Academics

All students have access to and engage with standards-based curriculum.  This outlines what students must know and be able to do.  Teachers use daily learning targets and formative assessments to ensure that students are making progress towards end-of-year expectations.

For the upcoming school year, we are continuing our academic focus on bell-to-bell instruction, so all students are engaged in rigorous and relevant learning.  Although each teacher's classroom is unique, all teachers will do the following:

• Stand at the classroom door, welcoming students into class.
• Start class with a "bell ringer", which gets students ready to learn.
• Deliver a standards-based focus lesson, so students know what they need to know and be able to do what they need to do.

We help our students learn through varied instructional delivery methods. If you're in our building, you might see students listening to focused instruction delivered by the teacher, followed by a task where students work collaboratively.  Students would then apply this learning with an independent task, so teachers know how students are taking on their learning.  Teachers continually participate in a renewal process studying instructional methods that best support student success.

We use a variety of assessments to measure student progress. Summary assessments are defined so that students and families can anticipate the methods of assessment within a course. Teachers conduct regular formative assessments to inform their instruction and allow students to monitor their learning. In addition, the district participates in standardized state assessments for accountability.