. A complete district report card for our school system is also now available for you to review. It may be found at the Superintendent’s Office, at your school’s office, in your Town/City library, or on our district’s website at www.prsd.org.

In closing, please know that we are prepared to help you further should you have more questions about what this report card means and how you can use it to help you and your child grow stronger academically. Please feel free to call me or your child’s principal if you need additional assistance.

Sincerely,

John D. MacLean, Jr., Ed.D.

Superintendent