Technological College Preparatory
World Academy
6000 Ridge Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45213 • 513-531-9500
Dear Parents,
I am happy to have your child return to school safe and ready to get back to building for a bright future.
Students will be taking the Proficiency Test in March. There is little time for students to comprehend and be able to demonstrate competence in all of the objectives by then. The feat is great but I am confident your child will do well if he/she seriously works everyday in class and does a little work every single night. Retention of knowledge is more possible when learning is done in small chunks, a little at a time, regularly revisiting objectives. Your child will only do well if there is collaboration between you, the teachers and your child.
To help your child do the very best he/she can, T.C.P. World Academy has purchased a Show What You Know and Blast Off or Sharpen Up workbook for your child. These books contain samples of most things your child will be expected to be able to do on the Proficiency Test. Whether the teacher assigns homework or not, your child should always have something to work on each night. He/She should either complete at least two pages in each subject or review work already corrected he/she may have had difficulty with the first time. It would be great if you could have him/her write an informative paper, a persuasive paper, an explanatory paper or a letter at least three times each week Make sure they have a topic sentence (what the paper is going to be about) and three supporting sentences or paragraphs and a concluding sentence, restating the topic sentence. The more your child writes and gets a little bit of correction, the better he/she will get. Encourage them to focus on the thought development, proper capitalization, and placement of periods or other punctuation at the end of each thought (sentence). Let them read their work to you, their brother or sister, the family pet or a doll. Just make sure they read their work out loud so they can self correct their own work, as well.
The Show What You Know workbook has test taking strategies your child should become familiar with.
So that you have a list of everything legislature and the Ohio Department of Education expects your child to be able to demonstrate knowledge of and to let you know what the teachers are teaching your child this year, I am attaching a copy of the 4th Grade or 6th Grade Learning Outcomes with this letter. This should help you help your child.
Starting next week, students will be working on the Orchard Program on the computers. This is a supplemental individualized teaching tool to help students learn and demonstrate knowledge of the objectives. Students will be working at their own pace on their specific academic need. I would like you to purchase a little cheap computer mouse for your child so that he/she can always be able to work on a computer. Unfortunately, we have some students in our school that choose to destroy our mice, adversely affecting the education of all the other students in the school We continue to repair and replace things but I believe if students have their own mouse they may take better care of it and no other students can hinder their chance to use the computer regularly. You do not need to purchase the expensive mice we must have for high volume use. I believe you may find functional cheap mice for $8.00 or less.
Finally, we are also providing Saturday School, Saturday mornings from 8:30 until 12:30. Only serious students who will complete the work and fully cooperate with the teacher will be permitted to participate. There must be consistent attendance for the continuity of the instruction to make a positive difference. Space is limited, so you must make a request before the class is full.
All of this may sound like much but I have researched how successful academic achievement occurs in Japan, Walnut Hills High School, the affluent academically achieving suburban schools and the private Jewish schools and believe me, they work more than this. Whatever you put into something is what you get out. If you want your child to have the opportunity to earn scholarships to great universities all over the United States to prepare for wonderful high paying career choices, they must develop good study habits and do well on all State and National Test. If your child chooses a career choice that does not require a degree, he/she will still need good study skills and certain academic skills to read manuals and perform job tasks. He/She will need good reading and math skills to legally earn much money and manage it wisely.
If you have time to volunteer in the classrooms or the lunchroom, please call me or send a letter with your child. If you need any further assistance, feel free to call me. (531-9500)
If your child does well on the Proficiency Tests, (4th and 6th ) it will make it easier for him/her to be accepted in excellent high achieving Junior High Schools that will continue to educate your child with the high standards we maintain at T.C.P. World Academy. What is more important is that students do their very best and become independent learners who can make it anywhere!
Sincerely,
Karen Y. French
Karen Y. French
Superintendent