001textbook. Um, and um, we're excited as we modify the curriculum and um, meet the new state standards u with the goal of um, having our curriculum carry kids all the way through to the early 2000s that this is a textbook that can support that. Um, our current book is over 20 years old. So, we are in desperate need for a new text. Um, we went through an exhaustive process. Um, we had three primary books. We also had picked up this search about two years ago as well and evaluated a number of texts at that time and didn't find one that was suitable. Um, so with that search and this search, we've looked at probably about six or seven textbooks in total. Um, and we feel like this textbook um, finds a nice balance. We're using
002this textbook for both honors and regular ed classes and we feel like this really uh finds the sweet spot of um meeting the needs of both of those students. Um we appreciate the supplemental resources that are um included in the package. Um and the committee was was happy to to move the book forward. Um, another thing that we really like about the book is a lot of US history textbooks that you'll see on the market will cover the entire scope of US history. This class is kind of like the second half of US history. Students get the first half at DOD in grade 8. So, it's nice that the the full scope of the book is focused on the period of study for the class um and not the entire American story. So um as
003you can tell from the title, reconstruction to the present is is the period that we u cover through our curriculum. So um yeah. So have you been in contact with the whole social studies task force in the state that's been working on this for a few years and are other districts using this textbook? Yes. Yeah. Um it is a popular textbook um across the nation. Um I also had the opportunity to talk with uh the Connecticut social studies consultant um Steve Armstrong um to get his opinions on the book. um it is very well aligned with the C3 framework and therefore the new revised um state standards um and um came you know received the endorsement of Steve as well but is definitely um crafted with uh the C3 framework in mind and um is
004is much more aligned with the current Connecticut standards than our current work obviously. Um, so yeah, we're we're pretty pleased with um it's alignment with the standards. Has um Steve Armstrong been in district at all doing any kind of professional development? Yes, he's been here quite often. He worked with um our sixth grade, our seventh grade, our eighth grade. He's been working with um or I should say he's held sessions where high school folks have attended. He's also been here to work with both high school and middle school folks. over the past four years. I would say four to six years. This is first year high school class. This is for the sophomores. So second year, this is second year. Anything else you want to add? Yeah. I just wanted to show you there's a
005link that um was here that was not copied but this is the analysis that the teachers had done and they looked at three different textbooks which are across the bottom of the screen and then across the top of the screen you could see who the teachers were and they gave it a rating and and it's colorcoded so that you'll see a lot of green. If you clicked one of the tabs at the bottom, you could see the other books and what the ratings were for those categories. This is something that that team's been working on for the better part of this year. No, that was great. I see. Yeah, we've got printed these off for us in the past. It is interesting to see how um individuals So has this book been highlighted at all
006in any of the classrooms? In any of our classrooms, it has not. So if the first half of US history is really done at 8. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Then but it's not the same textbook then. Um yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think we answer though. I didn't really ask the question because I don't know what the question is. Yeah. Well, they you know, it it would it would it's an interesting scenario. We deal with this in grade six and grade seven with our world um studies uh curriculum as well where you're dividing um a topic in this case US history over different grades and it's made more challenging I guess by the fact that you insert grade nine in the middle. Um, but yeah, you wouldn't want the same book per se because those
007students are reading at a grade eight level and then when they come to this course, they're now sophomores in high school. So, they've advanced in terms of their reading abilities. So, it really is just the dates, the year. Yep. The chronological kind of halfway point if you will roughly. I was just going to ask that that kind of the timeline or what um so in eighth grade they have US history. Freshman year they have modern world history. Okay. And then they pick up US history again. Correct. So I've never understood that. Why isn't US history all the way through for two years? Because I've had other social studies teachers say that to me. It's a little bit hard for the kids to leave US history, go to world history, come back. Yeah. And then where
008does geography fit in? Yep. Nap skills. Yeah. Yeah. Uh well, geograph, you know, things like geography, civics, and economics should be interwoven within the eighth grade US history class, the freshman world history class, and the sophomore US history class. But um your point about having that kind of like break in the middle is is a challenge. Um, and we've had curriculum conversations about that. In fact, um, I think the state guidelines, you know, kind of push you or steer you in the direction of doing it in the fashion that we do, which is, you know, world history freshman year. Um, but I definitely see see your point. Um, in some ways it is nice because so much of US history, particularly in the 20th century, is through a world lens after we rise and become
009a world power. So I find as a teacher of US history, it's nice, it's very helpful to have them take world history freshman year and they get a very kind of core knowledge of world affairs and world history that can then be um applied and built upon um when they're studying things like American foreign policy throughout the 20th century if they understand the world a little bit better. So there's challenges but there's also benefits. So where does that book pick up? This is this would be post civil war. So, reconstruction to the present. And where does it go to? Uh to to the present. But our our curriculum goal is to have our uh final unit which we're going to be developing to go along with the identity textbook next year. Um it'll be the
010national um national identity in the United States. Um it's uh going to cover not only the 1990s but through the early 2000s. So the group the you know PLC group of US history teachers will be you know further developing that um over the summer. Um I don't know that we'll get much past you know maybe early you know 2008. Um but uh but those discussions will you know be happening going forward. So just excited to be able to we we've done a lot of leg work not like totally not connected to this textbook in terms of revising our curriculum in the last three or four years to move through you know earlier units more um quickly and really picking what's essential for the kids to know about those time periods so that we could push
011further into you know the modern era. Um, and I we think it's really really exciting and really important that our students have that in-depth study of 1970s, 1980s, 1990s because that's, you know, it may not seem like that long ago to us in this room, but for our kids, that's, you know, might as well be the 1940s, you know, the 1970s. So um so we're excited about the the new resource but also some of the leg work we've been doing as a department to advance our curriculum to reflect the idea that you know the starting point never changes right post civil war but we keep adding on years right every year we advance another year so um so I think we're in a good place as far as curriculum development and this textbook like is
012interwoven in into that you know um curriculum development so Any questions? And so we'll put a copy of this at the library. We'll put a copy of this in the CHS library and we'll have a copy here. It will be put out on display for two weeks. We'll let everyone know at the next board meeting that it's on display. And then the following meeting that we have we ask to bring to the should you all approve it here. So I have to ask the next question. Um in the budget you know we're looking here you can see how many hard copies we're asking for how many digital copies meeting actually tomorrow afternoon to look through again every subscription that we have to see where we can cut it back. What what can we what can
013we ask teachers to do without this year? I'm sorry, next year because there's just not going to be enough to go around. So, we're looking K through 12 at everything. Um, you know, we don't want to lose anything in core areas like US history this course, but then we're also, you know, we're looking at that in math and we're looking at that look at everything. So this quote right now is like 49,000. I mean I'm comfortable with this recommendation. I think we need it. So So we typically do motions to move potentially that the board of ed committee um recommends US history interactive by Leinsky warning to be for the full board for approval after two week period. Okay. All in favor? All right. Thank you. Absolutely. Appreciate it. Okay. Next is I read classroom
014mathematics algebra one presentation recommendation. Yeah. So what we've got here is that in um last year you recall that you all had approved high for use in sixth, seventh and eighth grade. And we had a really unique opportunity once we pulled everyone together over the summer and we were looking at algebra for all. Um Kevin was able to work working closely with the um the representative to get us a pilot for this year which he's done such a nice job of sort of making sure you guys were aware of along the way. And so tonight he's here with his team. Um he's also here for the math CCC, but he's got a lot of reinforcements to talk about this um request for an algebra one resource which would be an extension of what currently is.
015We did get the opportunity to fully pilot this this year, their pilot version of program. Um and as um we've shared over the course of the year, some of the same things that have been positive about I read as a resource for 6 through 8 have been also positive in algebra 1. So those are namely really um the rigor of the program, the tasks that they're asking students to do and the instructional design by itself, the program itself, but also how it matches with um what we've been um our district definition of HQI, high quality instruction. Um the one of the major things that our previous resource is in mathematics did not do um how it was aligned to the standards but did not it gave equal weight to all the standards no matter what
016they were and did prioritize the mediest things and the most important things so that's not the case with my ready they get it right in terms of what the priority standards are I would say from the team probably correct me if I'm wrong the two things that we ran into this year as part of the pilot one was uh for the high school teachers it was their first time using the I read resource so there's there's a ramp up time period to get used to a resource whereas the DA teachers have one year under the belt. So they have that learning curve this year that I anticipate will Wayne with our six um teachers previously and then the other thing we ran into as I read was in their pilot year um they had a
017whole text that students were able to access but not all their online and supplementary materials were here. So again, it was a little bit more leg work on the teacher end. I think those were primarily the only two real downsides we saw along the way. Some of the high school piece was really um positively influenced by a midyear session that we did with Iraq and kind of got rolling uh from there. So um I would certainly feel comfortable. makes a lot of sense from a pathway standpoint to have one resource um to kind of go through these middle primarily middle grades. Yeah, we'll have one year where we may always have some need for a little bit of algebra at high school, but for the bulk of our students, we'll have one year where we'll
018have a chunk of students taking it by high school primarily be a middle school resource director. So, um, we certainly feel comfortable bringing that forward as a recommendation to to listen. I'm sure of myself or any of the people actually using it. Uh, can answer any questions? Yes. So they the spoke for the pilot the the lack of the online resources was that just because of the pilot or they weren't right. So immediately them they assured us that all those things are in development and they've actually been really good with give us feedback tell us like they really want to work with us and work and make changes and make updates. So that really and that'll those resources will be ready in time to roll out for us. And a lot of it is more
019a lot of it is um I don't want to say bells and whistles but it's not the the bare bones of it where that first year you're really trying to just make the instructional shifts, learn the resource. Um now that we're in year two for middle school. So that's the only thing from the algebra teachers is that like we know how much that they have to offer and we can't ask like I wish we had it when if it was last year maybe we weren't even diving into that part of it. We were we were originally going to bring this in May and moved up for two reasons. One because we're doing CCC presentation so it made sense to have math teachers here. Two I we wanted to make sure along the way that the
020research was going to be ready. So all of those things in terms of affirmation am I ready that they're ready to go who come with the resource all they get all those markers earlier than than we needed them to so they should they're ready for full implementation for next year. So are you using the I already for remediation too? Like you're using the I Ready assessments, right? And then where the student falls, right? Can't they go in and review and guess the the assessments it it gives and the data it gives is is next level. I know we use all the time in sixth grade. In sixth grade, we use the diagnostic tells us where the student is, but then they get lessons assigned to them at their level and teachers are using it, students
021are using it. It's been really well received with teachers and students. the data gives teachers on prerequisite skills and things that certain certain students are going to struggle with or might struggle with like all the information gives is that that my path at um the algebra one level you will have some students that that will still be appropriate for but then there's also students who master all the the foundational skills out of my path and we're using other resources that we've used in the past so for students Yes, for students particularly those who are below grade level that resource is is there. So that sort of goes along something that I'm not registering. So I'm hearing about the instructional side of it. I'm hearing about the assessment side of it. What's the what's the practice
022side? What what are what's available for the kids to do over and over different practice? We didn't bring the text, but we should have brought the text for I mean what I'm hoping that you say is that's not the bells and whistles that program if you were to look at any lesson or anything there's there's plenty of practice within that for students and what I'd say one of the things at the high school in the early um use of it which again happened at the middle school last year there's actually so much there that you have a you have to make the decision tree as a teacher based on what students are doing what are these problem sets you're actually having students do. So, there's plenty there from a practice because some students need more
023than Yeah, it does a really good job of balancing those highle tasks where maybe we're doing four or five problems in a whole day, right? But then fact, fluency is really important. Like skill building is really important. So, it has those separate and embedded in text. Exactly. And Kevin, can you introduce your team? I'm sorry. Yes, this is our C. This is our math CCC group that will get more formally introduced when they do the CCC. And this is Jess. She's our math coach. Lisa Bernat, high school department chair. Tom Scano, middle school division leader, and Scott Jeffrey, principal at Highland, but also the CC. muscle. I kept looking for I kept looking on the agenda to see where you were going to come in. Now I know what you think. Thank you. Okay. Again,
024my question is um finance. I would give the same answer for the first one. Obviously, we're going to prioritize math. Okay. But I don't want to sit here and say, "Oh, it's going to be fine." Because You know, we're going to obviously do that. I'm going to have to stop subscriptions elsewhere to this work. So, just want to be clear about that. I don't want to sound like sunshine daisies, right? No, no. I I agree. I know this goes back a few years, the work that went into this to bridge that gap at the middle school level. So, I know forward to see the results or stand. Thank you for working through that. How have the results been in the um IRA assessments in seventh grade, eighth grade? I mean, what's your what's the trend?
025What What are you seeing? Go ahead, Tom. Tom, um we've had some people say they use it as their screen saver because it makes them feel good when they look at it. Yeah, we're really excited. So, one of the things I reckon because it is such a large instructional shift and and some different things you should use. They say, you know, give it a year. But we have across the board seen one and a half times the growth for students compared to last year in every level above grade level. Kids, especially two and three grade levels below, which has always been historically our hardest group to move, are already meeting their yearlong growth targets at the halfway mark. I actually was going to ask you about the growth. Um, yeah, that's really that's really the
026only measure, right? It's right now the only measure we really can look at. Um, and it's yeah, I think the average student 6, seven, and eight had met like it was over 100% of their yearly growth. We had already hit that part of the halfway mark. Um, which is a really really good win. And what we what we've thought all along and did my research the first time I went around with that already is we're hopeful that what we had seen before with it having a correlation with ASPA um you know those results also come out a couple months that show that growth it doesn't happen by by accident that the assessment is or the diagnostic is adaptable so students are answering really high couple questions as they get towards the end. Um really social.
027So we're we're very excited all the special ed it has grown um over everyone was average of 20% I think at least saver she look at. Yeah. So we're really seeing the first good news. Any questions? You need a recommendation? Yes. Move by October one to the full board and a two week review. Second. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Music] Fabulous transition period. Thanks for my daughter Nicole says hi. Oh, hello as well. Thank you. Bye, Tim. Have a good night. Are you going to leave me the two? I'm going to leave them in your office. Yeah. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Bye, Tim. Thank you. Okay. Information items. We have some trips coming up. We do. We have a slew of trips. Why don't we kick this over to Morin Reed to talk
028about the high school trips and then we'll circle back with the D. Okay. Thanks, Mor. Sounds good. So, I'm starting out with Orlando, Florida DECA conference. We had I think that's the first one we have. We have three students um in the finishing in the top competition in Connecticut. So they are going to Florida to compete there. So this is next week. Yes. 26 26 through the 30th 30th form office. So the cost is all student is there any cost to us? Um I they do they there's some sort of um funding that they they were looking to do some sort of fundraiser funding to help with that cost but no cost to us. No use some Perkins money for that as well. Um not with the DECA not with the competitions of DECA and
029FBLA. Okay. Unfortunately. Okay. You want to go on to the uh so the next one the performing arts this is the music department. This is for next February is a Friday through a Monday. So the Monday we have off 16th and February Friday they would be um looking that day and they go down to the Magic Kingdom. They take have a few um tours that they um are actually performing for um the in the magic king in a public setting and they get like feedback on that and then they follow up with the soundtrack sessions which it states there some of the details of the workshops um and that soundtrack session is endorsed by the National Association for Music Education and so that's an experience for for them um to perform but also get feedback
030and then be involved with workshops with professionals. So that's that trip. And this one from what I understand from talking to Nicole Quel who's our music department chair, you have to get up pretty early in the morning to get into the queue to even be able to start the registration process for them and to be selected to participate. I think it's quite something. Yeah. And so there are going to be some pretty important um you know critiques going on there that will supposedly give them a lot of information from which they can they can work on and build their program. So I know the depart whole department was really excited about this opportunity and 150 students. I hope you can stay on on the property though. Yeah they have that as the it's just easier
031for transportation. So many kids. So that's that one. And then um third one is going to Orlando for the next April. So the 6th through the 12th and that is um break six again, but that's during spring break. And um this one they take various tours that tie into it's the history through pop cultures curriculum that they are targeting in terms of the things that they do. of the tours have they actually four different opt four different tours that they take all um as they wrote it up very well all pertaining to different like units and things that they have throughout the course so they really do get a variety of experiences and this is one that they've run before y that's great opportunity it So this one is a full week. Yes. That one
032the last one. The we talked about this last time, but the Dominican Republic was actually cancelled due to lack of enrollment. Okay. And then the last is a very familiar trip for everyone at the table. This is the annual DO middle school trip to Washington DC where they've been working with and touring with tour of the nation's capital and surrounding sites. They've been using and been involved with planning that sort of a tradition that's been happening a very long time. And so they'll be staying at the Hilton um and it's a busy jam couple of days. I was just going to say it's such a short time. Well, I I'll say this. I last uh last year, last January, I went down to Washington and uh I forgot everything. Uh one of the tour guys
033was she had me walking all day, six miles just from it was but the just the amount of information that I learned from her was incredible. It's a great company. So yeah, I think the kids for a treat at least retire when it's over. But [Music] any shot. It was fun. She made it very fun and very engaging. So I had a lot of fun with that. How many times have you made the I love the my first seven years. Is that right? Yeah. Wow. Once the misses gives me a little permission. Got four little ones. It's kind of a big ask, but no, it's a great trip. It's the kids have wonderful time and like you said, it is I don't think you could pack it any tighter with all the sites, all the
034information, all the things they do in those three days. Yeah, that's a lot to do in three days. Okay. And it's 900 and it's student cost, right? And is that food, too? Yes. Any questions? It's the same trip that it was. Yep. Many years ago. It wasn't 900 when I bought It's 300. Well, there's no flying, right? So, all the buses. Okay. um the high school schedule playing to dual roles. Um so we thought we'd give just a brief update on where we were with the high school schedule in um January. Um I think you're aware that a schedule for next year was published. The root of that schedule moves from a full block schedule um that's four periods uh a day and they meet every other day um to um an eight period, eight
035total class periods, five sessions per day, and each of those sessions meeting 68 minutes. So over an 8 day period, you're meeting a class, five out of those eight days rather than four. Um and instead of 84 82 80 something minutes, it's 68 minutes. So um initial feedback on that the intent of that is really to strike a balance between and apply best practices for um the amount of frequency how often you meet in the length of class. And I think you um there are courses that a longer class period are more beneficial. So if you're in a culinary class, if you're in a humanities class, the longer class period is is beneficial. There are courses that the greater frequency of meeting is beneficial. If you're in math, if you're world language meeting more often.
036So when you look at the research on this, the best practice is really to try to find some balance between those two at the high school level. So that's what the schedule uh aims aims to do. On the initial publication of that schedule, there were um things that both staff and students get a lot of feedback on. one was the rotation of the schedule when exactly the classes would be. Um and then so that was that was a large one. Uh another large one particular from the students was um kind of the impact on things like homework because they've had that experience of being able to plan I have a night game that goes till 9:00 one night. I can plan whether to do my homework tonight or the next night for these classes. So
037that was a big part of the feedback. That wasn't it. But some of the things we were kind of things we were able to demystify like for example seniors thought they were going to lose senior privilege and we were able to kind of squash that a little bit. We had some early feedback um that um what students thought was going to happen from a curriculum perspective was they meant 90 sessions on a year this year. They meet 112 next year. They thought we were going to jam the same amount into the sessions even when they need less this year and we're going to add on more. So um while it took some conversation too that a little bit um so through um through feedback from the staff um we're actually able to bring a mildly
038proposed um version of the schedule that has a a little bit better rotation or a little bit more natural rotation and credit Dr. Reed for helping figure out one of the hitches to that which was shared staff. So we have to have a schedule where staff that travels like world language staff and have the PD staff um that travel multiple buildings can do that and that was a hitch and probably why um this version of the schedule wasn't able to run sooner. We were able to problem solve some of those issues. Uh we also so we brought that proposed recommendation through departments for some feedback. Um and we got good feedback on that. Um not everybody was in favor of this mile update. Um but we have more people who this is probably going to
039work for than a previous version and we had good communication channels for department meetings and the faculty meeting to kind of get that feedback. Um we also did a student forum which is fascinating. We we got probably a dozen or so students representing um a wide swath of students. So not just the students taking all the highest level classes and they um paired up with um two department two or three department chairs and spoke about um particularly about the homework issue. So we took that feedback from from them and then brought that feedback to the faculty meeting for teachers to start planning. Great homework used to be designed in this way. Here's the student feedback on it. When we're applying things like homework design to this new schedule, what are some things we need to
040have in mind? So um through those processes, we give a lot of voice to both teachers and students on the things that were on their mind. And I don't want to give any illusions that we had invented one and solved those things. But I think one of the things that happened through that process was we drew out the things that we're going to need to pay attention to from both the adult end and the student end. So, um, we're in the final steps of just putting together the visual version of what that, um, mile adjustment to a proposed schedule, which is still based on the same structure, just has a little bit more predictable rotation to it, um, to bring that out to more publicly, but that's where we are schedule wise, and some of
041the processes we did just in the last few weeks to help move that along from where it wasn't. So what's the implementation plan for staff, students, parents, families? Yeah. So I think our next step first is to communicate back out to the students and families kind of this mile update including sharing a little bit of the processes that we use. Um they're going to see that the departments are using what we've done so far to start planning what they need to do. So there are some courses where we used to have 90 sessions planned out. We need to redistribute that. So they're using PLC time, maybe a little bit of summer hours time depending on what budget probably PLC time now to be ready for the the fall implementation. And our one of our biggest
042we had to run into power school and we're pausing doing that for the moment um just until we're have a strong sense of what our staffing levels will be for next year. Um but that's that's going to be the biggest thing now that we've had the structure. We have to align the actual student schedule. So that's that's coming up soon on the list, but we didn't do that yet until we're confident with the number of sections that we have. So correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we go to those longer block scheduled because of co and I would think that it makes a lot of sense to back away from that at this point in time. But I'm wondering, do you know what other school districts did? Did other school districts go to these
043larger block types? There have been a lot of high schools that have moved in and out of the block schedule um and some variation of this. You you'll probably find I don't know if you find as many on the block anymore, but you would find plenty of high schools that have tried different versions of the schedule. So I think again one of the things that I hopeful that this does is strike the balance between um between something that might be seven or eight period day straight through at 40 something minutes and 90minute classes or going on 90minute classes that don't meet every day. So that's the intent and finding that balance is not often a bad kind of uh No, it just I feel like we did have this schedule at one time along the
044way. Did we or it's very close? Very close. No, very close. Yeah. Prior to co for about 20 years, we had something very close. Okay. The periods were 56 minutes. So this actually helps again more time and consistencies. No, because these arguments sound like the same arguments that I remember having maybe when I was PTAing at the high school. These, you know, kids need to be touching with the with the subjects, especially the core subjects every day, not just every third day. Y So, how long is a school day? Oh my gosh. To some, not long enough. 13 hours they 7:32. So quick math people somewhere just over six and a half hours and you said 68 minutes. Yes. So how many sessions a day per day? So from instructional minutes it is pretty similar
045although slightly more than the this year it slightly increases. I mean minimally it's not what I would it's not what I would advertise as a reason for doing this but construction minutes do go up a little bit but it's more about the redistribution and what's passing time in between five is that really enough time to get all your messages on your phone too much time plenty of time for that plenty of time for that we're thinking about things another thing that came up was locker use and students really haven't used lockers since co. So all these little things are playing around in people's minds, right? You know, some of the students report have been novel like a day bag and a and a day bag and even an even period day and period day bag
046kind of thing. I guess it's not even thought one through four and and five. So they'll have to manage those things. We'll have to figure out how to help them manage those things. Those were some of the wheels that got turning through the conversations that we had for both students and the adults. Even people were like our link crew are like how are we going to coach up um freshman coming in when we had to figure this out ourselves kind of thing. So those are all the good conversations that are happening and you want those conversations happening because when they happen then you start feel so each class would be on each day. Five periods five periods a day. So the way that works out is over an 8 day period you're you're going to
047have five sessions. See that class five times and that's an increase of one from now over an 8 day period. Okay. So go from 90 sessions on a year to 112 sessions on a year of a given course. Of a given course. Yeah. A full year full credit course. Questions? Good. I just want to say Kevin's done a really nice job of jumping into that and really relaying it and how it should move forward with the different groups and just very people don't like change students teachers staff. Yeah, I didn't notice that. I did notice that in my even though you don't we do joke that if we could have changed that we could have changed from 84 minute period to 83 minute period probably having you had to have a lot of conversations. So
048we we know we know that's part of it. So that's why we're trying to have the conversations and we think it's going to strike. The last 20 minutes must have been terrible. Well, thank you. This has been long time in the works. Thank you, Mr. Hanlin, for your handling of it. Anything else on the schedule? Anyone want to add? No. Okay. K12 math cheshure curriculum council covering we have the whole team here today and Mr. All of our administrators take on one subject area sort of help to shepherd this through and that's been Mr. Jeffy's role this year. And these are our our leaders from elementary, middle, and high school to really give you an executive summary of the plans. And as Kevin's pointed out, we've really talked a lot about that over the last
049couple of years. So I don't think there's a lot of this that would be new to you, but you will hear sort of um an overview today from the entire team. Yeah. So much has changed. Scott and I were um on maybe 5 years ago and it's like 5 years feels like forever like feels like so much has changed in 3 years and one year you know all the way through. So I want to talk a little bit about our curriculum standards and unit guides. So um our major focus with this has been how do we build strong foundations and give kids clear pathways to high level courses. um the major work um that the whole group um I'd say specifically the three of us have met more than the three people that have ever
050been in these roles have ever met. Um vertical articulation has been really um at the forefront of our work making sure that the common core state standards are fully covered 100%. They're not done half here half there. are not fully done here and fully done in like we we found some inefficiencies that we really cleaned up that was a major work for us. Um some progress going forward. We think that work needs to continue to go on. Um the conversations we have have really been helpful in making our class like I said run more efficiently and cover the majority of the major work we need. Um Jess is going to talk a little bit more about building classrooms, but we've really done a lot of work with our curriculum to rewrite lessons, rewrite units to
051incorporate those strategies and um really elevate the tasks we're having. I was thinking of you when I got to the museum to come home. For us, it's really been about so we've used curriculum writing institute, we've used our grade level meetings, we've used our PC time, we've used PD, it's really about um building highle tasks, collaborative problem solving and student centered learning has really been the major focus and building these lessons. I think we put a lot of work in the last couple years and we found some really good resources. I already being one of them that does a lot of the work for us um in finding those tasks and and giving us those tasks. So really just implementing that in our curriculum. Um the last major thing in our curriculum is this year
052we did adopt um an accelerated for all model. So, seventh grade right now, all students are accessing pre-alggebra accelerated. Um, that's been years in the making of us finding that as we give more and more students the opportunity, those students are being successful. Um, what that does long term is it provides students the opportunity to take AP classes in high school. um versus potentially blocking them from that pathway from their sixth grade class. Um so all students um will have access to that. The major work going forward in that is well we're going to have a credited class in in middle school next year that every student takes. That's never been the case. We've never had algebra. Um, and then kind of what that means for the ninth grade curriculum. Is there a spot like
053that dimension for algebra? What does that mean for the geometry courses? So there are some ripple effects from that that that's kind of just the work we're going on. But I think you know we we looked at data that really drove us with to this and these curricular changes and think we're all excited that a lot of the things to come are just keep going keep going adjusting and really feel. Um, as far as instructional strategies go, uh, we're really kind of focusing on making sure we're teaching practice standards, uh, making sure students are engaging in problem solving, deep thinking, reasoning, um, and critical thinking that the sta the practice standards will help them do. Um, and the other big thing really focusing on like Tom said is the building thinking classroom strategy. So right
054now where teachers are really comfortable is you know with the first few chapters of the book teachers are really engaging in in selecting tasks that are appropriate for our students and are going to challenge them and get them to think deeply both curricular and non-curricular tasks. Um we've worked a lot with having them work on the task launch asking questions um giving hints and um extensions that kind of thing. Um teachers are also really comfortable at this point with randomized groups which really get students to work to look together collaborative collaboratively. Um and then we are also comfortable with the vertical non-permanent surfaces. So students are working together around the room. Their thinking is made visible. Um and everybody's kind of had a good uh handle on all of that at this point. Um moving
055forward we kind of want to focus on some more of the strategies that we haven't really gotten too deep with like for example consolidation. So right now teachers are really great with selecting tasks. Students are working in random groups on the whiteboards, but now we want to make sure we're consolidating that task and we're consolidating the learning and talking about what they've learned, connecting it to key math ideas, um and and that's kind of our big push going forward. We started doing that in professional development with teachers in grade levels um staff meetings and and that's kind of where we're going next. Um, we also kind of want to look at homework a little bit more and see where building classrooms can help us with that homework piece. Um, there's something in there called notes
056to my future forgetful self. So, we want to look at that and how students can take notes for themselves so that they can go back and look at their thinking later. Um, and then responsive teaching, getting into that assessments piece as well with building thinking classrooms. Um, and adjusting instruction based on student. So, we're kind of halfway through and we're working towards the rest of the strategies at 10 and we kind of set goals for ourselves for the next five years to ensure that we're creating high quality, engaging, equitable mathematics program. Um, we're going to monitor our curriculum to make sure that the pathways are appropriate for all students and that they're really understanding mathematics and building a strong foundation in order to succeed long in mathematics. um in terms of our assessments we've mentioned
057highlighted before and other assessment tools that we're using the information from them to inform our SB SRBI and our um targeted interventions well. So we we'll set goals around using that information. Um we want to ensure these instructional strategies um are developing active uh learning environments, independence and deep learning in our classrooms. So uh we'll continue to provide professional development that ensures these high quality instructional strategies. And then finally, we're going to continue to review all our resources across grade levels to ensure that they're the right tools in place to enhance the quality of our instruction. So, thank you so much. I think you mentioned the how this group has met more often than previous folks and all the work going on. I I want to say thank you. It's it's obvious how excited you
058are and proud of the work you've done on this. One of the things you mentioned earlier that caught my attention now was when you mentioned that I probably found some inefficiencies where um the common core wasn't taught year round consistently maybe half half I in my mind it goes back to trying correlation doesn't exist but would that would that situation contribute to a perception that some parents have um that we teach the common core standards probably because maybe test time might be come on the corner and maybe someone's been doing a full year now they're in a pinch to to to focus on the standards and it seems like it's the standards but whereas they just thought it as part of routine it wouldn't feel like you're teaching towards standards. I just wonder if there's
059am I making a correlation there? I think it's been about the marketing of where like to kind of course stand. Everyone, you know, when it first came out freaks out like why can't they do it the way we use? Well, it's always the standards are just really they're they give us the skills. They show us how, you know, what we're trying to get students to think at. We're everything we're doing is teaching the standards. I guess I wanted to say it's teaching the best to test. Honestly, I think our focus has always been, you know, that the tests are aligned to the standards. you know, and the standards are are there for a reason and they make sense and it's more about finding resources that Kevin talked a little bit about big ideas, how, you
060know, they didn't do the best job at given the right amount of time for standards. It also didn't order them in any real sense that made sense to how the standards are written. Yeah, tell us that. So, it the test will take care of itself, I think, is a is a real philosophy we've kind of turned from as long as we teach the standards and and teach, you know, hold that high bar for students. The thought is it will take care of itself. I agree. Thank you. So, the whole plan with um building thinking classrooms, is that supposed to go all the way down to elementary or kindergarten through 12th grade? So, I mean it looks different obviously in every grade but yeah every teacher is well versed in it and is using it and
061um it's been successful so with our kindergarters I mean it's just a great way to get students thinking it's all about getting students thinking and us seeing what they're thinking so you can get feedback like that that at its core I think especially our some staff early on you get like it's a vertical whiteboard so does that make it better? No, it's just about it's all about getting kids thinking and the thinking that a kindergarter does and is is remarkable and it's well it's about choosing the right task, too. It's not just oh, they're working on a vertical whiteboard. Well, it's it's a well thoughtout task that they're actually showing that they're thinking and maybe it's not even a vertical whiteboard, but they're working together in groups and they're showing their thinking. Really, that's what
062it's all about. I think it's giving all students access to the curriculum. every kid has an entry point into the problem and then they're able to take it as far as they can go with them to also provides a lot more opportunity for kids working less teacherdirected more kid active and learning the piece that you mentioned uh Jess on consolidation that's a focus in a lot of our elementary schools right now and across the different schools but consolidation is really about securing learning and a lot of times if you're not securing that learning um and providing and aligning that with current bright signs I I think that um they leave and they come back and they don't remember. So we want to try to get them to remember make connections to what they already have
063learned uh so they can bring that back the next day. And I I I've seen building classrooms and districts and I I I see the role of the teachers changing almost to a facilitator to facilitate the learning that you know comes from internally with the students or groups of students. It's it's set up the environment, give them the right task, and when you need to get out of the way, get out of the way. But really just keep them in the flow of learning. It's really high work that teachers need to be able to do to identify the different strategies that students are using and then be able to present those back to students from something very concrete to very abstract in this consolidation process. So, they really do play a role. It's really though
064on the other half of it. and the student visible. I think if it works well, it also gives a teacher time to work with those students that need a little bit more onetoone or small group instruction. So, and really to diversify the instruction in the classroom in I just can't wait to get students in college who who know how to engage with material and have a little bit of fun while they're learning something. Well, here's the thing. when they reach you. Yeah, that's right. They need to be able to continue with that, you know, because otherwise just that collaboration has become such a lost skill. Communication has become such a lost skill. Like this is it doesn't work without this. Last school year, uh I made a elementary school showcase at where we broke up
065into groups and the was awesome. even for a piece of adult so to speak. Uh that was a great experience. Yeah. We've all been to sessions with the author of this book, Peter Lilly Doll, where Tom and I were put in front of a whiteboard to do all kinds of things and uh it was it's been great both learning it and then bringing it back to district and you can see how it's alive and well in the classroom. Sometimes these CCC cycles are the launch pad for change. with math and this is not brand new information for you kind of getting them a few years into what what otherwise might be CCC cycle. So they're sharing out the work that they're doing but it's it's they've already ramped up they're they're partway through kind of
066this change process all the curriculum revision that you heard about one for all and all those things and all the PD. Even on the even on the CCC committee, I receiving like, oh, this is this one's a little bit different because they've already named up and are moving way to not a launch pad for the next cycle. They're they're mid mid change cycle. How many members are at the CCC? 20. So, just as a as a recap, that's members of all walks of the district. So, elementary, middle, high school, all different um subject areas. And so, this team that did an excellent job um and you could see how well they worked together. They could kind of finish each other's sentences and the work that they put into that really showed that the committee was
067really impressed with what they did. And then they had some problems of practice that they had us um working through. And it was time well spent, I think, on both sides. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welling tonight. So that comes to the end. I move the journey. Thank you. Next meeting, Monday, May 12th, 7 o'. Thank you all. Thank you. Maybe we all had