Dear Parents:
We are excited for the start of the school year and look forward to welcoming your son/daughter to Alder Creek Middle School.
This year we will transition our grading system from letter grades based on percentages to a standards referenced grading system which will reflect your son/daughter’s learning based upon the content standards that he/she has been taught.  We want you to be informed and understand that this decision is to help your child in the learning process and focus on learning. It is easy to understand a traditional grade, but traditional grades do not provide enough information to help students know what to do next.  The new grading system will give students more feedback and guide students on what they need to focus on in order to achieve proficiency. This transition will allow teachers to grade based upon your son/daughter’s progression of learning relative to the standards that have been taught each trimester.
Our report card for this school year will report student achievement based on content standards from English language arts, social studies, science, math, PE, and reading (academic foundations). Student participation and behavior will be reflected in the comment section of the report card. Because we are in transition,  the standards will not be listed on the report card this year. The meaning of our grades, numbers not letters as noted below in the chart, will reflect the progression of your son/daughter’s learning of the content standards taught within each trimester (very similar to the elementary school report card). Honor Roll and Distinguished Scholar Program criteria will be the following: (1) students receiving 3’s or higher in all classes will earn Honor Roll recognition and (2) students receiving all 3’s with a minimum of two 4’s in core content classes will earn Distinguished Scholar.  

Standards Grading:  
Student progress towards mastering subject areas can be monitored by logging into AERIES.net
4.0 Above standard at this time
3.0 Meeting standard at this time
2.0 Approaching standard at this time
1.0  Below standard at this time

Participation in interscholastic sports is encouraged to teach the value of teamwork, foster community and school pride, and for the benefits of physical activity.  Athletes must maintain academic eligibility (no 1’s) and adhere to school behavior guidelines. Student athlete grades are monitored on a weekly basis via the coaches and teachers.  
Please see the attachment for a sample report card.  We will continue to provide more information for you as the school year begins. For more information with this transition, we invite you to attend a parent night on Thursday, October 18. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We look very forward to welcoming your son/daughter to Alder Creek Middle School!
Hien Larson
Principal
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The PTO will be selling School Supply Kits for $45 at Cougar Days. These will work as a basic starter set for all grades. Packaged in an awesome Cougar drawstring bag, the kids include the following: 
3-ring clear pencil pouch
6 #2 pencils
Box of 12 colored pencil
Pack of 5 pens - 3 black, 1 blue, 1 red
3 pack of highlighters - 1 yellow, 1 blue, 1 pink
1 fine point Sharpie
1 ultra-fine point Sharpie
2 3"x3" sticky notes
2 composition notebooks
2 glue sticks
​1 cube pencil sharpener

"Benefit" is a great program which allows you to contribute money to Alder Creek PTO. Tons of places you usually shop participate, such as Starbucks, Target, Whole Foods, Amazon, AMC, WalMart, etc. It costs you nothing except a few minutes to set up the app! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/benefit/id725350149?mt=8​