June 24, 2008 Update

The following provides an update on curriculum issues and assessment/screening issues in the district.

Curriculum and Instruction

Writing

1. A team of six teacher (Meredith Holdman, Jen Reyes, Janet Boslett, Kristen Shell, Bonnie Bucholz, and Veronica Heggie) will be attending a workshop: Using the Six-Trait Scoring Guide as a Teaching Tool. This workshop will be held on August 7th and 8th in conjunction with Maercker District #60 and Gower District #62. We were able to fund teachers attending the training using grant money.

The workshop presenter, Jan Chappuis, is an experienced educator with twenty years as a fourth-through ninth-grade teacher and district level curriculum and implementation specialist. She is currently a Classroom Assessment Specialist with the Assessment Training Institute in Portland, Oregon.

2. Other tasks identified in May will continue this summer and during the 2008-09 School Year.

Mathematics

1. Committee members have materials to review over the summer and the curriculum review cycle will continue this Fall.

Response to Intervention (RtI)

Six teachers (Deb Kowal, Karen Ochoa, Angela Anderson, Mary Govertson, Jane Moss, and Mary Swenson) attended a RtI training session on May 22, 2008 and have shared with me that it was a worthwhile event. Their feedback has been shared with the building principals so that the Leadership teams will receive information on the training.

Some Common threads among the comments from the teachers were:

Conference was excellent; very challenging to get everyone on board and
there are so many meeting; need a universal screening process; need
professional development of all staff; data review and documentation are big;
need for collaboration.

Assessment

The DuPage ROE is focusing on how they can provide support to districts working through the RtI process. In an effort to increase dialogue on assessment a video conference was arranged between a number of administrators in DuPage County and Dr. Rick Stiggins from the Assessment Training Institute. Representing District #61 at this session was Maureen Kelly and Bob Carlo. The format was question and answer in which Dr. Stiggins was able to address some of the commons needs identified in DuPage County. In addition, the document: Assessment Manifesto: A Call for the Development of Balanced Assessment Systems was provided to the participants to review prior to the conference.

This information was shared with administrators in District #61 and area Superintendents. Future conversations are being planned as many districts in DuPage county are looking at assessment as it relates to student achievement and Response to Intervention.

Within District #61 we are looking at what we are currently using for assessment and what may need to be revisited. The revised Curriculum Overview will be posted on the website in the future.