Gladwin Community Schools: Curriculum Vision

1. In 150 words or less summarize your program and its relevance to student achievement.

The curriculum QUESTions process is a K-12 initiative designed to facilitate a systemic change in the way we educate our children. The process, an extension of the work on professional learning communities by Dufor, focuses on answering what have become our five curriculum questions.

What do we teach? – First and foremost our curriculum must be aligned with the State standards. Teachers must be given the time and guidance to become intimately aware of the content expectations.

When do we teach it ? Through the development of pacing guides, our teachers have articulated a focused plan of instruction that will ensure that all objectives are taught at the appropriate grade level.

How will we know if the students have learned? – Each core content area at each grade level administers a common quarterly assessment. These assessments test the specific content expectations outlined in the pacing guides. The tests are scored at the district level and data is returned to the teachers and administrators within 1 week of the test date.

How do we teach? – As our benchmark assessments identify weaknesses in our instructional methods we have provided direct and focused professional development.

What will we do with those students who have not learned? – Following the pyramid of intervention model, teachers and administrators are working collaboratively to institute interventions for those students who do not meet the standard performance level on the benchmark assessments.

2. Describe the critical need/problem addressed by your program.

Gladwin Community Schools has traditionally had very high achievement scores. Over the past several years we lost our focus and have seen the achievement of our students slip to unacceptable levels. Quite frankly, we needed to do a better job of educating our students.

After considering several short term “quick fix” options we decided that we needed to change our culture to be more focused on achievement. We needed a systemic change. A change that would provide both focus and accountability at all levels of the organization.

That summer, our leadership team met to sketch out our framework for change. It became clear to us that we needed to build accountability, for all levels, into our plan. We knew that we had a great staff and very capable leadership but were lacking in focus. These discussions led us to begin researching the Professional Learning Communities concept and from there developed what has become known as our Curriculum QUESTions vision.

3. Tell why your program is unique/innovative

Our Curriculum QUESTions process is unique in that it is a systemic approach to raising achievement. Rather than relying on the trend of the day, or fragmented strategies, our process relies on a change in the way we approach all aspects of the learning process, a true cultural shift.

Teaching staff were given the time to work in content area and grade level teams to study the state content area expectations and to develop pacing guides that articulate when the objectives are to be taught. The pacing guides are common to the particular level. For instance, all 5th grade teachers use the same pacing guide in the core content areas, just as all high school algebra teachers use the same pacing guide.

Once the pacing guides were complete, staff were given training and time to develop common assessments that are aligned with the pacing guide. Each of the assessments was juried by a group of trained staff members prior to being given the first time. These assessments are given quarterly to all students K-12 and are scored at the district level. Data from the assessments can be accessed, electronically, within one week of the test date. Another unique aspect of our process is our data mining relationship with MiTracker to make our local assessment data available in MiTracker report format. Our staff can see the results of their benchmark assessments disaggregated according to many different criteria including all MEAP data fields such as content strand and sub-group. The benchmark assessments provide us with real time data as opposed to waiting for the yearly MEAP reports. We are now capable of making data driven decisions during the course of the school year in response to our student’s actual performance.

After reviewing the data, individual teachers or small groups of teachers meet with their building leadership to discuss the data and make plans for improvement. These discussions constantly refer back to the five curricular QUEStions. The results of these meetings are shared with the building school improvement teams who are then tasked with developing the student interventions, professional development plans, and curricular adjustments necessary to increase achievement.

Building school improvement teams then bring their plans to the district level school improvement team for final approval and the allocation of funds. This ensures vertical alignment and compatibility across the district. This entire process can take less than a month from idea to implementation. Another unique aspect of our process is that any approved student intervention, professional development or curricular adjustment is evaluated to determine whether or not the change resulted in an achievement increase. Strategies that raise achievement are kept while those that do not, are modified or abandoned.

4. Provide evidence/data of your programs impact, success and scope.

We are currently in our third year of the process and are still in the implementation phase, yet we are already seeing considerable changes in achievement.

Where a significant number of our MEAP results had been below the state average, we have seen that gap close in many of the assessed areas.

Grade Level	% Below State Avg. 2005	% Below State Avg. 2006
3rd Grade Math	12%	7%
4th Grade Math	17%	11%
5th Grade Math	14%	13%
6th Grade Math	21%	14%
3rd Grade Writing	12%	7%
4th Grade Writing	16%	14%
6th Grade Writing	5% Above the Avg.	9% Above the Avg.
7th Grade Writing	12%	0%- At the Avg.
6th Grade Soc. Studies	7%	0%- At the Avg.
8th Grade Soc. Studies	2%	0%- At the Avg.
High School Reading	3%	1%
High School Math	6% Above the Avg.	11% Above the Avg.
High School Soc. Studies	0%- At the Avg.	6% Above the Avg.

In addition to the achievement changes we have also seen a dramatic increase in teacher collaboration. Staff within a grade level or content area are now teaching the content expectations at approximately the same time, and assessing the children using the same evaluative instrument. The entire process allows for more sharing of ideas and scarce resources. Teachers are encouraged to view achievement data from classrooms taught by their peers, facilitating discussions that result in one teacher learning from the success of another.