NCC Minutes...
...February 28, 2008
by Randy Rivers
March 10, 2008
The NCC met on Thursday, February 28, 2008, at Northeast Elementary School at 12:17 P.M. Fourteen members were present along with Kelly Gentry, Curriculum Leadership Institute (CLI) consultant. Members Ken Cleland, Randy Rivers, and Mario Valenzuela were absent. The school board position remains vacant.
Each member present received an agenda and a copy of Curriculum Leadership Institute E-Hint.
Mastery and Grading: Friday, February 22, 2008, Northeast held a district wide in-service. In the morning, the consensus from the NCC was presented to school staff with feedback to follow. The afternoon was spent in individual building discussions. Handouts were e-mailed to staff in advance to be filled out and brought to the meetings for discussion. Should homework/daily work contribute to grades? Elementary staff agreed strongly, yes, while secondary grades need more time to consider due to different issues that arise at that grade level. Behavior and work ethic are also still under consideration.
It was determined that meeting departmentally for grades 6-12 first, then coming together as a group would help decision making be more effective. Each department does things differently, especially at the secondary level. First questions to be addressed should be: What can you agree on as a department?
Where can you start?
Changes to a grading system can take months or years to achieve, but research demonstrates that poor grading can affect a child’s learning. A grading policy must be set:
1. Staff must agree on what work ethic statements will be.
2. Staff must agree on how they count. If you count work ethic, it must be graded
3. Policy must be set and presented up front to parents and students.
Lengthy discussion took place about grading. Next years math grades at elementary level should be standards based not letter grades. Did your child accomplish the standard or not. Standards to be achieved will be listed for 1st semester, 2nd semester, etc. Standards based grades may not work as well for secondary levels.
Mastery was also discussed. At the elementary level, 80% was considered mastery with some things weighted. Once again, everyone must agree. Should mastery be based on content or across the board? If mastery is not achieved, then re-teach. Steps must be established as to what will be done if a child fails. Once steps are established, they must be followed through, if a child is still unsuccessful, there must be a record of what was tried.
Lengthy discussion took place about homework, with differing opinions. Should a child be required to do homework if they can pass assessments? Should homework count? Homework builds accountability. It needs to be do-able by the student. Students need to learn to be self-sufficient and to accept responsibility for finishing homework. Homework can help students feel good about their accomplishments. The purpose of homework should be: repetition, reading, and teaching responsibility. Homework should be completed by the student alone. In grades k-8, homework should teach responsibility. In grades 9-12, homework would just be to complete assignments not finished during class.
Kelly Gentry announced to the NCC that she would be resigning as curriculum consultant in order to accept a position in curriculum assessment in her home school district. The NCC will meet the new consultant at the April, NCC meeting.
Matt Harris, Jr. High Social Studies teacher joined the NCC meeting to present results of an Academic Honesty survey given anonymously to 125 students in grades 6-8. Student’s ideas varied as to what they considered cheating. Student ideas as to what the consequences should be varied as well, with some being quite harsh. Students say that cheating happens all the time, even parents cheat on things like the speed limit. Students are very sophisticated in their means of cheating. Teachers are not always aware that cheating is going on in their classrooms. Academic honesty will be addressed in future NCC meetings. The High School will also conduct a survey. To allow cheating to go on condones it, so this issue must be addressed.
Reading SAC will meet, Friday, February 29, 2008. The writing process begins.
Finding time for 5th grade band was addressed. Fifth grade band is a feeder program for Jr. High band and is a necessary class. In order for students to master the instrument, time must be allotted for students to learn. Time is in short supply for every subject. Alan Roberts and Nicki Traul will meet to discuss if something can be worked out to help ease scheduling problems.
21st Century Grant: Deborah Schaub and Becky Cobb just returned from a trip to Florida for training. A request to the state for changes will be made for next year. Changes requested will be to shorten the day to 5 PM instead of 5:30 PM, and to add one paid teacher per grade level. This would ease the load on tutors and make the program run more smoothly with less stress for all.
Moodle (math curriculum) was demonstrated on ELMO. Moodle is an interactive computer program which would allow all curriculums to be posted. All standards could be entered as well as resources. Teachers could scan pages, tapes, videos; anything they use in class could be posted. Parents and students could access this information for make-up work, messages from the teacher, etc. This program would work like college blackboard. The possibilities are endless.
PDC/Staff Development: Suggestions to the board included: Late start schedule, 2 days per month. In-service days during the school year. Lots of discussion about the calendar. Voting is to take place at the next board meeting.
Site Council Report: Planned projects to the board are looking at getting Site Council grants. Alan Roberts reported much more communication between the Jr. High and High School about curriculum. The state will be requiring keyboarding to be taught by the end of 8th grade. Keyboarding will only be taught one more year at the high school. Sixth graders will begin daily keyboarding classes and for the next two years, eighth graders will be taking keyboarding with sixth grade so that everyone will be caught up.
Board of Education: The school board is continuing work on strategic planning with emphasis on curriculum. The board is planning 3 sessions to meet with the local communities.
Communication to communities: Nicki Traul gave a report on progress of DIBELS folders.
There are only two more NCC meetings this school year. The next meeting will be Wednesday, April 9, 2008, at 12 PM.
Four NCC member terms will end this year. They are:
Lacey Likely, PK-2 teacher
Katy Karhoff 9-12 teachers
Kathryn Richard Parent/Community
Cheryl Robinson Parent/Community
If your term is expiring and you would like to remain on the council, please let Kelly Gentry know before the next meeting on April 9th.
The agenda for the next meeting includes: Academic Honesty, Department meetings, and Mastery and Grading.
The last NCC meeting of the school year will be Wednesday, April 30, 2008.
Meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM
NCC Minutes...
Post your feedback on this topic here
| Date | Subject | Posted by: |
|---|---|---|
| No feedback has been posted yet. Please post yours! | ||
