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Coming in Fall of 2007... As the last day of school winds down, the Teaching and Learning Department would like to congratulate everyone for another outstanding education year in Oak Park. While there may have been some small bumps in the road, you have done another great job of working with the children and parents of this community. Thanks so much to all of you! As a send-off to the summer break, I thought you might appreciate a few updates on things that will be coming in Fall 2007. All District: Grades PK-5: Handwriting Without Tears will expand to the 1st grade in the fall. Waterford will continue with the current version in grades K and 1, but we will be pulling back from 2nd grade in order to use those machines in the lower grades. At the same time, we will be piloting the newest Waterford version at Hatch Elementary to see if we should be moving toward a major upgrade for 2008-09. The gifted and talented program will continue its evolution. Cognitive assessments are probably in the offing for at least a couple grade levels in an effort to better identify those students who have unique educational needs. The GTDs will be working several days over the summer to get the program ready for the fall. More information will be coming in the fall. The study of our elementary science program will begin during the 2007-08 school year. Staff members will be recruited to serve on this review committee when you return in August. The elementary report cards will continue to be reviewed next year, with various meetings being held to recommend any changes to the report cards. Replacing the Pearson Benchmark assessment system will be the Pearson PASeries. This set of standards-driven assessments will be used in grades 3-5 and will cover math and reading. For those of you who used the Tungsten system in the past, this new assessment series will be quite similar. Intellitools Classroom Suite should be running much more efficiently in the fall. With the addition of the new wireless building links, the new servers, and new in-building switches, everything should be much quicker and more reliable. Grades 6-8: The Pearson Benchmark assessment system will continue to be used in math and will be expanded to language arts during the school year. Emphasis this year will be on matching up with existing assessments rather than having students take additional assessments. The study of the science program will begin in the fall. Staff members will be recruited to serve on this review committee when you return in August. Differentiation of instructional methods and content will take center stage in the language arts. It will be a major project during the year and will occur during department meetings and other staff development times. My Gradebook Pro will become more widely used in both middle schools. The "bugs" experienced this year have largely been eliminated, so we are ready to have this excellent reporting system used across our middle schools. Finally, a major study of middle school operations, scheduling, and activities will take place next year. Since the middle schools have now been in place for several years, it is time to examine the effect on student learning. Teams will be convened next fall and this study will take most of the year. Thank you to everyone and have a great summer! Kevin M. Anderson, Ed.D. |