Teachers progress in curriculum alignment

Bigfork teachers are making headway on a curriculum realignment process that will span the school year, they told Bigfork School board members last week.

Groups of teachers called high performance teams, or HPTs, were restructured this summer to be comprised of teachers from a single subject area rather than from each grade level. These teams were then tasked with identifying from grade 12 down what students need to know to be successful, figuring out how to assess those skills and coming up with the best practices to achieve them.

Most groups have been meeting, looking at state standards and surveying teachers to find out what exactly is being taught at various grade levels, they told the board.

From this work, the teachers will create a document outlining what students will learn at each grade level. The schools already have grade level expectations, but through this process will check and revise them and put them in a new format that will be available online.

The first part of the alignment is anticipated to be done by February, said Jackie Boshka, Bigfork Elementary and Middle School principal. HPTs will then focus on determining the best instructional methods to teach those skills and how to test them. The entire process should be completed by the beginning of the 2010-11 school year, Boshka said.

Board Chairperson Maureen Averill expressed concerns about the alignment process focusing too much on meeting standards or teaching to a test.

"I realize so much funding comes from meeting AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress' goals, but I'm not sure our curriculum should be aligned strictly for a test," Averill said. "It seems to me that might be what's happening."

Superintendent Russ Kinzer said that staff groups were tasked to base their alignment on four areas – state standards, state achievement tests, textbooks and what teachers bring to the classroom.

"Standards are the basics and then they are moving from there," Kinzer said. "The idea is to take all four components."

Averill said she wants to make sure enrichment activities and lessons stay in the curriculum.

Boshka said those aspects of teaching are what help students actually learn what they need to know and will be continued.

Even though the alignment is still in process, teachers have already been making changes to what they do in the classroom, said first-grade teacher Ann Dorr, representing the math HPT.

One middle school math teacher found by taking a closer look at the criterion referenced test, or CRT, that the test relied heavily on geometry – a subject that doesn't come up until the end of her textbook and course. Now, she can integrate it or cover those principles earlier, Dorr said.

"People are learning," she said.

The history HPT found out that geography was lacking and is looking for more ways to incorporate it throughout the curriculum, said Stormy Taylor, high school history teacher. The high school teachers are also discussing how to cover the U.S. Constitution so that students have a base knowledge before they enter government and economics classes in 12th grade.

Since the art teachers worked to help develop the arts curriculum, it is mostly aligned, art teacher Amber Britt said.

Instead, the teachers' focus has been on the high school students who come in from other areas who may not have the same skills or information that students coming from Bigfork Middle School do.

To help address this, teachers in the art HPT met with the art teacher at Swan River School to discuss what is being taught there in preparation for Bigfork High School.

Board members encouraged other HPTs to look at ways to collaborate with Swan River School in this process.

The science HPT has expressed a desire to understand what's gong on in the sciences at other grade levels than those included on their team, said Hans Bodenhamer, representing the science HPT. Since there are only about three teachers in each grade level at the elementary school, they are spread thin through some of the subject areas on the teams. Not all teams have representatives from all elementary grades.

The board requested another update on the alignment process for the board's February meeting.

INTERDISTRICT AGREEMENT

In other business, the board voted to enter an interdistrict agreement to provide joint funding for operation and maintenance for the Bigfork schools. Bigfork's elementary and middle school and its high school have separate districts.

This fund, to which each will contribute $30,000, can be used for either school's maintenance and can be shared between the schools to help whichever one may need assistance.

"It gives us a cushion," business manager Eda Taylor said. "It doesn't mean that all of a sudden we have less money. It's there and can be shared."

By putting money in this non-budgeted fund, it will be able to carry over from year to year. To continue this fund, the board will have to vote to enter the interdistrict agreement each fiscal year prior to January.

CLASS TRIP

The board approved a trip for Bodenhamer's marine biology class to Anacortes, Wash., in the spring.

Students will conduct ecological field studies and visit a variety of habitats. The trip is partially funded by donations from the Angora Ridge Foundation other sources. The approximately 20 students who will go on the trip will also be responsible for part of their expenses.

Currently, the trip is scheduled for March 27 through April 3.

NEXT MEETING

The next board meeting is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 16. At that meeting, members will hear a report from the elementary and middle school math departments about CRT scores.