September 30, 2008 Update

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

Curriculum and Instruction
Writing

The first meeting of the Writing Committee this year will be on Tuesday, September 30th. The following agenda items will be discussed:

1. Follow up from Summer Workshop: Getting the word out
2. "Writing Workshop-The Essential Guide"/Observation Schedule
3. Graphic Organizers
4. Future Direction
5. Other items

Mathematics

The first Math Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 7th. Prior to this meeting the members have been asked to review the materials that they received prior to the end of last year. They have been asked to bring ideas and suggestions as the review cycle for mathematics begins.

Response to Intervention (RtI)

Leadership teams continue to meet in each building. Building staffs are updating the Planned Improvement goals from 2007-08 and developing the goals for the current school year. These are scheduled to be posted on the website by the end of October.

Assessment

We continue to move forward on the implementation of MAP testing for students in grades one, three, and six. Bob Hotton is beginning to work on the background set up of the program with our current servers. We are expecting to roll out the program at the identified grade levels in November. More information will be coming as we continue to move forward. The revised Assessment Overview is posted on the Darien #61 website.

The Local Assessment database is being shared with individual buildings and modifications are being made to the database and CRT to meet individual needs for getting student data.