Cliffs

The Plains Indians had a clever way of ensuring that they had enough buffalo meat, hides, and bones to sustain them throughout the winter. This time of the year was the perfect time for big buffalo hunts because the animals’ coats had grown long and thick.  They found that the most efficient way to kill bison was to take advantage of their herding instincts. They built a series of cairns (piles of rock) that narrowed as it led to the edge of a cliff.  The idea was that the buffalo herds which came into the mouth of this trap would be frightened by the tribesmen who would hoop and holler from behind causing a buffalo stampede. Women and children would spring up from behind the cairns and hoop and holler as well. The buffalo just kept running fell to their death after a drop of 60 feet or so as they ran out of ground and gravity took over.  At the bottom of the cliff, Plains Indian butchers would be ready to field dress their food, harvest the skin, and collect the bones for future use.  Those buffalo whose fall had been softened by landing on previously fallen buffalo were immediately slain by skilled hunters from the tribe who used spears, arrows, and stone mallets to do so. From there, the entire tribe, including children, had assigned duties to aid in using the buffalo for the good of the tribe.  What would PETA say today?

Acuity testing begins next week.  This is HUGE opportunity to catch our kids so that they do not fall off the cliff!  The purpose of Acuity is a predictive measure of how well kids will do on the ISTEP.  Now, I realize that we are not herding buffalo here.  That’s not the point. What is valuable with this assessment is not that the tests are given; rather, the value lies in the results being used.  Not only will this be the determining factor in RtI period placement for a few months, but you can get a measure of what skill gaps are not filled and make plans for remediation.  Remember that this testing covers the standards from last year and weaknesses will show through. That is, only if you use the results.  As the Indians used an entire tribe to secure provisions through common sense planning, we can do the same through data-drive decisions from the results of Acuity Predictive A.  We certainly do not want any kid falling off the cliff!