REPORTS TO THE BOARD

Teaching and Learning Report

To: Michael Green

From: Asha Riley

Date: February 20, 2019

Re: Teaching & Learning

AgileMind-College Ready Math Initiative Update:

This year our HS participated in a grant intended to improve freshman success in Algebra. The grant program includes a specific curriculum, teacher training, and doubles the length of the period. We had tried extended math classes before, however, students become disengaged during the course of the long window of time, and their dislike for math often worsened. This time around the curriculum we are using is much more engaging. As I walked through classrooms this week, students were attending, solving equations successfully, and displaying positive attitudes. Our teachers have done an excellent job!

Our most recent data reflects that 93% of freshmen students (180 of the 193) are passing their math classes in the first semester. Our counselors also indicated that they have not had students requesting to transfer out of the class, which was the case the last time we tried extending the class period.

With this in mind, we applied for an additional grant that would allow us to continue this program into next year's Geometry course. Since this is working for our kids, we'd like to continue to build on its success and offer the same curriculum and instructional practices.

Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling:

Teachers matter more to student success than any other aspect of schooling. They, not programs, teach students how to read. Yet a study of most teaching institutions found only 29% actually prepare teachers with all five essential components for literacy instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. (National Council on Teacher Quality 2013).

With this in mind, our K-4 leadership team has decided to make a significant investment in our staff and provide a deep and thorough training in the foundations of literacy.

LETRS is a professional development course that bridges deep, meaningful research into practical classroom success. The course provides the What, Why, and How of Literacy Instruction. Including how to:

• Distinguish between the research base for best practices and other competing ideas not supported by scientific evidence
• Understand how language, reading, and writing are related to one another
• Make instructional decisions and program choices with reference to scientific research evidence, strategic use of assessments, and observations of students
• Deliver comprehensive, integrated, language, and literacy instruction as defined by standards and by research for a given grade, age, or ability level

Preschool Partnerships:

The benefits of the training above can be significantly enhanced if we also include our local preschool teachers. The more they know about our literacy goals and the instruction we provide in our classrooms, the better they can prepare kids to enter our system. As such, we have reached out to every preschool in the area and invited them. So far, four have confirmed they will send their staff to join us. We are very excited about the conversations this collaboration will lead to.

K-4 Math Adoption Update:

On January 17, the Adoption Committee met and reviewed three resources.  The full agenda (process for review) is attached. After a thorough review of our options, the team came to a consensus on the following decisions that day.

• Not to pursue the Bridges resource for further review. While the Bridges resource was aligned and has positive teacher reviews from other districts, the company is difficult to work with and support for implementation is weak. The resources were not user friendly and would need more support to implement than the company appears to offer. This situation mirrors our current circumstance with the Eureka curriculum and we’d like to use a resource that is more user friendly and better supported by its creators.  
• We will pursue continued investigation of Ready Math and pilot a series of lessons during the month of February.
• We will table Math Expressions. If the team is dissatisfied with Ready Math as a result of the pilot, then we may revisit Math Expressions and investigate it further.
• Each teacher will select a set of lessons they’d like to pilot in their classroom and what they hope to learn about the resource during that time. They will meet with their principal to discuss that plan before piloting.
• Asha will send each teacher surveys to gather teacher and student perspectives throughout the pilot.
• We will meet on March 4 to review the results of the survey and discuss the pilot. At that time, the committee will make a recommendation to pursue the adoption or continue looking.