As you all know, CSD is committed to continual improvement. Each year at our annual staff retreat and throughout the summer, we examine our current practices and programs and look for ways we can improve as an organization. We use staff, student, and parent input along with our observations as administrators to help set school improvement goals for the coming year.
Last year, we identified several school improvement goals, one of which included keeping our most academically advanced students challenged and showing growth. Most any educator would agree that this goal represents a hefty task, perhaps one of the most daunting challenges we face. Please consider this blog an effort to keep parents informed as to our progress regarding this goal. While we are doing much well with our academically advanced students, we continue to reflect upon and evaluate how we can best meet their learning needs. As we consider strategies, it is essential that we continue to keep this particular population of students engaged in what Carol Ann Tomlinson (DI expert and guru) often refers to as “respectful tasks.”
(http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/staffroom/studentsupport/pdf/12-13/respectful_tasks.pdf)
Part of this school improvement goal involves taking the 2015-2016 school year to assess our current practices and renew our knowledge around the educational research and best practices associated with academically gifted education. CSD has always been committed to current research and trends in our field so we will definitely spend the entire year studying the most current research on this topic. As we were re-reading some prominent literature on differentiated instruction, we were struck by something profound – something that we hadn’t thought of in quite some time. Differentiated instruction is also known as “responsive teaching.” When we think of it in these terms – responsive teaching rather than differentiated instruction – we immediately start to conjure up more authentic approaches to assessment and instruction. Remember, education is not something we are “doing” to children. Education is something that occurs from within the developing student. Therefore, as educators, our job is to truly know our students and match learning tasks to them, not vice versa. We should not expect our kids to conform to our teaching, but we should tailor our instruction to meet the needs of the child. And if we stop and think about it, the only way this can happen is if we, as educators, are engaged in a continuous cycle of assessment. Assessment informs instruction, and without assessing critical factors such as who the children are (socially, emotionally, physically, etc… – the whole child), how the children learn (learning styles, personality type, cognitive construct, etc…), and what the children know (background knowledge related to content), then there is no way we can effectively succeed in the act of responsive teaching. Without the ongoing assessment (both formal and informal) that occurs daily in our practice, we are nothing more than distributors of knowledge, which may or may not reach our intended audience.
So as we’ve reflected on what we’re currently doing, much has been affirmed by our reading:
Practices/Strategies Affirmed and Continued:
- Human Resources: (Our adult to child ratio for the entire K-12 program is 1:6!)
As stated earlier, we expect teachers to know their students deeply and thoroughly. This level of “knowing” is intense and challenging. And it is one of many reasons that while schools around our state cut assistants and special programs, CSD has hunkered down in the storm to make sure that our student to adult ratio is far better than any public school (and most private schools) in the state. Let us be explicit here; human resources allow us the time to converse with and coach our students as individual learners in a variety of different disciplines.
Pre-assessment truly is the cornerstone of all differentiated instruction. Of course, teachers must always remember to “begin with the end in mind” through backwards design planning to pre-assess. The assessment for any unit should be available and ready for students before instruction begins and that assessment should not be a secret. We WANT our students to know where they are headed with their learning and what we expect at the end to show mastery and understanding. From pre-assessment data, teachers can devise groups and develop tiered assignments.
As the unit progresses, teachers anticipate that different students will master the material at different rates. Therefore, lesson plans must comprise the following layers:
o Re-teaching for students who struggle with the content
o Compacting for students who learn quickly and need to jump to a higher level assignment
o Enrichment (alternate assignments) for students who already display content mastery
*Note – Please keep in mind that flexible grouping is the means by which teachers accomplish meeting the needs of diverse learners. These groups are not static and may change throughout the year and among the disciplines.
- Gifted Curriculum Accessible to All:
When we examine gifted curriculum in the typical school setting, it tends to include the following: problem-based learning, critical and divergent thinking exercises, student choice, multi-disciplinary experiences, etc. Typically these opportunities are available on a limited timeframe to a select group of students. At CSD, we believe these types of quality curricular opportunities should be accessible to all students throughout the entire school day, which is precisely why we allocate 75% of our total school budget to human resources so that teachers are empowered to differentiate instruction and respond to the individual learning needs of their students.
- Internships, Independent Studies: In high school, students have the opportunity to work one on one with an administrator to identify academic and vocational areas of high interest and to develop a credited, honors-level internship or independent study. All students pursuing self-directed study follow a detailed syllabus designed to help students reflect upon, adjust and adapt to, and document their learning. An administrator meets regularly with these students to re-frame and revise the structure and learning goals for the internship or independent study to assess student performance and progress.
- Heavy Emphasis on K-12 Arts, including Performances and Programs
- 8th Grade Practicum: Students participate in a year-long course that focuses on identifying challenges in the community and bringing skills learned in the classroom to bear on real-world issues. Students work in small groups, led by a faculty or staff mentor, to partner with a local organization or community leader to examine a timely issue and identify and pursue a response to that issue.
- AP Course Offerings
New Pilot Programs and Targeted Improvements:
- Virtual HS Math 1 for 7th Graders
- Increased literacy facilitator time to target advanced math students
- Using test prep resources to better meet the needs of our most advanced learners; for example using Study Island resources at advanced levels as appropriate (ex: advanced math 7th graders using study island grade 8 level) to promote more growth at all academic levels
- ACT/SAT test analysis to better compact HS math instruction for advanced math students
- Senior level math classes give time and attention to challenging mathematical thinking, problem-solving, and application
- Word Study and Vocabulary Development – We are analyzing individual student accountability for spelling and vocabulary development in grades K-12.
- MS Robotics Team (both competitive and instructional levels)
- Advanced High School Spanish 1 option (in addition to existing Math 1 option) for 8th Graders
- 8th Grade iCreate class
- Science Olympiad (Grades 4/5)
In conclusion, we would like to offer a quote from Rick Wormeli’s book Differentiation.
“Mental dexterity is the new currency. A country’s most important exports include its citizens’ ability to innovate and solve problems. Today’s students must learn how to continually manage, critique, and increase their knowledge. To cultivate these capacities in all students, including those who are ready to move beyond the regular education standards, we will need to adapt and expand our own practices as well.” (pg. 3, Differentiation: From Planning to Practice by Rick Wormeli)
While we cannot promise perfection, we can promise that we, as educators, are committed to giving all children the best education humanly possible. We are committed to educating both the heart and the mind, for one without the other surely falls short of being complete. We are committed to staying abreast of current research and trends in the field of education so we are equipped to meet students where they are and personalize their learning in a way that affects their overall growth and achievement. And as always, we are committed to working with the parents, our partners in education, in accomplishing our mission of providing a stimulating environment where educational tasks are meaningful, purposeful, and relevant. As we head into the winter season, please know your questions and feedback as parents are valued. These young people are incredibly special to all of us, and by working together towards a common goal, the sky truly is the limit.
CSD: Power of We 