Our principal who was hired 5 years ago is very data driven. She lives and dies by standardized testing. Our curriculum is developed based on these results. We meet often in our PLC, (professional learning communties) meetings to discuss test results and what we have to do to improve them. We adopted the Envision math program because it was common core aligned.
All our most recent curriculum is research based and aligned with the common core. Our district has adopted the "mass customize learning" philosophy and profientcy based learning. We are working on developing curriculum that is cross grade level based. Our most recent was the development of a science unit aligned with the common core and incorporating Robert Marzano's Taxonomy guiding principles.
Wow! It sounds like a you all are trying to fit many concepts into one curriculum. I'm still new to Maine but I think if they are parallel to one another, it may work well. My school seems to be based on standardized test data as well. Differently, they allow teams to review test data and come up with "intervention" plans for students who need the additional help. In many ways, I feel that revising curriculum and lessons to better fit these needs would work better.
ReplyDeleteI am jealous that your planning seems very collaborative. I am the only grade-level ELA teacher so I don't have as many opportunities. Next year we are moving close towards standards based grading and I believe then I will have more opportunities.
Do you use formative assessment for decision making or are changes in curriculum made on standardized tests only?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately Chris our principal is ALL about standardized tests. Everything we do is data driven. We do formative assessment for our own use but it is not used often to make decisions.
DeleteOne thing that I would love to see more of in my district are PLCs! We are encouraged to research this and read that for best practices but often times, those with the best advice are in the classroom next door! Are your PLCs a combination a mix of best practice research and personal anecdotes and strategies?! :) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteKristen, the only thing that I have issue with is that our PLC is not a true "PLC". Our meeting our principal driven. We often spend many meeting reviewing test scores and data. I would love to get back to spending our time talking about our students and what we could be doing for them.
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