Mon Dec 19 2011, 6:15pm
District Meeting Room (45 minute Workshop at 6:15, Regular business at 7:00)
Regular Meeting

REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Director of Learning Report

December 14, 2011

TO: Michael Green, Superintendent

FROM:  Asha Riley

RE: Instruction, Curriculum, Assessment, and Professional Development Monthly Update

Learning Walks: I am pleased to report that roughly half of our teaching staff volunteered to participate in Learning Walks last month! Each building principal hosted a learning walk one day this month in their building. This is a great step forward in the area of professional development as it brings allows staff to observe each other, discuss their teaching practice, and build a common vision of effective pedagogy. This round of learning walks focused on evidences of effective management practices that create classroom environments conducive to teaching and learning. We received positive comments from many staff following the learning walks. Afterwards we noted several staff had gone back to their classrooms and revamped their classroom environment to include new learning they gained from the experience.

November 4th Middle School Math Observations: Recently our Middle School math department observed teachers at Shahala Middle School teaching with the Connected Math Program resources.  We found the experience to be very helpful as we have begun to use some of these resources in our 7th and 8th grade math classes.

November 10th Middle School English Department:  In an effort to strategically address the declining performance of students our middle school teachers determined the need for better data, data that would inform them of student achievement of course standards prior to taking the state MSP. Therefore, the middle school English department came together and spent the day deconstructing the reading standards, analyzing the test specifications, and designing quality assessments. After deepening their understanding of the standards they designed three common assessments that will measure student achievement of reading standards. They will administer these assessments three times over the course of the year and analyze the results. Based on the results of these assessments the teachers will be able to monitor and adjust their instruction prior to the Spring MSP and improve student achievement in reading.

November 21st High School Social Studies Curriculum Planning: Next year we will be shifting Washington State History down to the middle school as it is a non-credited graduation requirement. It is a shift most schools in the state have already made and simply makes good sense. In making this transition it was also decided that we shift U.S. History from the middle school up to the high school. In preparation of implementing this transition we determined the curriculum maps that articulate these courses were in need of revision. The high school social studies team met and updated each course curriculum map to include clearly stated learning targets, standards addressed, and curriculum used to address the content.