Curriculum
As we work our way through the school year I am seeing good progress, albeit slow, by our teachers with the Curriculum Manager entry. By the end of the year many of our teachers will have their courses entered allowing for evaluation of the infusion of the Iowa Core Curriculum throughout all subject areas. Our schedule got tossed off a bit with the recent weather and I hope that this does not halt what progress has been made.
Shortly after the start of the school year teachers in Year 2 will begin to select materials for evaluation. We will use January and February to select and March and April to evaluate. During the evaluation process we will be referring to our established standards and benchmarks to see how closely aligned materials might be and find the best fit for our classrooms.
On a School Improvement note, the School Improvement Advisory Committee (SIAC) has met 3 times this fall, each time discussing a portion of the Comprehensive School Improvement Plan (CSIP). After Christmas we will be discussing the Annual Progress Report (APR). This report is our mechanism for reporting out the progress of the school toward our CSIP goals. If you have an interest in being part of this group, you are welcome to attend. We will be meeting next, February 1 at 6:30 p.m.
Assessment
Shortly after school starts back up in January we will be taking our Mid Year MAP assessments at the Elementary school. Teachers will use the data from this assessment to readjust their instruction, student placement, and any interventions that might be taking place. The more instructional data that we have the better! February brings ITBS/ITED testing. Our scheduled testing dates are the week of February 8.
