New Rochelle Schools to Identify Students for Kaleidoscope Programs

On August 7, the State Education Department released to local school districts individual student scores from last April’s English Language Arts (ELA) and Math assessments. The Office of Curriculum and Instruction is presently identifying rising Grade 4 students who will be invited to participate in both the District Kaleidoscope Program at Webster School and the Modified Kaleidoscope Programs in each of our K-5 elementary schools, according to a post on the District's website. 

The district expects to complete the mailing of letters to the families of students who qualified for the District Program by August 13th. Letters will be sent during the month of August to the families of children who qualified for the Modified Program in their current school, according to the post.  This cut points for a student to meet the criterion on the Grade 3 ELA and Math assessments were set to take into consideration the high level of difficulty for the first year of these new tests. In order for a student to qualify through the ELA “window,” they needed to have a scale score of 354 (high Level 3) or higher. A student needed to have a scale score of 357 (low Level 4) or higher to qualify through the Math “window.”  

The District expressed its "regret that the wait to receive these scores has led to this delay in identifying students to participate in the Kaleidoscope Programs," in the post, which went on to state, "Other achievement measures in ELA and Math will be considered as the criteria for future years so that these decisions can be made in a timelier manner."