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Education Committee 2011-2012
Scott G., Chris S., Kate B., Ryan K., Tami KF., Tammy P.
10/26/11
Update: How are curricular changes going in the High School?
· Tami--Kids aren’t even talking about it.
· Required classes, no objections, smooth transition as far as we know.
· Reviewed the new required classes:
o New Art requirements
o Physical Science/Chemistry
o Biology full year
o History--9th graders required to take classes--U.S. History/World History rotation
o Spanish--Beginning/Advanced/Weekly Supervision of Rosetta Stone
o English--same--create book clubs?
o Math--Pre-Cal renamed Alg. III, Ryan, Kate, Lindsay teaching
· Scott--Positive comments from kids--making meeting the standards easier--impression is fewer projects--is this accurate?
· 11th/12th graders not in classes so much.
· New space makes things even better--more quiet work time, less drama.
· Review half way through year and see whether needs tweaking?
Ask College Subcommittee to work on Honors Designation--
· Find models that could work at our school. Eg. Honors Latin at Tammy’s daughter’s school.
· Then review, consult with staff, and recommend.
Social Curriculum:
· What are our goals as a school in this area?
· What do we already do?
· Educate ourselves about Experiential Education/Models of Leadership/Character building training/Social Curriculum--what do we call it?
· Time for a refresher with Developmental Designs? Do we still do it? Useful elements that could be incorporated into the High School?
Action Item--At next team meeting ask teachers to brainstorm what we alre3ady do and report back to committee--Tami
New Professional Development Model:
· Tami is Lead Teacher for Q-Comp
o 1-2 Master Teachers to assist and implement
o Maria helping teachers find workshops to help them
o Meet on Tuesdays 2x a month
o Staff brainstormed 11 goals for the year, one of which included Differentiated Instruction. Which ones can staff learn about and then teach others?
§ Eg. Scott--Media Literacy
§ Annie & Maria--Core Standards
· Interest in Idea of Catalyst Fund
o Make it a financial priority for the Board
o Make it a budget item
o Develop a clear process for applying for and awarding funds
o Turn over to Finance Committee because seems to be support for it, now need to find the money.
o Chris did research about how PCCS does it--happy to share when time is right.
Action Items:
1. Ryan and Chris
a. Review and polish MS and HS Handbooks
b. Look at e-portfolios--ask Todd’s Media Group to help us?
i. Role of Moodle? Engrade?--goals?
2. Tammy--Revive College SubCommittee
a. Look at models for honors designations
b. Continue previous work
3. Tammy--Recruit more parents to Ed. Committee
4. Tami--Brainstorm about what we already do with regard to Social Curriculum at ARTech--report to committee
Meetings will be held 2nd and 4th Wednesdays each month, 3:15-4:30. Next meeting Wed., 11/9/11.
Minutes submitted by Chris S.
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Education committee Minutes
2/7/11
Tami. Tammy, Joe, Kate, Scott, Lori, Chris
Agenda
· Update on College Prep Sub Committee
· Next steps for High School Curriculum examination
· Update on Artech graduate survey
· Professional Development Fund
College Prep SubCommittee:
Tammy organized a meeting of the new subcommittee. They will meet at the Hideaway on Tuesday evening, 2/8/11, at 7pm. Members include Tammy, Robyn Gunderson, Nancy Dennis, Ryan Krominga, and Kevin Rasmussen. They will base their tasks on the list of items developed by this committee below. As per Tammy’s email:
“The mission of the group will be as follows--study and report to the Education Committee on the following topics
· Transcripts? Do ours communicate the level of sophistication of the work our students do? Do we need standardized definitions of “seminar” “class” “project” so colleges know what happens in these settings?
· Honors level work? Are there ways we can designate truly outstanding work so our students’ work is valued?
· Meet with Carleton and St. Olaf admissions officers (or others) and assess what they would like to see from our students—documentation, coursework, scores, etc.
· Coordinate college rep visits with Northfield H.S.?
· SAT/ACT prep? Should we offer this preparation or make students aware of it?
· Improve our School Profile? How do we share our program with prospective colleges?
Propose any other areas of study? Examine the results of the graduate survey being put together and see how it informs the work of this committee.”
Next Steps for High School Curriculum Review:
Joe presented a graph that shows what classes/seminars would be required at what levels. It showed clearly how required seminars could be weighted more heavily in the 9th grade year. 5 credits in 9th grade, 4 in 10th, 3 in 11th and none in 12th. The balance of credits in each year could be fulfilled with credits and elective seminars. This DOES NOT mean that projects, guided or independent, would not continue to be part of the 9th and 10th grade experience.
This progression would address the following weaknesses in our program and accomplish the following goals.
1. Ensure that 9th and 10th grade students completed a series of foundational seminars designed to teach a set of skills and create foundation knowledge so that 11th and 12th grade students could “dive deeper” into projects.
2. If students had more foundational knowledge and skills, their projects could reflect more “rigor” and thus better prepare students for the more sophisticated critical thinking and writing required at the college level.
3. Creating more seminars and less project supervision for teachers could make this model of teaching more sustainable, which is an issue we grappled with in the first year of this committee’s work. Teachers could reach more kids with fewer “preps.”
4. This model could better prepare our students for graduation by ensuring that seniors do not find themselves in the position of having enough credits to graduate but not enough in the state-required areas.
Joe will share the work of our committee with staff on Wednesday morning, 2/9/11, and ask them to envision a model that addresses the problems we have identified in this group. This graph is a working document and can be tweaked to reflect our desired balance between seminar and project work, required versus emergent curriculum, and ensure we meet state standards and the stated mission of our school.
Update on Graduate Survey:
Tammy told us that the survey had been developed and administered. The committee would like to see the questions and results. Tammy said she would follow up on this and share the results with the committee.
Professional Development:
Chris offered to call some schools and find out what the process is for allocating Professional Development funds in other schools. We agreed that it would be good to have a clear process so that it feels fair and the money is spent wisely. We also agreed that finding the money for such a fund should be the job of the Finance Committee and Board. We will try to find answers to the following questions:
1. Two kinds of Professional Development—school-wide and individual. Are there different processes for each?
2. What is the process to apply for and receive money? Who decides?
3. Is it then the responsibility of the teacher to teach others?
4. How does Professional Development advance the mission of the school?
Our next meeting: Monday, February 21, 3:15-4:30.
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Report to the ARTech School Board
1/10/11
Goals for the Year:
1. Create a Middle School Handbook
2. Review the High School Curriculum
a. Are we meeting all student’s needs?
b. Are we aligned with State Standards?
c. What is the desirable balance between projects and seminars?
d. Are we meeting the mission of our school?
e. Are we preparing our students for college and/or work?
3. Professional Development: How can we create a sustainable fund for this work?
4. Create an accurate contact list of ARTech graduates.
5. Create a survey to assess what and how our students are doing after graduating from ARTech.
6. Create a Sub Committee to meet with college counselors and assess how we can better portray the work students do at ARTech for understanding by college admissions. Help create supporting documentation and suggestions for transcripts to communicate the sophistication of the work ARTech students do. Revise the High School handbook in light of what we find.
Accomplishments:
1. Analyzed the credit distribution of students who are seniors at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year. This is part of our review of how well, or not well, students are doing at ARTech.
2. Gathered and analyzed staff proposals for a model progression of curriculum scope and sequence. Teachers submitted proposals for what could be required in each department to better support student’s learning, to successfully acquire credits, and successfully meet graduation standards.
Work in Progress:
1. Lori Coleman and Simon Tyler are working on the Middle School Handbook. They plan to have the handbook ready to distribute at the school Open House on February 27, 2011.
2. An accurate contact list of ARTech graduates is being created by a student from St. Olaf, with the support of ARTech staff.
3. A survey of graduates is being created by a student from St. Olaf, with the support of ARTech staff.
4. We continue to look at how well, or not well, students are acquiring credits at ARTech .
5. Joe Pahr and Kate Beiswanger are preparing a draft master curriculum plan of what seminars need to be offered to support credit acquisition, as well as investigating when and how this plan could be implemented. When this is reviewed by the ARTech staff, we will address staffing needs and share a proposal with the community.
Next Steps:
1. Complete a middle school handbook.
2. Review the draft master curriculum plan.
3. Create a subcommittee to look at college admission process and documents.
4. Revise the high school handbook.
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Education Committee
School Board Report
April 29, 2010
Mission Accomplished
Handbooks
· Draft completed for High School advisories (Scott Graves & Tami Kasch-Flugum)
· Middle School advisories in the process of creating one also (Lori Coleman is heading this)
Recommendations from the Committee
Dynamic Conferences and Timing
Conferences should look different at the Middle school and High School levels. They should be based on what is developmentally appropriate for students serve the educational/social goals of the school. Chris Sullivan had polled families following the most recent conferences.
· Curriculum Night to precede conferences
· Proposal for Middle School Conferences:
Three Stage conferences
1. Goal Setting: academic goals (project process and core classes) and non-academic goals. Student, parent and teacher input. Goals would be summarized and shared in writing with Core Teachers and parents. Preferred contact information for all teachers would be shared at this time. Parents, Advisors, and student attend. Scheduled conference held in September.
2. Mid-Year check-in: Scheduled conferences with advisors and core teachers. Evaluate progress in academic and non-academic goals. Grades shared with parents and students at this time. (Educate parents on how grading is done at ARTech?) Course correction if necessary. End of November after 1st Quarter Grades.
3. Summary: Advisors—drop in?—Celebrate successes of core classes and non-academic goals (project process successes celebrated at Presentation Night?) Look forward to the coming year…
· Proposal for High School Conferences:
Three Stage conferences
1. Goal setting: Sign up for classes, set academic and non-academic goals, count credits. Include advisor, parents and student. Scheduled. Before School starts? 2 days back-to back. Goals would be summarized and shared in writing with Core Teachers and parents. Preferred contact information for all teachers would be shared at this time.
2. Mid Year check-In: Scheduled conferences with advisors, parents and core teachers. Evaluate progress in academic and non-academic goals. Grades shared with parents and students at this time. (Educate new parents on how grading is done at Artech?) Course correction if necessary. End of November after 1st Quarter Grades.
3. Email Reminder to touch base with parents of student with whom no meaningful contact has been made. Drop-In conferences available? End of 2nd quarter and 3rd Quarters. Use Google Calendar for reminders? (Create a tracking document that would record how many times teachers have contact over the course of each quarter. Could be used to help measure academic school goals? And be sure no families are left out.)
· Additional Ideas
o Staff to create some kind of formalized “progress report process” for course correction outside of conference structure. Can be simply noting ongoing email or phone conversations regarding student.
o Create a tracking document that would record how many times teachers have contact over the course of each quarter. Could be used to help measure academic school goals? And be sure no families are left out. Staff to create some kind of formalized “progress report process” for course correction outside of conference structure. Can be simply noting ongoing email or phone conversations regarding student.
o Use the e-portfolio tool for high school students as a way to celebrate and track their growth/successes over the school year. Want to look at work done across the school, not just projects. Create a sub-committee to look at this more seriously. Bring on board those who studied it in the past? Tammy and Chris will start this research. Ryan? Project Foundry? What are local colleges using?
Ongoing Discussions and Research
Sustainability of Project/Core class/Seminar Structure
Simon asked the group to begin a discussion of the educational structure of the school and staffing and help figure out where cuts could be made for next year. The Education Committee has been charged to look at the curriculum and assess what parts are critical to preserve because of grad standards or because they are part of fulfilling our mission.
Q: What process should we follow to evaluate this?
Q: How do we staff the program to meet our needs?
Q: What would dropping one Middle School Advisor look like?
Q: License areas? Do we have the right ones?
Other Topics
· Social Curriculum for the High School
· Training regarding differentiated learning
· Research regarding e-portfolios.
