001Okay. So, welcome to the curriculum committee meeting of April 6, 2026. Um, with us we have the members of the committee which is Andrea Aki, uh, Ian myself and Anmarie Mancini. Ian, I I I failed to mention your last name. I apologize. Thomas. Um, we also have uh Kaitton Crowley and I'm having trouble reading your name. Um, D >> Daisy, I apologize. I apologize. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And we have uh Mark Master Joseph on, I believe. Did I miss anyone? No. Okay, good. Uh, I believe the the uh first um topic on the agenda was to go over the um the minutes of the last meeting and um then make a uh a motion on whether or not to accept those as is. So, uh am I on target here, Anmarie? Okay. Thanks.
002Okay. So, um does anyone want to make a motion to uh approve the minutes of the last meeting? >> That I move to >> Yeah, I move I move that motion. Whatever you said, that's what I moved. >> Okay. And I Ian, were you about to say something? Are you going to second it or? >> Uh, no. I'm all set. Uh, yeah. I don't think we need to second it, but um >> Okay. >> Yeah, I'm all for it. I have no changes. >> Okay. Um All right. So, uh um if if there's there's no discussion on the minutes of the last meeting, um we'll uh um accept them as is and they'll be forever written that way and we can move on to the second item on the uh agenda. And um I'm going
003to turn the floor over. I don't have a copy of the agenda in front of me right now. I lost it because I was in such a hurry and that's my fault. Um, so Ann Marie, would it be okay if I turned that over to you? Okay, thank you. >> Right. Thank you so much. So, the first item on the agenda tonight is a review of the manufacturing courses offered at Fitch High School. This was placed on the agenda in response to a um a request from the larger board. Um this was a discussion that happened at either a community of practice a community of the whole meeting or a regular board meeting. I can't recall uh what type of board meeting but this was part of the discussion and so I'm prepared to share
004some information with all of you about um the existing program right now at Fitch High School as a part of this presentation. So, um, Caitlyn, would you do you need me to project or do you have the document to pro, uh, to project? >> Which attachment is it? >> Um, it should say, um, >> it's labeled I am resource recommendation because these are like beginning slides. >> Yep, I have that. I'll share. Thank you. Okay. So, you can see well I was going to say you can see there that's the uh the agenda. And right now, as I said, I'm going to go over kind of a a brief history of um our current manufacturing program and also include some information on the review of the funding because that was also a request that was
005made by the larger board. If you wouldn't mind scrolling ahead. So this slide kind of reviews for you a timeline of our like the program in its history and uh I did a little research on this is with the help of a number of people that at Fitch High School that have been involved in the program but I learned that the program was first started in 2009 and that's when uh the manufacturing courses specifically intro to manufacturing and manufacturing tech one were first introduced to our program of studies in 2016 our program was expanded to include the manufacturing technology 2 course and that course was approved at the time by the curriculum council um and during the there was a brief period and uh Dr. Acriman, you could probably remember this because I know you
006served on the board at the time. There was about a two and a half year period between the years 2016 and 2018 in which the board of ed there was uh there was probably a curriculum committee but um there was an internal committee called like a curriculum council that approved all curriculum documents. They did not go to the full board. And so during that time that's when manufacturing tech 2 was approved. Mhm. >> Um in 2019 was the first time that we received Perkins funding and that Perkins funding was used um to add a second instructor in our manufacturing program and we added Project Lead the Way to our program of studies as well. In 2020, our program expanded again to um use Perkins funding to for that. Oh, oops. I'm sorry. Um to add
007It looks like I have duplicate here and I apologize about that. It shouldn't that probably should just say adds pro uh project lead the way to the program of studies. It shouldn't have both of that redundant information. And then in uh 2021 um our district received the DODIA career pathways grant to support our manufacturing program. At that point our CAD course was added. And then finally in 2025 I know there was a question again when this went to the full board about a pause in which some courses were not being run. There was only one year in which a um the manufacturing courses were not run that was in school year 2324 the manufacturing course specifically um there after a pause I believe during the 22 23 year um there was a one-year pause and
008then the manufacturing course was reoffered to students oh the I'm sorry the pause was in 2324 but it was reoffered to students in 2025 along with the project lead the way and CAD courses. So hopefully this answers a lot of the questions that came up in terms of what um curriculum courses had been reviewed and approved, when were those approvals secured, and then also um how Perkins funding is used. But if you go to the next slide, I have um I went through all of our Perkins funding applications and here I itemized for you um the members of our board um how Perkins funding was used since it was secured. So in 2019, that was the first year that we received Perkins funding from the state department of education as one of our entitlement grants.
009And the um recipients of the funds were our health science program, our culinary program and engineering via the project lead the way in manufacturing courses. In 2020, we um we hired a new instructor and that's what the Perkins funding went toward. In looks like 2021 through 2023, our culinary arts department kind of cornered the market on our Perkins funding. In 2024, um, all the funds were the funds were evenly dist distributed among all of our programs in the CTE department. In 2025, most of that funding went to the health sciences and culinary arts department. And in 2026, if you if you remember from the presentation uh just about I want to say maybe two weeks ago now, um the funds have been evenly distributed among several programs including 30,000 for manufacturing. And I believe part
010of that was through a supplemental Perkins grant. And so again, that was um one of the questions that was asked was um you know, if we are to provide a certain amount of money through the Perkins grant to the manufacturing program, will there be other programs that are negatively impacted? And um hopefully this answers that question in terms of, you know, there are programs in the CTE department that have been receiving funding and have, you know, received basically the materials and resources that they've needed over the years. And then the last question was you know what pro what courses are we going to run and have these courses been approved by this by this committee? And so the intro to manufacturing course is one that we plan to offer for a half credit that has
011been in the program of studies as you probably remember from that timeline I just reviewed since 2009. And um you know there's no timeline for uh you know because it's not a new course there's no timeline for bringing it forward to this committee. The manufacturing tech one and two courses we also plan to continue offering um the manufacturing tech one course was offered for the first time in 2009. Um we use it was uh brought into the program of studies. We use the um the YMPI curriculum as the foundation. uh the manufacturing tech 2 course I believe was first approved um during that 2016 period um by and so it was approved not by this committee but by the curriculum internal curriculum council or so to speak I think that's what it was called that
012also that curriculum is also uh grounded in the YMPI curriculum again that's something that's purchased and the last course um that we plan to offer next year but not until the spring is a robotics course that's going be a half credit course. It's not yet in the program of studies because we're waiting to hire our new teacher that's going to be in this program. And so I probably will bring that forward either, you know, sometime late this spring, but most likely in the fall for implementation in the spring of 2027. We anticipate that course will also be a course that we purchase. There's a number of robotics courses that have been written and are published for um for schools to use by credible organizations. That's most likely what we will do as well. And um
013I will bring that forward as soon as the high school is ready. You know, they've hired a teacher. That teacher um works with our consultant to choose the correct, you know, course or the best course for our students. It will be a halfyear elective and uh you know, we'll move forward with the process at that time. I believe that's the last slide in this part of the presentation. Mitch, I see that your hand is up. >> Yes. Um, what I wanted to ask is with that robotics course >> Yeah. >> and the robotics club that we have, is there going to be um overlap or is there going to be some kind of a continuity there or has that not been uh discussed? >> Yeah. Well, we anticipate, you know, at this point, it's hard
014to um we have some student, we have, I think they told me that there's approximately 50 to 55 students that have registered for the course. We anticipate, of course, there's going to be overlap between the students that are in the robotics club and the students that register for the course. Um, but they haven't scheduled, they haven't finished the scheduling process yet, and we want there to be synergy between those two groups, of course. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Mhm. >> Ian. Uh thank you. Um so just to clarify uh um so uh first off the Perkins grant situation so there is going to be impact on other other courses um that have been supported by that that grant. It's going to be just a a broad >> back to that slide Caitlyn. So what this
015slide is designed to show you is nope nope go n go one more. See where it says Perkins funding. There you go. Can you show the whole slide? Thank you, Caitlyn. Um, what this is, this slide is designed to show you is that over the years since 2019, the first year that we received Perkins funding that this funding has has um basically been distributed where the needs are. So, in 2019, everybody in the CTE program basically shared in that funding. In 2021, it looks like it was mostly manufacturing. But through from 2021 through 23, for example, it looked like culinary arts had the greatest need. So they received most of that funding. In 2024, the funds were evenly distributed. And then in 2025, it looks like health sciences and culinary arts received a lot of
016that funding. So while you might say, well, other programs are impacted. I mean, I think anytime you make choices about, you know, funding is going to go here versus here. Yeah, other programs are impacted because not everyone is getting the money. But at the same time, you know, we have um you know, our leaders at the high school, our our our leadership team, the principal, the assistant principles as as well as the department leader for um the CTE program who works with sits actually sits down with the department and says, "Okay, what are our needs? Let's talk about, you know, what are what the needs are? What's the justification?" and then they develop the budget for this Perkins funding. So I would I would say to you um no there's not going to be there's
017no one in the other in the other areas that are that are going to be um going without because this year manufacturing is getting you know the bulk of this. Um again it says here funds evenly distributed plus there's that supplemental Perkins grant that is helping to fund this manufacturing program. >> Well you know yeah I mean that's one way to look at it and the other way is you know it's a broader base of of programming where we're enhancing programming so we're spreading out this pool of money further and wider. So either way I mean it looks like there's a history of shifting the funds from one place to another depending on the need. So, you know, it's not it's not a flipping of the table, so to speak, or it's not a massive
018hole. It's just a one more program that's going to be incorporated into this matrix. >> Yeah. And, you know, as you can see here, starting back in 2019 when we first got the funding, the manufacturing program was incorporated. So, it's not like um it's not like they've been added and now like instead of having five programs, now there's six that have to be where the money has to be split. It's just that for a while looked like manufacturing actually didn't get any funds for a number of years. >> Right. So, um and into the next uh slide, I guess if we could move to the next one. Um so, yeah, like that that removes my concerns as far as like the funding goes. It seems like it's just going to be a continuation of like
019what's been past practiced as far as shifting that funding around and it's going to be a game time decision. Um uh with with the curriculum it looks like a lot of this stuff is pre-existing. >> Yeah. So the as I said uh man intro to manufacturing was first uh introduced in 20 uh 2009 as well as the manufacturing one course. Manufacturing 2 was in uh introduced and approved in 2016. So it's really just the robotics course that would be a new course that would come forward to this committee. >> Right. So I guess my concern is with the 2009 curriculum and the 2016 curriculum. >> Yeah. >> Uh the last time that they came through like that that curriculum >> was focused on the manufacturing program that we had at the time >> was run
020through the wood shop. Is that correct? >> You know I have I had have not looked at in putting this together. Obviously I had a lot of work to do in order and also to prepare for the other part of this presentation. I did not you know put my eyes on uh manufacturing the manu intro to manufacturing curriculum. I had to have to trust that um you know that this curriculum is uh because it was uh approved was written and reviewed by this committee. Obviously the the members have probably changed significantly since 20 2009 but um if there's an update of course they'll come forward and tell me there needs to be an update and uh in which case it will go through this process. >> Right. Yeah. So, I mean, just intuitively looking at
021it, I'm thinking that there's probably going to have to be some kind of update, especially since like this manufacturing course that's coming in is going to be primarily focus focused on the electronics and the robotics end of things like you know, more machinery, more machine shop type stuff as opposed to wood shop type stuff. Um so I I do anticipate so the update process would that follow the similar pathway and timeline if >> they from what I understand if it's if it is a minor revision um then that does not go through this process. It actually is an internal process that goes through my office. If it's a significant revision then it's something that goes through the process here with this curriculum committee. But you know no worries. Um, I have been um almost like
022um I don't I want to use this term, but it's going to come off the wrong way. I I've been like a bulldog in terms of making sure that people are following the correct process for these um for these courses and making sure that curriculum looks a a very specific way and h and follows the um the board policy. You know, when I took on this role, there was a lot of cleaning up to do from my predecessor. uh no disrespect to him, but um I think that maybe uh because of COVID or a variety of things that um things um may have not been as strict and so I'm trying to you know put these systems back into place and um everyone knows that um I'm very u strict with the rules about this.
023>> Well, I definitely appreciate a standardized and formalized approach as as you as you know. Um and so I guess the other question I have is what is the threshold? What's the dividing line for the line of demarcation between um like what's what would you consider or what is considered significant enough to warrant uh going through the full process versus what can be handled internally. >> Yeah. So there that has not been um that has not been like articulated obviously in detail in either our curriculum handbook or like the policy or the regulation but you know in my I'd say you know I've been in this type of role since 2008 either as a director of curriculum or as an assistant superintendent for curriculum um you know basically uh when people put forward their proposal
024and they describe and and you've seen the proposal document Ian but um when it's described to me in that proposal docu document uh what work needs to be done. I use my professional judgment at that point and say no this is significant or um so you need to come forward through the board process or um this is this really falls under the umbrella of a minor a minor revision. >> So is that an area of need where we might have to make a referral to the policy committee in order to establish like a like a firm understanding of what that threshold is? >> I don't believe so. I I believe that you can trust my professional judgment on that. >> Oh, right. No, and I'm fine with that for now, but like you know just
025thinking about in the future and in general just overall just to have something established so that if anyone has concerns we can refer to it and say well here's the line. I generally feel like um anyone that you that holds the role that I do has experience in in curriculum writing um will know that you know when we're talking about um revising say for example a curriculum document is consists of eight units and we're talking about more than half of that uh curriculum has to be changed or something like that. I mean, that's something that I would say, yeah, you know, when we're talking about half of the of a of a course is being changed or more. Uh, but if we're talking about minor revisions, I we're going to change one we're going to
026modify one unit or, you know, we're making some changes to uh add in some new instructional strategies, well, that's that's a revision. >> Okay. Um, I'm I'm fine with that. I I guess just moving forward, would it be a thing? Would it be reasonable for us as a committee to expect at least a report if there are like a series of binary revisions that need to be done just so we have an understanding of what's been changed? >> Yeah. Do you mean specific to the manufacturing courses or to everything? >> U well since this is the case in point, yeah, I think it'd be great to have it specific to this course, but then like as a practice moving forward, I think it also be good. >> Oh yeah, I'm happy I'm happy to do
027that. I actually have a number I'm in the process right now of of uh working with our um teachers to identify you know which courses might need to be revised during the summer and um so I'm happy that you know uh maybe in the beginning of the year to give an update on what courses are re revised and what types of revisions were were made in those courses. >> I think that be great and I think that'd be a good perfect timing for it beginning of the school year. >> Excellent. Thank you. We'll do >> appreciate it. >> Um, that's pretty much all I have for now. We can move on. Thank you. >> Mitch, did you have another question? >> Yeah, I'm I'm I'm sorry. Uh, >> no, don't apologize. Happy to answer all
028of your questions. >> This may be a repeat, but the uh third column in program of studies uh yes, no, and then YMPI. >> Yeah. Would you mind just taking, you know, 30 seconds to to run through what what that means? I think I know what it means, but I >> Yeah, >> you know what? I forget what the acronym is, but I know YMPAPI is one of the um purchase curriculums um that we uh work with and when it it's uh something that uh I know is recently I want to say hasn't has been updated but is still something that is considered valid because as we've been working with Lori, our consultant, um she also this was kind of like one of the um resources that she had actually recommended. >> Okay. Thank you.
029>> And whether or not it's a program of studies, I'm assuming like everything is a yes except for robotics. And that's because it's not uh that a um a required class. Is that what that is? >> Uh program of studies means it ha it's not an approved course. It hasn't been approved yet by this curriculum committee. Meaning that then because it hasn't been approved, it could not be um written in our Fish High School program of studies. Um, and so, um, but once it goes through the process, that's something that, uh, we obviously can add into our program of studies and then students can enroll. >> Thank you for the clarification. >> Uh, Mitch, I I just raised my hand again. I I have one more question, a quick followup. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Ian.
030Go for it. >> Yeah, no worries. I just Yeah, my hand was up and then I I took it down and put it back up again. Um, so quick uh just a follow up on the robotics situation. Um, Mitch's question reminded me of of that. >> Um, so understandably, so so the the the students that have uh >> expressed interest in the robotics course that was all just at still at survey level, right? It's not like >> Yeah, that was like survey level. Absolutely. Yeah. So they um they were able So kids haven't like officially enrolled in that course. It was kind of like if we were to um if we were to offer this course, would you be interested? That kind of thing. And I think again it was somewhere between like 50 and
03155. Maybe it was between 50 and 60 kids, >> right? Because we can't actually register anyone for a class that doesn't quite >> that doesn't doesn't exist yet. Um and as far as like the the actual construction of the curriculum goes, you talking about a prepackaged or purchased. >> Yeah. Uh so our consultant who's been working with us has let us know that there are I believe four different options that can be purchased from very reputable um I guess organizations that you know have uh created these documents and she actually recommends kind of using a combination of two and in my conversations um in working with her as well as you know um as the high school and so but really she thinks it's important for us to hire that teacher first see if that
032person brings any of his or her own expertise and background to this and it get that person's input. >> Understood. Appreciate that. And actually on that on that line, how how is the process going with the hiring? Have we had applicants? Are there interviews happening? >> From what I understand, uh we had applicants and I don't know. I think that they were going to start um interviewing, but um I have not asked recently. I can follow up and ask about that. >> I definitely appreciate that. And as far as like the anticipated crossover um you know I'm not sure I can't speak for the robotics club people but um I just would want to you know from my own perspective as an individual member of the board I just am very cautious to assume too
033much of any sort of blending between the two operations. Um >> sure >> just cuz you know uh you know the the robotics has been established the robotics you know team I should say has been uh you know established for 20 years and been doing their own thing their own way and producing um you know great team members and and people have been getting great you know uh loggable hours and resume building hours out of that experience. So they have their own thing kind of dialed in real well and I would be hesitant to blur those lines in any way that might offset the the the the balance between. So you know as manufacturing moves forward I would just encourage that manufacturing just kind of focus doing its own thing and and even with the
034robotics course you know you know parallel you know like like train tracks you know like they're working in as it you know in parallel together accomplishing similar goals but not crossing over >> necessarily so that >> one's not being constrained by the other and vice versa. Of course, we don't want anyone to constrain, you know, any any any of our programs to feel constrained by another. But I think um you know, in an ideal world, maybe we have some uh some of our ch our students from the middle school coming up. They're interested in a robotics course and that sparks their um their excitement and then they want to join the robotics course, the um the robotics team. You know, there's so much research out there that says that um if a student is uh
035in involved in an extracurricular activity such as a club, a sport, music, drama, it doesn't really matter what it is, they're going to be that much more invested in school. They're going to uh attend more regularly. They're going to get better grades. And so whenever I see an opportunity for our our our students or any students to take what they're learning and then extend that into some kind of extracurricular like that, I just think it's a it's great. Um so who knows they they may or may not, you know, this those things may or may not wind up um overlapping uh where we have it may be one kid, but if it um if it does something even for one kid, I think that that would be really cool. Yeah, agreed 100%. Appreciate it. Thank
036you. >> Yeah. Um Ian, I'd like to take this opportunity to comment. I thought that was well said. Thank you. >> I'm sorry, Mitch. I was just saying uh I know Dr. Eman's been relatively quiet, so I want to check to see if she had any questions. >> You know, that's funny because I was thinking about this. I'm I'm leerary about um paralleling with with again I have no question that the robotics club is a wonderful organization and that kids learn so much but I have real fears about an outside organization getting involved with school with with uh district decisions and I see the possibility of a club dictating curriculum and I fear my I have dread about that. So we need to be really careful about how much authority we grant to any outside
037organization and I am Amory do you have any thoughts on that? Yeah. Um I agree with you. Um in terms of those concerns, I do not anticipate that I'll be taking any marching orders from anyone other than than uh Superintendent Austin and and certainly the members of this board of education specifically starting with this curriculum committee about um you know what a course will look like. uh that you know I don't have an expertise obviously as a former high school and middle and high school English teacher in uh the area of robotics but I think that we need to leave that up leave um that type of programming up to our um our experts specifically our teachers um rather than maybe um someone that is uh running one of our clubs but >> exactly >>
038you know we're not we're not at that place right now but you know that's why I always feel like it whenever we can cooperate um and work together. And that's my ultimate hope and I think superintendent and Austin's as well that um you know if these um if the the person who's running the course or the individuals who are running the manufacturing program because you know it's probably more than one you know person running manufacturing and robotics can um coexist with our um friends in the robotics on the robotics team. That would be the um best case scenario I would. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. I have no I have no trouble with that. I have my fear is that out that again that an outside entity would have um so much weight in determining what
039the high school um curriculum looks like that and that's just my fear. So ju just a cautionary thought. >> We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. >> We just won't like you said, Emory. Uh you're not going to let anything like that happen and neither is this board. >> I'm sorry, Mitch. Could I just ask a quick followup of Dr. Aman? >> Sure. No, I just wanted to get Could you explain what you mean by like outside um entity influencing curriculum? Like what do you what would be an example of an outside entity in in your >> robotics club? The robotics club would you know I I hear what I maybe what I heard is not what you said that >> that is not what I said. No. >> Yeah. >> Like I was
040saying separate but equal essentially like in the sense that like robotics does what robotics does. the manufacturing is going to do what the manufacturing does. And whatever crossover may occur between the students or any sort of collaboration between the instructor and the coaches would be an organic thing, not mandated and not required and definitely not done in a way that would constrain either program. >> Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, I think we're all on the same page on that particular subject. Um, we might as well move on. >> Okay. >> And Maria, turning the floor over to you again. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mitch. Um, so now we're moving on to the second item on the agenda. And this is a pretty big deal. I've been talking to uh
041this committee as well as the whole board about um math and exploring a new resource. So, we really have been working on this for the last I would say more than a year. When I first started here in Grten, almost immediately people started talking to me about math and wanting to um see some changes in math. And I certainly understand why. We'll talk about that in just a few minutes. And so um I have some friends here that are uh are part of our meeting tonight. Um Daisy Row, um Caitlyn Crowley, and also Mark Master Joseph have agreed to be here tonight just to kind of uh support u the recommendation that I'm making tonight. And specifically that recommendation is to adopt the illustrative math resource. This is a resource that we have been piloting.
042We started um uh working with the illustrative math resource just a little bit kind of exploring it and researching the illustrative math resource last year probably around the I would say the late winter early spring. Um I did give a report last year to the um I believe to the curriculum committee and then also the full board. I reported to the full board uh this past November in which I talked a little bit about this pilot gave an update and now I want to provide an update as well as make a recommendation. So um Illustrative math has a um I would say like a a little saying or a mantra that um they want to create a world where all learners know, use and enjoy mathematics. And to be honest with you, um I love
043that because when I was a student, um I did not always sometimes I did, but not always, um know how to use mathematics effectively and I certainly did not always enjoy it. So um hopefully that's that will be our goal moving forward. All right. So this work of course is in alignment with our uh strategic BL plan specifically pillar number one accelerate student achievement. That should be no surprise to any of you. Go ahead, Caitlyn. And you probably remember this because I've showed this to you a couple of times. Um, as again almost immediately, uh, some of our my math friends here that are on the call started talking to me, specifically Daisy was one of the people that initiated this and I really think it was probably within my first week of work, she
044reached out to me and said, "What is our vision and approach to math instruction?" And I said to her, uh, I remember there was an email exchange. It was a Sunday night, and I said to her, um, Daisy, I haven't even worked here for a week yet. Um, can you give me a few minutes? And um but I was really glad that Daisy kind of pushed me to think about this and to work with our committee u not our committee but really our math team K through 12 to think about this. And so they collaborated together. I said okay well we're going to think about what our vision and approaches to math instruction. It's not going to be my vision and approach. It's going to be the team's vision and approach. So they were kind
045of developed this um in which you know they said you know we're as grat public schools district we're going to ensure equitable access to rigorous and dynamic mathematics so that students will make sense of math in creative interactive and authentic ways and specifically they identified five different kind of approaches to math. number one that we have mathematics instruction that's aligned to standards, promotes active learning, encourages real world connections and emphasizes conceptual understanding and builds coherence in our grades K through 12. Now this uh vision and our approach to mathematics really drove then the work that we did in terms of selecting a resource and if you wouldn't mind advancing. So specifically we looked at illustrative math abbreviated here as I am and illustrative math has several key design principles that align with our vision to
046mathematics specifically that it's studentled. It um really encourages real world connections for our students and that um it's cohesive through the grade levels and I think that really can't be underestimated. Currently, our students have one resource, actually two different resources that they are uh learning from in the K through five. In 6 through 8, there's another. And then in 9 through 12, depending upon their grade level, they might be accessing information from IB, they might be accessing information from AP, they might be in the nth and tth grade level and using a different resource. So, our teachers are pulling um information from a variety of different resources. And what that does is it doesn't allow us to build um structures and routines through our mathematics. And in this case, when in choosing illustrative math, it
047um we're again we're hoping to kind of build those structures and routines. So I want to talk to you a little bit about the pilot because we have been piloting illustrative our teachers have been piloting illustrative math in all K through eight schools and what I asked them to do at the start of this year was to identify one to well really not identify we identified the units but they would implement one or two units depending upon the grade level starting in August of 2025 and um in K through 5 those units were selected by our elementary math specialists and in grades six through eight the units were selected by Caitlyn Crowley, our math supervisor. She worked cooperatively with the math teachers. In that case, um the resources uh in this case that our middle
048school teachers and our math specialists were given curriculum writing hours to incorporate the uh pilot unit or units into the existing curriculum and then the resources were downloaded and placed into a shared uh curriculum drive for teachers. Now we were given access to these resources by um by one of the vendors who allowed us to have some access uh for a period of time. In terms of training um training was provided by a certified IM instructor that we've been working on focusing mainly on our mathematical practices and strengthening our teachers work in that area. But we also receive professional learning um in terms of modeling and visits to schools uh that have been implementing IM. So our teachers have had like a variety of different exposure and feedback was collected from our teachers and our
049leaders. And if you remember in November I shared with you some some of the feedback that we received from the those surveys. But you might be wondering why should we transition to illustrative math. And here I've identified four reasons. Number one, it supports improved student outcomes. And I'm going to talk about each one of these in more detail um in just a minute. Number two, it addresses the need for you're going to see I'm gonna um like reference this abbreviation a number of times. It's called HQIM. That stands for high quality instructional materials. So, I'm going to talk about that in a minute, too. It shifts our instructional approach, which I just kind of referenced at the start of this part of the presentation, and it establishes our program coherence. Now, each one of the
050subsequent slides are going to talk about these in more depth. So, Caitlyn, this goes into reason number one. So, it improves uh so I'm sorry, it supports improved outcomes for our students. If you look at this chart I've outlined here for you, the our student performance from between the years 2002 and 2005. And um you can obviously see across the grade level our performance um you know for each grade. But if you follow the highlights that follows a like for example the yellow this um shows you a cohort of students and how they've performed over time. So if you look in 2022 we had third graders who were performing um 48% of them met the standard but by 2025 when they were in grade six only 34% of them have met the standard. So hopefully
051you're following me. Um same thing in grade four in uh fourth graders in 2022 46% of them had met the standard. Um in 2025 there's only a reduction down to 44%. But you can see in 2024 that had to be a big bounce back because in 2024 they went down to 31% and then the seventh grade teachers obviously worked really hard that year to get them back up. In 2022 our fifth graders were at 39% meeting the target or benchmark. And by 2025, only 20% 27% of our eighth graders um were meeting the target. And so here um I hope that this chart really um emphasizes to you the urgency that I feel about uh improving our mathematics instruction. Okay. Reason number two is about addressing the need for highquality instructional materials. So um there
052is a lot of research linking the um importance of having high quality instructional materials and and of course then having positive learning outcomes. Um several studies have uh found that the choice in math textbooks as well as ELA and science have had significant effect on test scores. Uh and when students don't I mean when teachers do not have access to high quality instructional materials, well guess what they do? They look on the internet sometimes for up to seven hours per week for materials online or they create their own. Now, we want to help our te our teachers and make things easier for them rather than create more um obstacles or challenges for them during their week. And then as a result of these types of things, what happens? There's no alignment, quality control, or analysis
053of the effectiveness of the content that's being pulled together for students. So, I might be one sixth grade teacher, Daisy's another, Caitlyn's another, and Mark is another. We might all be pulling different materials to use with our sixth grade students. And we don't want that. We don't want our teachers in the same grade level doing different things for our kids. As a second part of this, I just want to talk to you a little bit about illustrative math. Districts that use illustrative math have also improved student outcomes. For example, in Philadelphia, they've had their highest test scores in nine years. In Los Angeles, they've exceeded their pre- pandemic math performance. And in Washington, DC, that was identified as the most improve improved area says here state. We know that they're not officially a state in
054uh in math achievement um as published by an article in 2025. And there's links to those articles so that you can read those. Uh Mitch, you have a question. Yes, I do. If you could go back one slide. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Um, how do we know that this material is a high quality um, instructional material? Is that based on what the um, consultant told us or have you had >> I'm I'm so glad that you asked that. I'm going to um you'll see that in just an just another slide or two. Could you >> Thank you. >> Yeah, no problem. Okay, Caitlyn, do you want to go to the next one? All right. So, in this slide here, um it actually addresses your question, Mitch. Thank you so much for asking that. So,
055um uh there is a platform in uh that educators use and it's called Ed Reports. It is an independent platform that is not um not like uh I would say funded by any of the textbook companies or anything like that. Um and what it does is that these companies that create the materials, they submit their um their textbook or their resource to ed reports and they have independent raiders who are trained to evaluate the resource in terms of is it a quality highquality instructional material. So the current the first slide actually shows you the current resources that our students are using in K5. Our students are using the one on the left called investigations in numbers, data and space. And you can see that um it's rated according to three gateways and the um the
056best rating is to get is green. Um the next best I guess would be yellow. Yellow is kind of like cautious. Not great but not terrible. And then there's red which is does not meet. So you can see here investigations is one of our two resources that our our students or our teachers are using with our students. The second resource that our uh that our teachers are using is a resource called context for learning mathematics and that has not even been rated because they they will not submit their the resource for rating to ed reports in grades six through eight. um our teachers are currently using connected mathematics that was released in 2015. You can see in gateway number one um it does not even meet the the corre the criteria and that gateway number
057one is aligned to the common core standards. And so the fact that our middle school teachers are using a resource that is not aligned to the standards, it probably well, for me, it did not surprise me that our our students um may start out in the elementary school as high as 48% in grade three, for example, and then by the time they're in grade eight are down to 27% meeting the benchmark. Daisy, did you have your hand up? You wanted to add something that to something I was saying. Um, no. You answered it actually, so I put my hand down. >> Okay. Ian, you had a question. >> Uh, not so much a question. Uh, I do want just want to express my appreciation for this approach and and I'm under full support of um
058this this sort of uh this angle of attack towards math curriculum. But unfortunately, I'm coming into a schedule conflict, so I have to tap out. Um, but I wish you all the best and and I appreciate this and and >> illustrative and immersive is everything that I advocate for when it comes to math in the real world context. I think that's a great approach. >> Uh, practical along with philosophical. Um, we got to throw it all on the table and see what what tracks with any given student because, you know, there's so much differentiation that that is needed with math because everyone kind of sees things there. Well, not everyone in every individual way, but there there are some there's some wide ranges of people's understandings and angles of approach to math and what really
059cracks it open for them. Uh, so we have to put out a full menu. So, appreciate it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. would recommend. >> I mean, I I understand the philosophy behind this and the philosophy behi behind all of the the resources that you use to uh evaluate. However, what would a lesson be? >> Oh, I can imagine. >> Actually, if you hold on, we can talk a little bit about that, too. >> Okay. >> Would you mind waiting a little bit longer? >> Sure. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I just have to go lower here. Okay. >> Uh, next slide then. Oh, and Miss, you have a question? >> Yeah. Um uh my my my question is how did we get in that situation that we're in now which you just had
060on the previous slide? >> Yeah. So, I mean, it's hard it's hard for me to speak to because I obviously wasn't here, but I do believe when those resources were selected at the time, they were kind of um new and what was uh current um and but unfortunately, you know, these resources have to um continuously update and make sure that they are uh they're improving and um and and aligned. And I think that um not all resources do that. And um that's that's what I think my input is is with that. But I think um some of our teachers that have been with the district for a while may even have better insights. Uh Mark, do you have I know you've been with us for a long time. Do you have any insights into you
061know how kind of that to to speak to Mitch's question? >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. Yes. >> Oh, I think you're muted again, Mark. There we go. >> Okay. Sorry about that. I'm working off a computer that's half broken. Um so I think at the time what they were trying to do is um help guide teachers in changing their instruction from teacher approach standing in the front of the room to getting students to um use the mathematics apply it um doing hands-on experiments. I used to do it at the middle school. Um, and at the time, CMP3 was one of the ways that you could implement that type of instruction. I think the big issue is that, and it's something I've seen now for a long time, not just in Graten, but there's
062IM has a very consistent alignment with standards, at least K through eight. um and we did not have that before. And so I think there was standards missing in CMP3 um or it didn't go back and reinforce it as much as they needed to where this curriculum spirals back um as they go on through the year to reinforce skills. And again, it's not teacher um directed. Uh that's probably from my experience that's the that's basically um cuz when I first got to Graten obviously it was 20 years ago and um you know there was a lot of standing in the front of the classroom because that's just the way things were done back then. Um, so I think the the big push there was really to get people away from the front of the room
063and having stations where kids were actually doing the work, not the teacher. >> Okay, thank thank you very much for providing that insight. I'm not so sure I'm not an education expert. I although I do have a significant education but as far as standing in front of the room goes um versus being in the middle of the room um I'm not sure how much that that really how much of a difference that really affects but I I'm not going to claim to be an expert either. I guess um I just want to make sure that what we're providing for the use of the teachers and also the students is something that has been looked at by people in the Graten school system and not we're not we're not just going with what um uh it
064the the recommendation of these companies companies is because these companies are in business for one reason like any company and they're in business to make money. And so I want I just want to make sure that somebody can actually look me in the eye and say, "Yes, I I verified uh this. I've looked at it and and say um that they truly believe this is the right way to go." And >> can I respond to that? >> Yes. >> Um so good question. And I may have misled you by saying the teacher in front of the classroom. What I was trying to say is that it's being teacher-led instruction for 45 or 50 minutes. Instead, they've proven that students need to apply the math to really understand it. And I know that because traditionally I've
065had the highest scores in the middle school. Um, and you can't just teach from the front of the room and lecture, especially at middle school and elementary kids. Um, the other piece of that is, um, there's a big part of IM that's nonprofit. Um, and I'll let Amarie get into more details on that. Um, but I I I hear what you're saying. The only way they make money is to sell things. But the basic part of um illustrative math is actually a nonprofit. >> Interesting. >> Okay. Thank you. I believe um >> You're welcome. >> We had another person put their hand up. I can't remember who it was a minute ago. >> It was me. >> Okay. I'm sorry. Thank you. >> Hi, I'm My name is Daisy. >> Welcome. Thank you for answering
066the question. Yeah, I'm happy to look you in the eye and say that it, you know, it it's a wonderful program and it is absolutely um open resource. Actually, a lot a lot of the um the core components of it are freely accessible and I'll let Amory get into um who led um the the creation of Illustrative Math. Um, as far as how investigations was chosen, I don't really know that either because I don't have the um institutional knowledge with Grten public schools, but I can say that it was developed about 20 25 years ago. And at the time, as Emory inferred, that it was it was pretty cutting edge. Um, we look at um updating our curriculum on a continuous basis as a school district. And so we've had it for um almost 10
067years. investigations, math. And during that time, the way that we perceive of the common core, the way we think about math and how we teach math and how kids develop in their learning of math, all of that has really grown. And so there are a lot of reasons why we would be moving to something new. I hope that's helpful. >> Uh yet yes, it is. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, I I interrupted a presentation and um let's you can probably move on with it now. Thank you very much. >> Kaitlin, can you pull it back up? I mean uh yeah, Caitlyn, right? >> Yeah. And now there's two Caitlyn's and I'm confused. Whoa. Are you not seeing it? >> Yeah, I don't see it. Okay, stop it again. Are you seeing it now? >> Yes,
068I do. Thank you. If you wouldn't mind going to the next slide. Thank you. So, this just kind of uh continues the information that we were just talking about in terms of the high quality instructional materials. Uh if you remember from the previous slide, we looked at the current resources and this actually in terms of ed reports and how it's rated, how those uh resources are rated. And this is how illustrative math in grades K through eight um have been rated specifically by again ed reports. Uh, Ed reports has received um I'm sorry, Illustrative Math has received high ratings uh or all green meaning meets expectations in all three of its gateways or kind of rating categories um by uh Ed reports again an independent reviewer. Um one of the things that I think is
069um great about illustrative math is that its founder um was one of the lead writers for the common core standards uh for mathematics. And so that's how we know of course that its alignment is very um strict or it's you know it's very well aligned to the common core knowing meaning meaning then that we know that our students are learning the standards that they're supposed to learn in the correct grade levels. If you wouldn't mind going to the next one. Okay. Going to reason number three of number four. This um gets to our shifts in our instructional approach. So if you remember uh at the start of this presentation I talked about shifting our vision and our instructional approach. So this illustrative math resource embraces more of a problem based learning approach. You know we
070want our students doing the mathematics. It um is assets based in terms of a routines. Our students talk about things about like what they notice and wonder and what doesn't belong to make sure that all of our students regardless of their prior knowledge um have a way to enter into the lesson. And then it has an intentional design to make sure that students are talking to one another about math. I'm a firm believer that learning is a social process meaning that kids have to talk and interact with one another in order to learn effectively. And this program really uh builds that into its design. If you don't mind going to the next slide. Uh and then there's two other you know points that I want to talk about here. the again the coherence in the
071learning progression. Um it this program makes sure that our students in K through eight will be building upon the routines and the structures that's set up. Um and so that you know there won't be anything unfamiliar to them as they progress through not only through the units but then from one grade level to the next. And then it focuses on agency and authority empowering students again to be the doers of mathematics um rather than the teacher or the textbook. Okay, next one. And finally, the fourth and uh final reason is that it helps us to establish program or instructional coherence uh here in Grten Public Schools. As I mentioned a little bit earlier, our current program model has our students um learning from two separate resources in K through five, specifically investigations and context for
072learning mathematics and one in grades six through eight. But that doesn't really allow our teachers to kind of talk to one another about what students learn, the skills and the knowledge and for our students to build um upon the structures and the routines from one like from the elementary school to the middle school and then on to the high school. This adopting this resource would allow our students and our teachers to be working from one program model in grades K through eight. And they even of course um illustrative of math even has courses going through it has algebra 1, algebra 2 and um I don't know if it has geometry. I have to I have to look into that. >> It does. >> But if it does if we wanted to extend eventually into the
073high school, we could. >> So our my next step is really a request from um from you Mitch and to from also Dr. Acriman to make a recommendation to the full board to adopt the IM resource in grade grades K through 8. And with that, that's the end of this presentation. And I guess at this point, Mish, if you wouldn't mind, I'm just going to ask if uh you know, I know we have Daisy, Caitlyn, and Mark on the on the uh on the not the call, but on the meeting tonight, and if they had anything else they wanted to add. Again, our teachers have been piloting and they may have some additional insight or input. Um, and they're all, you know, very strong mathematicians, uh, much stronger than me as a former middle and
074high school English teacher. So, they may have some additional, uh, again, additional thoughts. >> I I still don't know what um what what a a lesson would look like. >> Oh, yes. I'm so sorry. I'm actually That's what You know what, Dr. Dr. Eri, I had that in in the other presentation and I took it out because I thought it was too repetitive, but I will have uh Daisy speak to that. Uh, >> great. Thank you. >> Hi, Dr. Acriman. Um, every illustrative math lesson starts with a launch or an opening or a warm-up. Um, they h they they go in different ways. They're usually like math talks thinking about like estimation, which one doesn't belong, what do you notice about this equation or this model? And what's great about the launch is that it
075includes almost every child. You can have kids who are um in special ed in the classroom in the same math discussion as kids who are on the very high end of um their math proficiency talking to each other about math. And I think that's I think that um my >> I see that but that's not my real question. >> Like what would >> what would they be talking about? Would they be what kind of a math problem would they be dealing with? >> So that that would be like the launch and then they would move into um one to three activities and in >> what are the activities? That's my question. they are all building on common core standards. So, it kind of depends on the concept that they're learning at that time. Um, >>
076I'm not being clear. >> Yeah, I'm trying. >> I know. I know that. Um, >> can I jump in? >> Yeah. >> Hi, Dr. Um, so I'm only jumping in. Daisy has >> a great handle on this. Um, I just saw a lesson today and I'm not sure if this is going to answer your question or not, but as an example, if they're trying to solve the area, surface area, um, >> okay, >> one of the activities I walked in on where I was supporting tier one instruction is that they were using blocks and they were using columns and rows of the blocks to set up arrays to figure out the area of a two-dimensional shape instead of the traditional approach of okay it's length times width. So they do like an investigation and then
077at the end they should come up with the concept and the purpose of it and that I know students retain better than just memorizing stuff. >> Does that make sense at all? >> Yes. Yes. So but let me envision it. So, I go into math class and there are a bunch of blocks on the table and maybe I have a ruler and I take the dimensions. I look, oh, it's like 3 in long and 4 in wide and 3 in deep. And I'm trying to figure out by manipulating the block and the ruler and trying to figure out what what the answer to the question is. Yes. No, maybe. Um so partially so um they intentionally do not give them a ruler because we'll say that the this they're called centimeter blocks um and they
078would use those centimeter blocks with that um measurement and figure out the length and the width and then come up with the surface area by using the arrays. >> Does that make sense? >> Yes. Yes. Yes. That's just what I wanted to know. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. >> So each section um there each unit is broken up into sections, Dr. Acriman. And each section starts out with a constructivist investigation like that and then it refineses rather quickly moving from concrete manipulatives to um diagrams and finally to more abstract equations and then refining that so that kids develop efficiency and procedural fluency so that they can truly master that standard. >> Okay, great. that see you've got that abstract explanation. Mark had me looking at a block which is what really what I
079so between the two of you you I really understand the concept now so thank you. >> You're welcome. And one other thing I I want to add that I've seen that I've and again I'm a secondary guy so it's been very interesting in the four years I've been at the elementary school not only learning the importance building the basics and the foundations but this program going from one grade level to the next because I I give tier one support for grades one through five. It's interesting how you can actually see the connection from grade to grade, not just the spiraling throughout the year within one grade. And I think that's going to add to our success because kids are going to remember some of those components and then it just takes it like a step
080further. >> Thank you. So then I would be able to to go into my house and if I had a table that I had to figure out the dimensions of or whatever that I would be able to apply that kind of thinking to the actual problem I had in my house. >> Yes. >> Okay. That was my question. Thank you. Okay. Well done. Thank you very much. >> Dr. Hackerman. Did you have any more questions? Yeah. Can I go to that class? That's that's >> Well, uh I have a a comment and Mark, you you stated that you don't use a ruler. And um whereas I'm I'm thinking that might be uh a good way for kids to learn how to use a ruler. uh unless that's somewhere else in the in the curriculum, but
081every every kid should know a ruler. They should know the metric system, they should know the English system, >> they should know. >> No, you're 100% right. And that's exactly what happened. So, this is the the block example is just one of many things. they might be able to be figuring out the surface area for the amount of paint they need for a wall in a classroom. But the point is is that they're they're doing it um without using the ruler. However, that being said, there are multiple units where they do have to use a ruler and they actually have to use they they do use multiple forms, the metric system and the standard system. So I completely agree with what you're saying and it's just done in a different spot if that makes sense.
082>> Okay. Thank you very much. Um just one other thing that um did somebody had mentioned geometry wasn't sure to what extent uh that is studied but uh what about trigonometry is is that in there obviously that would have to be at the higher grades. Algebra was mentioned. Um, is trig in there somewhere? >> Um, so the IM released an algebra 1, uh, geometry and algebra 2 curriculum. Um, I believe those curriculums are quite newer to the IM's resource of curriculum. I I don't know when all those were brought on to IM. Um, but I do know that trig would definitely be part of geometry. um when looking at you know your your right triangles and and in in that aspect and then I know that trig is usually in algebra 2 as well but
083I don't IM doesn't have a specific trig course um and neither does Fitch um trigonometry is normally built into um those courses and it's like heavily in pre-calculus um But IM does not have a um a pre-calculus course. >> Just to add to that, Caitlyn, it's the same thing with the algebra. And again, this was learning experience for me. They start algebra in kindergarten. Um but obviously it's a very basic algebraic equation. Um and then it progresses. So algebra is embedded in the IM at least K through 8 that I know of just like I think Caitlyn was explaining because even when I took trigonometry it was embedded in a course. It wasn't a separate course if that makes sense. Okay. Thank you very much. Um I got I I got my my question answered.
084Um, is there any anything else uh relative to this presentation or any and and what action do we have to take? I'm beginning to think we need to um put a nomination on the floor to continue with this and make a recommendation to the um entire BOE. Is is that correct and Marie? >> I believe that's the case. This will be my first uh this is my first goaround, Mitch, with uh recommending a a resource for adoption. Um but I believe that's the procedure and I'm sure Dr. Acriman could rein uh could let us know if that's the case as well. >> Again, u Amory because I was thinking about something else. So, Emry, I have one one last question and I you don't have to go deep into this, but I just wanted to
085throw it out there because you know, some of us are abstract sequential learners. Please give me a lecture. Don't make me pick up that blooming thing and measure it or don't measure it or whatever. let the teacher stand in front of the class and lecture because that's the way I learn best. Now, does anybody does any of these uh methods that we're using now give any credence to learning styles? >> Yeah, I think I think honestly when you look at a resource now, you have to incorporate a balance of different learning styles. In fact, I was just meeting with a group of teachers with Caitlyn. Um, this was in the last month and we were talking about how um you're going to use depending upon what the lesson is, what the students are learning, what
086the learning target is or the goals, you have to decide um how you're going to what instructional approach you're going to take based on the students that are sitting in front of you, what the topic is and you know what your ultimate goal is. So, uh Dr. Amen. I use the example and again this this was a group of math people but I was trying to relate to them. Um they were specifically learning that day uh for professional learning building thinking classrooms but I drew a parallel and said okay when I was um teaching English language arts I really liked doing socratic seminars in fact I thought they were very powerful that was this was a powerful instructional strategy to do it in my English classes but I didn't feel like I was going to
087be doing Socratic seminar every day. There were times that I had to do that I was um lecturing to students, giving them background knowledge um in order to prepare them for a new novel or a text that we were going to be reading. There were times that we were doing um maybe they were doing partner work or some other type of you know is using some other type of strategy. >> Um and so you're not going to use the same strategy every day. I think that that's not uh students need the I think the adolescent brain especially but I think you know even younger students the brain craves novelty anytime you do the same thing every day while it's important for them to have consistency and know what to expect it also is important that
088they have novelty and um I don't think it's going to learn effectively if um if they're doing the same thing for example like building thinking classrooms or like Socratic seminar every single day. So, you've got to know your kids. You've got to know what their needs are and also, you know, what's appropriate for any particular um topic or skill. >> Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. And there are some things that you have to lecture for exact as exactly as you said, some things that you have to do hands-on whether you like it or not. And some things that Yeah. because that's >> you know how however the the teaching and learning is going to occur. So, >> yeah. >> Okay. as long as I got to say that and ask that and I'm satisfied
089with the answer. Thank you. >> Thanks for asking. >> Are there any any further questions? Dr. Acriman? >> No, I'll be quiet. >> Oh, well, no, I don't want you to be quiet. I'm going to be perfectly honest with you. I learned the same way you did. >> Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, if you read if you read up on I mean some people are um abstract sequential sometimes or concrete sequential, you know, and what's abstract random is the guy that wants to go out and you know find that snake in the in the wilderness and pick it up and look at it and learn from it, you know. So, we have all different learning styles, but I just wanted to make sure that that that was something that was being thought about. That that's it.
090But that that's all that's it. That really is it. >> Okay. Thank you very much. So, um I guess we're at the point where we'd have to make a recommendation here. And um do we have to make a a nomination on this or just uh say that the consensus of the board which Dr. Acriman is I believe you and I at this stage of the game um >> you say it. I'll second. >> Okay. So, I'll I'll make the nomination that we um recommend adoption of this uh new um tool or uh because that's the best thing I can best term I can come up with uh for helping the teachers and helping the students. Do we have a second? >> I second that. >> Okay. So, um that has been um uh put out
091on the floor and seconded and um uh we're going to go with that's the cons our consensus and we'll make that recommendation to the BOE and I will have to write an uh email to them telling them that. But does that sound right and Marie? >> Sounds great. I appreciate your support. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. What's next on the list? >> I believe the last item on the list is uh the referral tracker. >> Oh, yes. We're going to update that, right? I >> think so. >> Okay. >> Is that something, Caitlyn, that um you can uh project? >> Yep. Can you see it now? Yes, we can. Thank you so much. >> Well, Mitch, I want to um just quickly say thank you to all the members that were here, um Caitlyn
092and Mark and Daisy. And I want to um let them know that they are they can go and um hopefully they're going to go and root for the Huskys and get ready for the game. but definitely let them go of their responsibility being online tonight. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much all of you. >> Yeah, thank you. Appreciate uh your your time. >> Yeah, it was great. >> Thank you for having us. I appreciate it. >> All right. And Marie, you got the floor. >> Yeah, sure. So, um let's see here. Um I feel like um Mitch, you don't have this kind of background or context because I know you're new to to being the chair and um thrilled to have you. Uh but we've made significant progress on the uh referral
093tracker sheet in terms of curriculum and instruction this this semester or really not this semester but this year so far. Um and you can see here um what's listed is developing developing a schedule for curriculum updates. That's something that Ian just talked about. Um it looks like in the fall will be the most appropriate time to give an update on u some of the updates that have been done for curriculum. So that'll be something that I put in into my notes and prepare for the fall when we return uh to school. Uh in terms of the curriculum uh reading and writing updates, that's something um is that's going to be we we uh talked about that or there was a presentation uh last April, but Dr. Acriman and I and I believe uh Chairman Washington
094talked about that being an ongoing uh topic just like the math one that's uh two like two uh uh lines down. Math and ELA will be something that I think is at least once a year we're we're giving an update to the board on uh what we're doing in terms of math and English language arts. So those will stay. And then in terms of the study of IB, um you know, that's not something that um we've addressed recently, although there was a presentation last year, but um I think that Ian wants a more detailed presentation. I don't believe that's something that I'll get to by the end of this school year. We have really just um one meeting left in May and uh and a me I believe a meeting in June. Um but that
095is something that I certainly can make sure that is on the priority list for next fall. And then we want we want to make sure that uh 6 through 12 L EA gets on there. Remember? >> Yes. >> Yeah. Wherever that whatever it was, it should I don't know how it got taken off there, but it should be we decided last time that we were going to put it back, but I don't see it. >> Yeah. I think that uh as we talked about Dr. Erian, I think that um Bev changed it to K through 12, but um I'll ask her to if she wants to focus on K through 12 or um we're going to do something 6 through 12 separately. I I will tell you that next um next month I do plan
096to make a recommendation to the to the curriculum committee about a new resource for grades 6 through 12. So that will be something that um in some ways is kind of addressing one of your one of your uh areas of concern. >> Yeah. Yeah. I really want to see how writing is being taught 6 through 12 because I think I think it's it's quite different than reading and writing K12 >> probably. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other Do you have any questions regarding or recommendations for the tracker? >> Say that again. >> No. ask if uh if Mitch has any questions or or recommendations for the tracker. >> Now, >> okay, >> I think we're doing a good job with it. >> In that case, go ahead, Mitch. >> Uh wait, I think
097the next item is future meeting topics and then Dr. Acriman, your uh your very specific role uh after that. See, oh, there's a agenda. >> So, do we have any uh future meeting topics that um either one of you uh would like me to um again add? I don't know if it necessarily has to be put on the tracker, but anything that you'd like me to um consider um bringing forward to this committee for review? I don't I don't but I don't know if veg does. >> There's a couple of things I've been thinking about. I'm not sure how formal to make them. So, this is just an idea here. Okay. But to um improve interest in STEM, we have a great tool out there right now flying around the moon. Okay. And has there
098been any um discussion in the school with the students about this? You when I when I was a kid, we were doing the Apollo missions and everything and we used to bring a TV into the classroom and and had to have the AV squad set it up and we would watch the rockets take off and stuff like that. And it was a big developer for for STEM. and we we've got something out there that's kind of free and it relates directly to science, math, um, and a whole bunch of other things. Is is there anything going on that that you're aware of, Amory? >> Um, not that I'm aware of, but that doesn't mean that it's not happening. You know, obviously it can't be in all classrooms at once. Last last week I happened to
099be visiting a lot of the elementary schools. Um, and uh, it didn't happen to be during science time. happened to be while they were reading, you know, they were doing their literacy work and they were talking specifically about the Civil War. So, uh, you know, didn't really lend itself to that discussion, but that again, it doesn't mean that, um, our middle and high school students aren't talking about it or even our elementary school students when they're in when they're learning about science. So, let me do a little um investigating about that and I can give you an update um about what I found out. >> Okay. I I I appreciate that. I mean, even even if a teacher takes 15 minutes out of a class and just just to talk about it. Um, another question
100I have uh is I'm finding out as I talk to people that a lot of people in the town of Graten have no clue how our own government works. And um I didn't know if uh >> we we talked if we talked if if there was any um education to the students regarding how town government operates um even uh uh the the the state legislature or anything like that. Um so I thought I'd throw it out there. I think those are things people need to know because these a lot of people stay stay around town and I met a woman the other day who's been a graten resident for 20 plus years and had no idea what the RTM was and um didn't learn it in school and um kid kids don't um it's it's
101a good opportunity. So do you know if there's anything that we do regarding that? >> Yeah, that is part of our curriculum. they learn um state government in the elementary school I believe in fifth grade although the standards may have shifted on that let me double check um and then of course in the 10th grade students um have a civics course that's required by the state department of education so um they may even learn I don't think so I was going to say maybe also in eighth grade they might revisit um some topics as well but definitely um in the 10th grade they have that civics course very comprehensive and um I believe in the fifth grade in elementary school they learn about local and state governments. Um, but if you want very, you know,
102even more specific information, I can um provide that to you as well. >> Well, I I I don't think you need to consider it amongst your top 20 priorities. Okay. >> Because I know you're a busy person, but um that it was just a couple of thoughts that I had. Otherwise, I'm all set. >> Yeah. I know that um I have to say um in my experience because I also taught some social studies classes but um but mostly I taught English classes and the kids of course had social studies as well. And that um when the kids learned about government, it was something that I found um that they would be excited about. They would come into English class talking about government um and what they learned. They of course they love to learn about
103their rights and who's violating their rights and what rights they have. Um and so um it's something that I find that you know the kids enjoy learning about. Um and so you know I I know that they they do take these courses because they uh they like to um share with you uh their other at least their other teachers they like to share with them uh what they're learning at the time. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> I'm I'm all set here and I think we've uh pretty much completed everything. I'll draft an email and Marie just to make sure I word right this right to the to the board and um Angia would you like to take action now? >> I would motion to adjourn. >> Seconded. >> Thank you. And go Huskys.
104>> Yes.